Wearable X CEO, Fast Company Top 100 Creative, Billie Whitehouse

Billie Whitehouse, CEO, designer, and director of Wearable X has been bridging the gap between technology innovation and apparel for much of the last decade. Billie shares the story behind her journey while tapping into the important aspects of building a community, rather than just a network that you can lean on in times of need. She talks about moving from Australia to Italy to learn design, and how that helped her with her lineage of products – from Fundawear, the Alert Shirt, and the Navigate Blazer, to her current project. Diving deeper into the conversation, she shares her thoughts about the troubling experiences women often face in business, like sexual harassment, what we can do to confront that reality, and what solutions we can be a part of.

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Wearable X CEO, Fast Company Top 100 Creative, Billie Whitehouse

We’re here with Billie Whitehouse of Wearable X. I’m excited to have you here. Thanks for joining us.

It’s such a pleasure. Thank you for having me, Josh. I’m excited to have this conversation.

Billie Whitehouse is the CEO, Co-Founder and Head Designer of Wearable X. I’ve been doing some research. I listened to a couple of podcasts you were featured on, your space in fashion and technology and how they have combined. I read a quote about you mentioning how technology isn’t just these high-tech devices or wearables. Things as simple as the zipper or a button, those were technologies thousands of years ago or whenever they first invented them. How did you get to Wearable X? How did you get to where you are now?

I do believe that technology has been integrated into apparel for a long time, whether that’s the beginning of nylon which in itself was such an amazing technology or whether it’s Velcro. These things weren’t part of the fashion industry when we started, but they have eventually integrated in such a seamless way. We now don’t think about them as technologies. The zippers and the buttons, it’s a similar process. For me, I did a Master’s in Design initially and that was truly the best year of my life.

I’ve heard about how you got into this program or how you found yourself in Italy. I know your mom is a designer. She founded a design school in Australia. Could you tell us that story about how you ended in Italy?

My mom’s story is quite miraculous and it does speak to how I have been surrounded by design my whole life. It’s an emotional story. My mom had me when she was about 32 years old and she’d been teaching in design and working for designers in Australia. About six months after she had me, she’d decided to separate with my father. To make it a little more colorful, I’m also one of seven from four different marriages. This concept of normal was never a thing for me. My mother was partner number three and when they separated, she had $1,000 in the bank. No more than some people at that time, it was the ‘80s. She decided to place one ad in the newspaper, which was $600. With that one ad, she got 26 students to start her own design school. She just left my father. She wasn’t sure how she was going to make the rent, but she managed to do it. It was her amazing community and the amazing students that started her university. There was a beautiful story about it in the first year of her trying to make the business work. She had some cashflow issues and her best friend mortgaged his house for her so that she could make rent for that month.

You mentioned this concept of community and how your mom was able to rely on that to help her achieve her dreams and her goals. Could you speak to the significance of community in your community and how you lean on your community in times of need?

It’s so important. As they say, it takes a village. That is true for an entrepreneur and a startup, as well as children although I haven’t got any of those yet. When my mother was surrounded by all of these young designers, her students became my community as a young person. I grew up with them, whether it was being carried down a catwalk or whether it was being surrounded by these people who were inspired and exciting. That fueled me as a young person to have that energy around. When I moved to New York, you’ve got to start from scratch and build your own community, which can be truly terrifying but also opens this beautiful opportunity.

 

You came to New York alone. Did you know anyone?

I had two friends, which is exciting. They’re two friends that I still have. That says a lot about them and me hopefully. You also get to pick and choose. Instead of it being the people that you grew up with, perhaps you went to school with or perhaps you went to college with, they’re people that you choose to surround yourself in this city. They get to be the people that you care about. I fell into some gaps in the beginning and I saw people who were just interested in transactional relationships. I found a beautiful community through some ridiculously wonderful networks, some of which are called Dreamers // Doers, which is a female-founders network for opportunities, issues and struggle. It was a forum to share that changed me. Beyond that, it was a meditation community. Now they’re called The Big Quiet, then the smaller group was called Medi Club. At the time when you’re still trying to find the right people but you’re trying to have a great practice for yourself, that was truly transformative. They would meet once a month or once a week sometimes. Those women and that community helped me find my drive and my systems and my flow when I got here.

We’re curious about the transition from Australia to the US. I personally know another Australian, Lachlan Edwards is the punter of the Jets and I haven’t spoken to him about the transition. We had some lunchtime discussions on the differences in cultures and in this case, we’ll talk about the business difference.

