RISE #13: The Yurbuds By Yurtopia Phenomenon
Marketing Entrepreneurial? You betcha!
Chris Miller, now of Yurbuds, and I go way back. Chris was doing it all the The Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at Washington University in St. Louis (my alma mater) and suddenly (seemingly overnight) left to join a start up called Yurtopia which makes Yurbuds.
He emailed me with an email containing more exclamation points than a 14-year-old on four Red Bulls. My interest was peaked especially since Chris saw hundreds, if not thousands, of start ups all the time due to his job, yet he choose to leave to help this one.
A few months pass….I start to hear some buzz of these really cool custom-made (yet super affordable) ear buds for your iPod. I heard they had a really cool process of fitting people (after all, Yurtopia is a unique technology company) and were raising money like crazy (nearly 1.5 million dollars).
Then I went to CES and became a believer. As you can see in the video here, it was jungle madness. My dad was trying them on and loved it with no prior knowledge of Yurbuds (he should have his own spin off show by the way). Everyone wanted to try to the process and nab a set (see below):
I promised Chris on camera (when I say “it’s on!”) we would do a feature on Yurtopia and Yurbuds.
Today’s featured episode is of course about a product and company with their ambitious founder Seth Burgett, but it is also a great story of inspiration for other entrepreneurs.
Why?
1. It is the classic big idea that solves a real problem (damn ear buds falling out, physical pain of working out with less-than-stellar head gear).
2. They are raised money in a down economy and are poised to raise a LOT more. They must be doing something right (*wink*). Even though they have raised money, they still market like an entrepreneur: Smarter, faster, cheaper.
3. Impressively, they already have a distribution model in place (online, Best Buy Mobile and some local runner’s outlets) will continue to expand.
Oh and yes, I scotch taped a microphone to my shirt because I lost the clip. We are like Macgyver up in here.
What do you think? What are your suggestions for Yurtopia Yurbuds?
Our Local Presenting Show Sponsor: Johnny Londoff Chevrolet
Best part? The wow experience. You can hang out with Johnny himself who takes a TON of pride in each and every customer. They have all kinds of incentives going on this month including the St. Louis Auto Show Discount.
