The next step for Nest: Another camera - CNET

The first chapter, Veron said, was the company's very beginnings -- from its primordial startup stage until its first product in 2011, a compelling little thermostat that connected to the inteet. The second was the period after that: life as a young company in the spotlight and releasing the second product, Nest Protect smoke detector. The third chapter was getting acquired by Google and buying inteet camera startup Dropcam in 2014. Now begins the post-Fadell era.

But can Nest carry the same cachet it did when Fadell was in charge?

It's important to remember Fadell is a rare type of founder whose very existence is synonymous with the company's success. Think: the widely held belief that Steve Jobs was the lifeblood of Apple. Fadell made his first big mark on the tech industry as a disciple to Apple's mercurial cofounder, so some of that Steve-Jobs-magic was already in the cards. The tech industry considers Fadell the "Godfather of the iPod" and a key player in creating the iPhone. After leaving Apple and cofounding Nest, he was billed as a visionary leader.

While a Nest without Fadell might seem jarring, there's no shortage of criticism about him. Employees reportedly complained about the work culture in a report by The Information. After Nest acquired Dropcam, the startup's founder called his decision to sell a "mistake."

But that's all in the past, Nest says. Well, mostly. The Nest Cam Outdoor was a Fadell project, the company said, and has been worked on for nearly a year. And this isn't the last product that was built under Fadell's guidance, either. The company has a "well-defined" two-year roadmap that Fadell developed, a Nest spokesman said.