This is one post part of a series showcasing badass startups, unlocking mentor insights, and sharing behind the scenes lessons from entrepreneurial ecosystems around the world.
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Have you seen the Disney movie Fantasia? Imagine being able to have the same power of bringing music to life with the gestures of your hand. Enter Remidi. Remidi is a wearable technology device that enables you to use the gestures of your hand to create music. A wearable technology innovation that creates truly synesthesia-esque experiences. Think Michael Jackson’s legendary one glove style with the technology power of a DJ mix table. Headquartered in Austin, Texas – a vibrant startup + music scene and home to the infamous SXSW festival – Remidi is based in a city that is the perfect niche for their product existing at the intersection of music, technology, and startups. The company is set out to create technology that enables people to experience their creativity in an intuitive and powerful way.
Remidi creates technology that enables people to experience their creativity in an intuitive and powerful way.
The startup was founded by 5 people with experience in music and technology. The five co-founders – 4 Italians and 1 Texan – all with backgrounds as DJ’s and music producers, as well as designing and manufacturing music technology. Two of the co-founders met while working together – one as an intern – at Livid Instruments, a company from Austin that has been pushing new and creative music tech for the last 10 years. This team is a group of people inspired to translate the rhythm inside their soul into a live music via hand gestures. So they created a prototype to do that just that. This prototype generated so much fun and excitement from users that Remidi was born to scale this same enthusiasm to others. These music techies have experience working with badass musicians such as Bassnectar and prominent DJs around the world. They’ve been inspired by other artists such as Imogen Heap who created a similar glove years ago which flopped after a failed Kickstarter attempting to raise $260,000. The gloves sold for $5k – a price that Remidi has cut down by just under 90%. And Remidi’s work hasn’t gone unrecognized having been featured in Yahoo Tech News, BBC, and Wired.
Remidi was inspired by the desire to translate the music inside your soul into a creation from your hands.
Having finished a successful Kickstarter last year, Remidi is now out in the market (there are less than 100 gloves left for sale!), and are excited about what’s on their horizon. They just launched their new website and sexy new logo! And beyond that, their company vision doesn’t stop at creating experiential music. The potential future power of creating wearable technology is vast and the next stop is virtual reality. Creating a glove that enables users to experience creativity in virtual spaces. For example, literally being able to experience being Mickey Mouse creating music in Fantasia or being a backyard DJ for a house party. The experience and music are whatever you envision it to be. Currently, virtual technology is navigated via video game like joysticks. Remidi is looking to evolve this in that navigating virtual worlds will be through the tips of your fingertips. The biggest challenge they’ve overcome has been the complexities of manufacturing – a long process, with many intricate components and the logistical challenge of shipping to backers all around the world. The team spent 3 weeks on the ground in Vietnam with their manufacturing partners creating dozens of iterations until they got it right. As with most startups, their cash flow is tighter than ideal. They are currently raising a $1M round and looking for investors in hardware or with a background in hardware to help them finish this round (they need only $500k more to close this round).
Remidi’s future vision is to expand creating music with your hands into creating experiences via virtual reality.
Remidi is currently one of 35 global startups participating in the 3rd Generation of the Parallel 18 accelerator and also is a Techstars vet. What’s been the biggest impact of Parallel 18 on Remidi? Being driven and supported to grow and grow fast, including accountability to weekly KPIs. Parallel 18’s assistance in marketing and communications, as well as radical candor in communication to keeping teams accountable, have been notable benefits of the program.
4 Lessons From Remidi’s Entrepreneurial Journey:
- The cliches are true. They exist for a reason.
- He’s grateful for the power of his versatile entrepreneur experience and thinks one of the greatest lessons of all is in-the-field experience, having worked at startups from every stage of growth from 4 guys in a closet to make $1M in revenue to raising VC investment from the big dogs.
- There’s a lot of work. Hard work.
- And, finally – as a joke, sharing that those who pursue startups and entrepreneurs have to be lunatics to want to do this. Echoing the famous Steve Jobs quote that “The people crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do”
The people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are often the ones who do. – Steve Jobs
Truly, this company is one of the most potent and positioned for impact startups that I’ve encountered – get involved now. Here’s how:
Here’s how to get involved with Remidi’s work:
- Buy A Glove: Purchase one of the 100 remaining gloves right now! Buy now.
- Invest Or Intro An Investor: Are you an investor with hardware background interested in exploring getting involved or know someone who is? Contact the team.
- Join The Artist Program: If you are an artist (defined as a musician, DJ, theater performer, dancer, live visual creator, or beyond) who is interested in participating in the Artist Program, get in touch.
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