But buying a product for a singular use and complicating it by including a singular app I have to install will only result in wasting people's time. Not to mention the fact umbrellas are pretty much a commodity. I'd encourage exploring the the general idea of attaching custom trackers to specific objects. Build out an IFTTT type app that tracks things on a selective basis. Backpacks on work days, umbrellas on rainy days, camera when you are going to the game, etc. The tracker tags should be customized for each use. The umbrella one attaches with a punch through pin and lock plate, for example.

Also, your general use statement is all wrong. The biggest problem with umbrellas isn't losing them, it's them getting destroyed by a gust of wind or simple, unrepairable mechanical failures. A better use statement would be "Never get caught again without your umbrella/backpack/camera/etc."

A person named Goran who created a smart umbrella called "Kisha" - rain in srbo-croatian. The world makes sense :)

I have Tile, and I also have Phillips Hue lightbulbs, which I currently have hooked up to email and social media alerts, but, if I felt so inclined, I could easily connect to a weather forecast. Or... I could just have a weather alert app on my phone (I'm sure there are tons of them).

Current technology has already solved the generic version of this problem. What you've done is solve this problem again, but only for a very specific use case, while requiring the user to buy in to a bunch of specific software and overhead that only helps them in that specific use case.