A startup in limbo and the evolution of the earpiece
It feels like I’m in limbo.
I’ve taken the idea, the prototype, the market research, and the pitch deck just about as far as I believe they need to go in order to secure investment. But as yet, I don’t have that investment. This last two weeks I feel I’ve lost impetus, which is somewhat dispiriting.
Right now I have a concept that’s been de-risked from a technology standpoint and an optimistic business model. No question, I could go further, but any progress would come at a cost. The financial cost of paying people to work on it, but also the nearer the product is to market-readiness, the greater the expectation of traction. The more you’ve got, the more there is to scrutinise — and find fault with.
Regardless, progress has been made. And some good progress at that.
Matthew produced some designs for the bone conduction earpiece. You may recall this is intended to allay safety concerns over using over- or in-ear headphones or earbuds. With bone conduction, the sound is transmitted to the ear canal via tiny vibrations. I’ve spent time testing Race.Radio with some AfterShokz wireless bone conduction headphones. The sound is great, but unfortunately the wind across the mic when riding makes picking up voice a challenge.
Matthew’s a keen cyclist too so great to bounce ideas off. We agreed a single ear piece might look more ‘pro’ and having a mic on a wire (nearer to the voicebox) may reduce the risk of losing the earpiece while in motion. Having the speaker attached to the helmet strap was considered, but seeing the way some people have their straps flapping away from the face, there’d be no guarantee this would maintain contact with the cheekbone.
Unfortunately powering the vibration means it would still require charging, so you’ll see there’s a unit that sits discreetly behind the ear too. There’s a foam cover over the mic which acts as a muffler to deaden the wind noise. Hopefully this, together with some algorithms that can distinguish wind noise, will be sufficient to improve audio quality.
You can see how it would sit in the picture below. Obviously this is going to require a lot of testing — both to ensure the optimal audio quality and also comfort when sat on the ear for hours at a time. For this reason, I’m holding off on building the development costs into my financial model to begin with. One step at a time!
The biggest challenge? What to call it. It doesn’t look like a headphone, it’s not an earbud, and earphone, earpiece and headset don’t feel right to me. I’m not sure something like communicator is descriptive enough — the Race.Radio Communicator? Any thoughts or ideas?
Musings aside, I also met with two investors who have agreed to shop the pitch around their network. We had a really good chat in Soho House (I wish all my meetings were there — one day I’ll join) and they gave me some useful feedback that I’ve been incorporating into the investor deck.
I also met with someone from the Sport Tech Hub, an incubator that takes 10–12 startups on every 6 months. It’s funded by Sport London, a fantastic, purpose-driven organisation whose mission is make London the world’s most active city. Again, some useful advice and who knows where I’ll be at when the next cohort starts in mid-May.
Over and out.