I would say culturally we’re not too far from each other, but there are a few misalignments. For me, I certainly had my challenges. It was not easy getting a visa. I certainly tried to do it as an entrepreneur like, “Do it all yourself.” It’s not rocket science. I did things wrong. I had a few, “Come back and try again.” Finally, I got my visa approved after a year, but in that year of coming back and forward, making sure that everything was legit, we had people to work with and all the spaces we needed. Those few setbacks, they hit you hard especially when you’re excited about what you’re building. The tax department because I was in the US, you’re only allowed to come for 90 days at a time, but I was allowed to come for two 90-day sessions. I went over 120 days. I had to pay tax in both countries and you have to pay double tax on all the things you own. I still owned the business in Australia because it wasn’t under the US company yet as well as I owned several vending machines, which is my first entrepreneurial venture. I got double taxed on that and then double taxed on another business that I was involved in, which as a young entrepreneur, that’s the biggest mistake you can make is getting done. I had to borrow money to pay that tax bill.

You’re paying taxes on your company in Australia and the US?

I’m not anymore but year one, I had to. From a personal financial level, it nearly killed me. One of our clients didn’t pay their bills. I had to funnel what we were doing and all the earnings we were getting here in the US back into Australia because this other client wasn’t paying their bill. We had to make sure we could deliver a product that we cared about. All I can say is being in businesses is creative. There’s always a solution, but it’s not always the clear path. Eventually we got through it and I paid back my bills. It was a terrifying experience because you care by that point. You’re invested in being here. At the end of 2014, all the visas were approved, which is great. That experience of getting here was something that I’m glad I went through because it shows you how resilient you can be and that you have to be creative.

You visit Italy with your mom on Christmas and then you fell in love with Italy. You wanted to come back and your mom told you that if you go study design with her, she’ll take care of your Master’s in Italy.

I was studying something entirely different. I was studying a Bachelor of Arts and I truly thought I was going to go into journalism. It’s still something that excites me but when I went to Italy, I fell in love with the rich culture and a rich process and the nostalgic nature of the way they look at the design. It gets into your system and then it doesn’t go away. She basically said, “If you come and study with us, we’ll organize for you to be a part of the Master’s program.” That was the best experience of my life.

Being in businesses is creative. There's always a solution, but it's not always the clear path. Click To Tweet

That’s a big reason why I went to Italy was to explore their fashion scene, their men’s bespoke clothing. I got a chance to tour not just suit factories but shoe cobbler, leather craftsmen, some custom shirt tailors. The attention to detail is something I fell in love with. I consider myself a traditionalist in terms of trouser technology. I prefer the button fly instead of the zipper fly.

I worked in a men’s tailor throughout my university in Australia, not just to get the experience but because I loved it. Men are so specific. I don’t think I realized until that experience how specific they are about the pocket detail, the fly front and the cut. It was such a learning experience.

I had a couple of pictures from my trip. I was there with a buddy of mine who I get my suits through and then his contact in Italy. We’re in the shoe store, the shoe cobbler, trying on shoes. You can see us in the mirror like, “I don’t know if I like this color. I don’t know if I like this shade or these laces or this heel.” There is a lot of detail that goes into it and that’s what I like most about it, the attention to detail and the craftsmanship.

I remember the first time I saw a beautiful Prada bag being plated in front of me. We were working with the platers to do other things. I saw this bag and I was like, “I know this bag.” They’re like, “Yes, we’re doing this for an important brand.” It’s all the same factories that work together and they’re all outside Florence or Milan. The opportunity to see firsthand is remarkable.

You did your Master’s in Italy. How do we get from your Master’s in Italy to Wearable X? I know that you had the Fundaware, the Alert Shirt and the NAVIGATE blazer. Can you take us through that lineage of products?

In leaving Australia to go to Italy, I worked with a breast cancer research foundation to launch what was my first ever public collection. I did that in partnership with Woolmark Australia. That was the spark of my fiber science interest, which carried forward throughout my Master’s. We spent hours on hours and a huge portion of our time on knitwear and understanding the different procedures and the technology of knitwear itself. On returning back to Australia, I wasn’t quite ready to come home. That’s the reality of many people who go and live in Italy, but the idea of going back to reality is challenging. My mother very much insisted that going back and working for the family business was important both for me and for the business. I did everything from reception front desk to teaching pattern making for the first years to eventually working a little closer with their philanthropy model. I was working closely with a lot of alumni and making sure that the students would get a work placement. I was tasked with writing the five and ten-year strategy for the business.

