North (Focals) — Canada’s Smart Glasses That Looked Too Far Ahead

01/11/2025 9 min

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Episode Synopsis

What happens when a startup tries to make smart glasses cool again? In this Marketing and Strategy TLDR episode, we explore North Focals, a Canadian company that wowed investors and designers alike — until high prices, limited reach, and a Google buyout ended it all. This is a story of vision, design, and the fragile balance between innovation and market reality.Tags: North Focals, smart glasses, tech failure stories, startup rise and fall, Canadian innovation, Google buys North, wearable tech podcast, startup lessons, design and technology, innovation gone wrongAI has been used in different parts of creation of this episode from research to cover image.