SAYES opened door to success
Two emerging Adelaide entrepreneurs are expecting to have their novel headphones amplifier on the market by the end of July following a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign.
UAMP – put simply ‘you amplify’ – is a tiny device that enhances the sound of music or other audio from a phone, iPad, tablet, laptop or other sound equipment like an MP3 player. It is plugged in-line between the equipment and one’s headphones to deliver high quality sound.
In an interview with InDaily’s new innovation column, UAMP developers Bart Kowalski and Joe Chehade said sound advice from their mentor in the SAYES program, run by Business SA, set their business on a new course that led to the UAMP success.
Kowalski and Chehade went into the SAYES program – which provides advice and mentoring for young entrepreneurs – with an earlier concept for a disc jockey controller system. The product failed to attract the necessary financial support to progress further and the pair were at something of a crossroads as they considered other business options like web site development.
“We were not giving up at that stage but we couldn’t come up with an idea after our first failed product and we had decided to work on our web site ideas,” Kowalski told InDaily.
“But our mentor said: ‘Why are you doing this? This is not what you guys are meant to be doing – you need to go back to your electronic hardware.
“We are working a little bit on UAMP at that stage and with the mentor’s encouragement we decided to focus on that product.
“We had been sitting on the fence but at that point decided 100 per cent that we wanted to go back into the hardware space and succeed there.
“And that’s the thing that anyone should learn – don’t give up. If we hadn’t failed with our first product, we wouldn’t be where we are now.
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“Our mentor was by far and away the best part of the SAYES program.”
Read the full story of how Bart Kowalski and Joe Chehade raised $296,000 through Kickstarter and are moving into production of UAMP in Indaily’s innovation column, The Vanguard.