With that, I deep dived into all of the technologies that were not only affecting education but also young designers. I got excited about sensors and IoT and mass customization and personalization. I spent a little bit of time with 3D printing. I was offered this opportunity with Durex, which honestly was the funniest phone call you can imagine. It was, “Hi, Billie. Do you want to come in and meet a condom company?” “Why?” “We think there’s a design opportunity,” and I’m thinking, “No, I cannot give students an opportunity to design a condom box. As much as it’s an interesting task, if they’re under eighteen, it doesn’t feel right. There’s something up with this.” After many phone calls, they convinced me to come in. In going in, I already had a range of research on underwear. I had been working on a slightly different but entertaining product called Knickers In A Knot, Tie Them In The Right Spot.

What’s this concept?

 

It’s less technical in terms of hardware and more mechanical, but it’s similar concept in theory. I showed them all of the stuff that I had put together previously and I said, “Why don’t we do it like this?” I was like, “I’ve got no idea how to build it,” and they introduced me to a team that would help me build it. It was an amazing experience to do that.

I first heard about Wearable X from AJ of VaynerSports. One thing that caught my attention was the integration of the technology, the haptic feedback and the accelerometers. I thought, “This will be great if I want to improve my running form or X, Y, Z. I know you are doing yoga. I had a chance to try some poses and some fashionable tights. How did you get from underwear to yoga pants?

It started with vibration on the body and the vibration as this form of communication. We did many tests, whether it was for Fundawear or the Alert Shirt or the Fan Jersey, we’ve had to test and iterate and grow. Don’t get me wrong, we fucked it up many times. We’ve got to a point where we realized we needed to have the right integration and that people didn’t necessarily want to insert something in a pocket. They didn’t want to think about another device like that. We managed to raise some money in 2016 to start working on integration and apparel where it was fully washable and tumbled dryable. We built all of these other products for a few other brands beforehand.

We had this experience in hardware. We have this experience in software. We knew how to make it look and feel good. That was the journey to getting to this point, then we decided to start working on the yoga pants. It was around what other forms of exercise that uses physical adjustments. I had a personal issue with how much money I was spending on not just yoga but fitness in general. I was spending sometimes $35 a class to go to particular events. You’d pay this money to go to a class. You have no control over the music and often the teacher wasn’t quite where you’re after. It’s this idea that you were paying maximum price and not always getting what you felt you were paying for was a real frustration for me. We wanted to be able to both give you that real-time adjustment and lower the price for you long-term.

I don’t wear yoga pants often and they were comfortable. I wear tights under my game pants, under my pads. We can’t show any skin. We’re not supposed to show any skin, even though some guys do. Are you familiar with American football uniform? They have strict rules. I want to talk about the significance of women in tech. We’re seeing this revolution of not just women in tech but women in politics and women rising to more powerful positions within our society and turning the status quo on his head. You could speak to that as a female CEO and coming from a lineage of strong women and your mother and the communities you speak of. If you could touch on that, I believe that it’s important to address important topics and that’s an important topic. It’s extremely relevant now especially.

I’m glad you feel comfortable talking about this because not everyone does and this should be a conversation for both men and women. Often, we create little echo chambers of communities that don’t necessarily share enough. It is important. The journey’s not been easy, that is for sure. There’s a scary stat that in 2015, 8% or 9% of all VC capital went to female founders. In 2016, it dropped to 2%. In 2017, it got a little different and it speaks to what’s happening in the political climate. It’s not necessarily always on the up and up, which is scary and that’s why it needs to be talked about. This is a slight sidestep.

I was at a wedding in Australia and oldest friends since high school. Someone at about 12:00 PM wanted to have a conversation about Kavanaugh. I thought it was interesting timing as well as an Australian who’s clearly quite forthright about his opinions that things have gone too far. I wish I had a little bit more knowledge and maybe it wasn’t quite late in the night at the time. What I wanted to say to him was out of the ridiculous amount of assault that does happen and especially in this industry and in politics and in life itself. It’s something as tiny as 2% of those supposed claims are falsely claimed. Whereas the rest, which is 20% of the female population in America has been some way sexually assaulted. That to me is staggering. It means that we’re allowing the conversation to be framed and spotlighted in the wrong way. For me, the bigger conversation is why is 20% of the female population being assaulted? That’s both in this tech community, fintech, whether it’s what I particularly do or whether it’s something that’s less dramatic. It happens and we need to find a way for that to be part of the conversation. It needs to soften, I agree. I don’t think we can have a war about this every time we talk about it.

