December 6, 2012
Joshua Lepley is a custom woodworker and innovator who lives and works in Williamsport Pennsylvania. Yes, that’s right, the home of Little League Baseball. Joshua is a hardworking family man who works as a construction and interior design contractor. Joshua works with clients for high end, and customized building projects of all kinds.
In his work, Joshua sees a lot of wood that usually ends up as scrap, but through a reclaiming process Josh is able to finish the wood into a useable and eco-friendly material. As an innovative thinker, Joshua sees potential where others might not look and developed a product idea to utilize this reclaimed wood. Thus the Ecoustik iPad & iPhone docks were born as a line of accessories to enhance the sound from either device. The Ecoustik Docks operate naturally, and without batteries, a truly eco-friendly product with multi-faceted appeal.
In his own words:
“Having been a skilled woodworking and formally trained graphic designer I wanted to find a way to blend these two passions together. It was really kind of an accident how Ecoustik made its start. I was in need of a dock for my iPad so that it could be positioned next to my Macbook as a second monitor. I played around with the idea and made 20 or so prototypes until landing on the final design. While Ecoustik is my debut in industrial design it's definitely not the only product in the works. Ideas come and most of them go, I am very discerning about what is going to take my time away from already established business and family. The end goal is creating a viable business helping others with their product design needs.”
As a designer and wood worker Joshua was able to make his own prototypes for research and development. His findings included that not only did the device work as a natural sound amplifier, but that the wood added a unique tone to the sound, similar to how a guitar’s tone is influenced by the wood of the guitar. Once Joshua had his idea and prototypes refined, he was ready to start manufacturing.
One thing to consider in all new ventures is project funding. For this, Joshua turned to Kickstarter.com. Kickstarter is a website with a community of investors, inventors, and entrepreneurs who have the opportunity to display their ideas along with a funding “goal.” Kickstarter represents the “little guy” and makes funding for Inventors and their projects a possibility. Joshua was able to get his project funded in 14 days, and actually doubled his projected estimate! Having the support of Kickstarter.com helped to make Josh’s project a success. Currently the Ecoustik iPad and iPhone dock are available for purchase at www.ecoustik.com. Joshua has plans for expanding his market as the popularity of Ecoustik grows. Stay tuned to ecoustik.com for updates and information on their existing and future products!
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