Sound Bender

Sound Bender on Shark Tank Show

I-Pad Audio Enhancer - Season 4 - Episode 414

Mosche Weiss Inventor of the
Sound Bender for iPads

  What's more impressive then having a successful Kickstarter campaign to impress the Shark Tank Investors? How about complete two within 6 month's and raise at least double your goal in each campaign. That's exactly what Moshe Weiss, a rabbi from St Paul, MN.and the inventor of the SoundBender for iPadsdid. The Sound Bender is powerless iPad accessory that amplifies the sound by several times. You simply connect the power bender to any iPad device with built-in magnet's and it bends the sound from the back and directly amplifies to the front for a dramatic increase in sound. Now why didn't Steve Job's think of that?

 Moshe Weiss has been on a crash course in the past year to bring the Sound Bender to market.
Along this bumpy and accelerated path, Weiss has learned some very valuable business lessons that has finally led him to the biggest Angel Investing Panel in the entire country, The Shark Tank Show. Having two successful Kickstarter campaign's may of what got him here but the story actually begins in late 2011 when his first attempt at a campaign did not meet it's goal to fund Sound Bender.

Sound Bender works on all iPads

 There is no reference that I can find on the exact number's of his first Kick Starter campaign but I did find the video used to promote it. Mosche quickly learned what he needed to do for a successful campaign and relaunched on January 10, 2012. On February 28th, Weiss successfully completed his campaign with 360 backer's that pledged over $10,000.00 to help bring the Sound Bender to market. Trying to bring any brand new product to market will always involve a learning curve with unexpected obstacles that you really can not plan for. It is how you choose to handle those problems that will determine how successful you will ultimately become. This was no exception for Moshe. The Sound Bender was built to attach to your iPad using two magnet's that are embedded within the gadget. The only problem was some folks that received the first Sound Bender's reported that the magnets were facing the wrong way and would repel the Sound Bender away from the iPad. Oops. That problem was quickly resolved and Mosche made good on his word to replace the malfunctioning Sound Benders

Keeping Up with Apple

When Apple started releasing the iPad 2 & 3, Weiss needed to come up with a new design to accommodate it's sleeker style. He decided to use the Kickstarter route once again to get the much needed funds to have the new Sound Bender produced. Kickstarter campaign #3 started on June 19, 2012 and successfully completed August 18th with 544 backer's and over $8,600.00 in start-up capital. The new Sound Bender's also fixed the magnet problem by enabling you to easily take out and replace the magnet's. Weiss also came up with a brand new video that was shot more like a commercial but seemed to have a more lasting impression, at least to me anyway. Unfortunately this campaign also came with it's growing pains as Moshe started getting orders from around the world. With each having it's own custom mailing laws, Weiss was buried in paperwork getting some orders processed and sent out. This lead to another valuable business lesson that needed to be dealt with for him to honor his part of the deal. All of these valuable lessons in such a short amount of time has the potential to pay off in a BIG way this Friday Night on the Shark Tank Show.

Sound Bender before the Shark Tank

 Moshe Weiss has already managed to get the Sound Bender in 350 Walgreen Stores around the country with more soon to be added. This type of distribution is usually music to the Sharks ears. Weiss recently was quoted saying he has so far sold in excess of 10,000 units at that time.

What has me baffled on this particular product is the lack of online presence Weiss has chosen not to pursue when millions of people will see the Sound Bender for the first time. The SimplyAmazinc.com website is as simple of a 3 page site as you can get with no way of ordering the Sound Bender directly. It does have a phone number 952-951-8434 which maybe a way of buying the Sound Bender directly but that doesn't make much sense (or dollars)  in this day and age. Especially if 10,000 people all try to call at the same time. Instead the site refers you to either Amazon or EBay to buy it online.
They also include the following:
"Please contact us with your specific requests, including interest in becoming an Authorized Reseller."


Unfortunately for Weiss, the Shark Tank Show is on Friday Night, the day he observes the Sabbath and will be unable to watch the Show when he will be seen by millions of people. No doubt he will watch it Saturday Morning for sure.

SoundBender Available at Amazon 
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Sound Bender after the Shark Tank Show

Moshe Weiss came into the Shark Tank requesting a $54k investment for 26% of the Soundbender business. I'm not exactly sure where these numbers came  from but it had a few Sharks scrambling to figure out the valuation.  If you don't want to be eaten by a Shark, the best thing to do is make Friends very, very fast. And that's exactly what Moshe did with his very likable personality. He had them all laughing and having a good time, and at the same time, slowly reeling in a giant Shark on what appears to be a rather simple invention. In fact, he even makes a joke on how simple it is. But this simple invention has HUGE margins and that's music to the Sharks ears. Weiss defends his high margins by saying" Hey a rabbi's got to eat too, right?". He says it cost about a dollar to make the Sound Bender (without the packaging) and retails for $12.99 each. Yes, that is indeed very large margins and well above the average of 4 times the cost the Sharks are use to seeing.

So far Weiss has sold 7000 Sound Bender's in just the past 6 months mostly to the online distributors mentioned above. With such high margins, why not also sell them directly to the consumer? This is a great way to sell in large quantities and maximize your profits while sharing the wealth with online marketer's. He also happens to mention that Walgreen's has a very strong interest in caring this product on a national level.

Barbara Corcoran asks Weiss a question all Angel Investors want to know and he comes up with the Very Best Answer anyone could ever come up with. Barbara wants to know how she would get her money back from this invention. Moshe responds "I will write you a check". Yep, good answer!
 Daymond John is the first to make an offer of 40% of the business for the $54k Moshe is seeking if indeed a Walgreen's deal can be completed. Robert Herjevic makes the same offer but will take Moshe's word the Walgreen's deal is real.  He is given 10 seconds to make up his mind.

Daymond John makes a Deal with Moshe Weiss and the Sound Bender Business!

You got a heck of a deal Daymond. I can't believe Moshe didn't try to counter your offer which you KNOW you would of accepted : )

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If you are looking for a Sound Bender type of speaker for your NON iPad devise, I just ran across another very similar product called the Ear Jell on Kickstarter.com. It does not use the patented magnetic devise but instead uses a reusable sticky pad that easily comes on and off the back of almost all devises including iPod's, tablets and most smart phones.

 As of this writing there is 13 days left in Camesha Mullner's campaign so you still have time to order and help Her achieve her goal to make this reality. Yes I know these could be considered two competing products but if you do not have an Apple product your SOL anyway. So why not help out another small business entrepreneur kick start her project and get a devise that will fit your tablet or smart phone at the same time.
Besides if it wasn't for Kickstarter (and I hope Moshe agrees if He reads this) the Sound Bender never would be where it is today. A little friendly competition can only be a good thing.