It’s one of those things similar to the conversations on race. You can’t disregard the facts. It’s a sensitive topic. It’s important how you go about it. It can’t be a war. War is not going to get anything done.

To be solution-oriented, we need to have empathy. Click To Tweet

We understand that people are angry and I totally understand that in both of those sensitive topics. I get angry. I was proud of my moment on that night. Instead of yelling at this particular young man, which I am known to do, I decided to smile and listen to him and said, “It’s interesting what you have to say. I’d love to continue this conversation another time,” because otherwise, it ends up ruining your night.

I’m not exactly sure where I want this show to go, but it’s important to have those necessary discussions.

To be solution-oriented, we need to have empathy. That empathy gap has always been where the biggest issues of wars come from. Instead of trying to say, “Here’s my opinion. Here’s the other opinion,” let’s genuinely try and listen to what else is going on and understand that this does create fear and there has been a consistent fear for many women. One of the staggering things I found interesting as I’ve begun to have these conversations with my male friends is none of them ever realized that I’ll carry my keys between my fingers as blades in case I am attacked when I’m walking home. That is something that many women do. It’s a defense mechanism that’s built in them.

It’s a necessity with the statistics, 20%. That’s a shame and it’s important to recognize that it’s difficult to wrap your mind around that when you’re 255 pounds. I’m not worried about too many people jumping me walking home and it’s important to have that sense of empathy of why might they feel threatened? Numbers say that they should and it’s based on facts. Once you frame it in that way, you can begin a conversation. What can we do to change this? What can we do to create a solution? It’s not just on women, it’s on everyone. We’re all in this together and the world could be a better place if we can all eliminate those types of threats and experiences.

We forget how powerful language is as well. This is part of one of my biggest admissions in life is language is both a true limitation as well as it can be a tool for amazing empathy. When we communicate in general, whether it’s in a boardroom, whether it’s with a team, the tone and the language we use is powerful. I will confess I had a real learning experience. I remember the first time I was mentioning skin tone and had to be corrected and realized that skin tone is everything and it’s every skin tone. As a young white girl in Australia, I was told that this Pantone was skin tone. It took rewiring of my brain to be like, “That is not something that I need to be expressing. I need to be talking about all forms of skin tone.” It was this beautiful thing where we ended up including that styling inside the packaging of our product so that there were all forms of skin tone. It wasn’t just a particular.

That’s a huge part of it. You can come from one side of the table and be able to share your experiences and the things that you do experience. There’s an opportunity for learning and that’s what the conversation is all about. We were talking about the strong women in your life and how they’ve impacted you, especially your mother and yourself being a female CEO of a tech company in a male-dominated field. I would imagine that most fields are male-dominated unfortunately. What’s that like? You’re in the boardroom. You’re giving a meeting. What has your experience been? How could you offer some advice or lessons you’ve learned and picked up along the way?

To start us on a positive note, there is a real opportunity for women and it’s worth being part of the conversation and it’s worth raising your hand when you can. I have certainly taken those opportunities when they’ve come my way. When certain people have said, “We’d like to have more women included here,” I was the first person to put my hand up and make sure that my voice was heard. One of the first ever wearable technology conferences I spoke at, they came to me and said, “We’d like to have more women. Who else can you bring to the table?” I was surprised that was even a conversation at the time. That’s a big part of what’s important is rallying each other behind this idea if we all want to be part of this conversation and have a seat at the table. There are big lessons on the way, that is for sure.

There was an early moment when I was cut out of quite a high-profile interview. Instead of playing the, “I was cut out because I was a woman,” I decided that the more pragmatic approach was they were telling a technology story rather than the design story and I was in design. I allowed myself not to be threatened or hurt or get the chip on my shoulder whether or not that was the case. The rewiring of your own story to build yourself into what you need to do is important and choosing your battles and when is the right time to go and fight for these things. Don’t get me wrong, I have been poorly spoken to in a boardroom. I have had people ignore me in calls with big companies and you don’t understand what’s going on. I was like, “It’s all going to run through me eventually,” so I don’t know why I wouldn’t be part of this. You also have to learn how to give power to your team and they have to be in control.

