goTenna, the off-grid communications device that enables you to use your smartphone to communicate without central connectivity (cell tower connection), easily surpassed its $50,000 pre-sales crowdfunding goal in under 3 hours. The young company skipped the large crowdfunding platforms and offered goTenna to early backers on their own platform. Of goTenna’s earliest sales, a majority of purchases were made in Bitcoin, another technology that’s decentralizing a major industry.
goTenna has also seen a large portion of sales coming from atypical early-adopter rural states such as Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Hawaii, and Alaska — areas where cell service is often unreliable or unavailable. A spate of orders have also come in from states in “Hurricane Alley” such as Virginia and Florida.
Last week goTenna took home “Gear of the Show” from Outside Magazine and “Best in Show” from Gear Junkie at Outdoor Retailer, the world’s largest trade show for outdoor products. Since its launch, goTenna has become an outlier in the hardware and technology pre-sales market with a large portion of early sales 
made in Bitcoin and coming from rural areas.
“We broke many of the hardware startup rules, from our direct-to-consumer model to the way we take payments and manufacture,” said goTenna co-founder and CEO Daniela Perdomo. “Plus, the enthusiastic response to goTenna demonstrates that a high-tech product that solves a real problem will find its markets even if they are groups that are often disconnected from the mainstream.”
Based in Brooklyn, goTenna was founded by siblings Daniela and Jorge Perdomo, who came up with the idea during Hurricane Sandy when over a quarter of cell towers were downed. Beyond an emergency situation, the use-cases became apparent everywhere: hiking in remote areas, traveling abroad, attending music or sporting events. The company’s goal is to empower people to communicate directly using their smartphones without having to rely on central connectivity, making goTenna an essential device everyone should own.
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