Startup of the Month: Geartag – Smart Tags That Help Find Your Lost Stuff

How often have you lost a pair of headphones, or a certain cable, or your keys, or even your phone? I know that amongst my pile (I keep my stuff in piles) of technology gear, things tend to get lost right when I need them. August’s startup of the month, (Geartag) claims to eliminate that issue, using an app, and a small tag.

Geartag, the product of inventor Michael Crocket, is a small bluetooth tag that can be paired to a phone, and attached to any device, or object. If you ever lose track of that object, you can simply go to the geartag app, select the object, and if it’s within 50-100 feet, it will buzz loudly, alerting you as to its location.

Geartag does have some flaws that the company needs to work out. First of all, at an expected price of around $30, it’s a bit expensive as a piece of insurance for smaller items. Better products with longer ranges exist for things like luggage which require tracking from outside of just 50-100 feet. It’s also a bit large, though not massive, for its purpose. The company says it’s working on both issues.

Still, it’s a really cool idea, and if it’s brought into a more affordable price range, I could see having two or three of these. If you’d like to see this item in your home, they’re raising money for production ($25,000) on kickstarter through late September, after which they’ll begin production for the first few customers. The company expects the first tags to roll off the assembly line before 2014.