For me, they are way smarter than me. They are the crème de la crème. They are everything. I’m proud of them as they are right now most definitely. The other learning would be when you are hit with a lot of aggression and sometimes it can be unprofessional. There is a way of always breathing your way into it and not letting necessarily fight fire with fire but asking a question on, “I’d like to understand why you feel this way.” Those why questions for me have always been my strength. That’s how I find my strength now. I didn’t always have that skill set. Whether it’s questions about product or questions about management or questions about strategy, it can also be when you’re being questioned by the team. It’s important to be questioned by people. It’s even more important to get to the root of why that question is happening. I would say building back up from there. I’m reading this book called Ego Is the Enemy. It’s very much around removing that from the way you do business and changing the way you build the company. It’s been far less about a CEO and that’s true. It’s not about me at all. It’s very much about the product.

I did saw it. I Googled your name like I do everyone else I meet. That’s the thing, you Google everyone that you meet. It’s socially acceptable now.

What does Google say?

I ran into this Shark Tank clip and it rubbed me the wrong way and I was curious. Have you spoken about that at all?

I haven’t so much yet and I’m happy to. We were in there filming for two and a half hours. They will pick and choose what they want to show. I don’t think that certain people on the show were professional and respectful. I wouldn’t name names because I feel that’s the more professional thing to do on my end. They will do what they want with those edits. It was a long time in there.

I sensed that whenever you see a clip, it’s one small segment of an entire conversation or scene or whatever it may be. It’s important to take it in the context of it being a television show that has ratings and that needs viewership. I was curious about that and I didn’t have much else to say about it other than it got a little out of hand. I felt there was a bit of disrespect.

Why does media want to portray that? It’s the same why question like, “Why is that what they want to share with people?” If anything, that discourages young entrepreneurs from wanting to go on the show, from wanting to build anything and from stepping outside their boundaries. That is silly. That’s not the way we should be projecting young entrepreneurs, young female entrepreneurs in Australia.

Was that filmed in 2018?

It's important to be questioned by people. It's even more important to get to the root of why that question is happening. Click To Tweet

It was very early in 2018.

I know a lot of people go on Shark Tank for the exposure. How did your appearance on Shark Tank affect your business?

We got a lot of traffic and that was what we’re after. Traffic’s good for business, good for visibility and the brand as well.

I’d like to speak more on this iterate, innovate through your products. One thing I like about companies and when I evaluate companies, not necessarily as an investor but as a consumer. How often do they come out with new products? Are they constantly improving and working to improve their customer experience, whether it is through me buying something from their website or use of the product itself? What’s next for Wearable X? It seems it’s come a long way. Does it have much further to go? What does that look like?

We’re always moving and that is for sure. We certainly are focused on software and making that the best possible experience, as well as building that out so slightly more advanced yogis can take it with them. There are built-in flows with New York instructors as well as progress tracking. For us, where it gets interesting is when we can integrate with health apps. Let’s say we’re integrating with Apple Health. We can know if you’ve been seated 95% of the day and then we can recommend particular flows to you depending on what your movement has been during the day. Maybe you’ve been training hard and you’ve been working your body in a particular way. We can then recommend, “These particular poses will help with agility and flexibility and eventually stamina as well.

Lower body days, I’ll say, “I squatted today X, Y, Z. How can I limber back up and recover for tomorrow’s workout?”

Beyond the initial software that we’re doing, we are looking at the upper body which is exciting to pair with the pats and the lower body experience. To be able to understand and roll your shoulders back and down and to do a guided meditation. To be able to read the location of your wrists, whether they’re stacked onto your elbows properly and it’s going to be a fun time with the upper body. There are lots of work to be done most definitely. What’s fun about the way we’ve built the platform is that we collect data to understand a particular movement. Once that’s done, we can simply upgrade it to the smartphone into your app that you download from the App Store under Nadi X. We can say, “Here’s a whole new sequence or here are five poses for bedtime or here are five poses for digestion,” depending on what’s going on with you, you can select how you want to integrate.

I’m all about anything that I can do especially as a professional athlete to increase my performance. You get to a certain level and after a point, it’s like splitting hairs in terms of the physical differences between athletes, elite athletes specifically. Any little edge that I can get or that anyone can have in that space can become a huge advantage.

 

How much of the performance do you think is mental versus physical?

That’s something I’ve been trying to address. You reach a certain point. I’ve been a few years in the NFL. You’ve got to think, “I can only lift so many weights. I can only run so many sprints. How much of my health is determined by my mental state?” That’s something I try to speak to a sports performance coach or a psych therapist to work through things that might be blocking my potential. I’m working to unlock that and to become the best athlete I can be. I honestly feel that’s the next step in sports. It’s something that a lot of people are already doing. It’s not as mainstream as it could be.

It’s interesting that it’s focused on the high performers, but I’m sure you know this at every high performer that I’ve ever listened to and that’s a reasonable amount. They have said that the practice is both physical and mental. The reason we started with yoga is that it has such a mental practice as much as it does a physical practice. There are studies on studies that say yoga can reduce anxiety, reduce stress and increase pain tolerance, which is super fascinating especially when you’re beginning to push your body hard.

Some of those poses are extreme, breathing through those deep stretches. I can’t say that I’m a regular yogi, but I am a regular of deep stretching. It can be as intense as a workout, lactic acid burning in your legs or your arms or whatever it may be. I shake in everything almost when it gets painful enough. I like to think that I have a pretty high pain tolerance, but there’s something about stretching and yoga. I’m used to the powerlifting and the sprints and the conditioning. When you get into some of those poses and deeper into those poses, you find that you start to unlock and exercise those deeper muscles and get the shakes a little bit.

It certainly lengthens and stretches in all the right ways and depending on what’s happening with your body. Everyone’s body is different. In working with yoga teachers versus customers, yoga teachers will say, “There is no right and wrong in yoga. It’s what your body is capable of and it’s where you’re at for that day and how much sleep you’ve had and if you’ve been on an airplane and all the many factors that influence us.” If you’re a customer, they’re like, “Tell me if I did it right,” and it’s interesting that there’s such a mental shift with this gray space being okay. Whereas we as individuals when we’re like, “Tell me am I doing it right? Is this good for my body? Give me a yes or no.” We’re so binary. Whereas when you get into this area about body and mind, it becomes much grayer and it’s harder for most people to understand.

There’s no one way to get the job done and when you look at athletes and especially across the NFL, you see many different body types playing the same position. You have different styles of play to compensate for different body type styles. You might have a shorter guy that uses his pad level as leverage to get underneath larger players. You have a taller guy who uses his length to maintain separation, whether it be in a pass, rush, blocking or whatever it may be. Thanks for coming on the show. Any cool plans? Any fun dinners?

I’m winning an award.

Congratulations. What for?

It’s from Fashion Group International. That was a foundation started by Eleanor Roosevelt. It’s been around for a while and it’s a Design Technology award. It’s nice that the fashion industry is starting to listen to both what’s happening in sports and in technology.

I’m a big foodie. There’s a good restaurant that I went to and it’s really close to the World Trade, just walking distance called Marc Forgione’s. It’s delicious. It’s worth the try. That’s my recommendation of the week.

Food is the gift of life. I would never be able to give it up. Although I try to do exercise and a bit of fasting every now and again because I know it’s good for me.

It’s all about moderation.

Moderate everything including water.

Thanks for joining us, Billie.

Thank you so much. It’s a pleasure to be here.

Important Links:

• Wearable X
• Fundaware
• Alert Shirt
• NAVIGATE blazer
• Ego Is the Enemy
• Dreamers // Doers
• The Big Quiet
• Fashion Group International

About Billie Whitehouse

Billie Whitehouse is the CEO, designer and director of Wearable X. Billie specializes in the unique combination of hardware, software and apparel for wearable technology products. Known for her development of Nadi X, state-of-the-art technology to optimize your yoga. Billie is invigorating the fashion industry and transforming it into a business focused on improving the quality of our lives.

Billie is an aesthetic specialist with a naturally inquisitive nature towards technology and innovation. As a garment engineer, she strongly believes people should not have to look like the technology that they have grown to love and depend on. Billie’s designs are sharp, experimental, naturally confident and subtly feminine in appearance integrated with the latest technology.

Business Insider recently named Billie as one of the 30 most important women under 30 in tech and she was named in the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company. The highlight for Billie in 2018 was winning The Fashion Group International, Design Technology Award, in 2017 it was being named one of the Most Innovative Companies in Fitness by Fast Co, in 2016 it was winning The Wearable Award in Paris at Show Room Privé as well as being featured on The Jimmy Fallon Show. Forbes recently compared Billie to Steve Jobs and Jerry Seinfeld because of an anthropological look at human-centric design with humor.

Billie is a renowned keynote speaker with presentations stretching from The New Yorker Tech Fest 2016, Fortune’s Elevate 2016, Wired UK 2015, Cannes Lions 2015/2016, Conde Nast Digital Russia 2016, India Fashion Forum 2016 and many more.