Back in January, we played host to a sold out Startup Saturday where many startups took notes on how to become a crowdfunding success story.
Ashok Jaiswal was one founder in attendance who wanted to learn the tricks of the trade for his hardware invention EzeeCube. After another half year of development (which has been 1.5 years in total), Ashok has just launched an Indiegogo campaign on Friday which has already raised over US $9,500 of its $75,000 goal in just three days.
Having also just closed a round of funding with James Giancotti of Bigcolors and Kyle Lam of Big Bloom (who has also invested in Snaptee), we had a chat with Ashok to learn more about his novel hardware product.
“EzeeCube is a media hub that consolidates your content, which means it takes your content from various devices, sorts it out and then puts it back into your devices,” he said. “Besides automatically syncing content from your phone such as video, phone and contacts, it also has an in-built system for movie, music and TV show playback.”
Offering up a possible 9 terabytes of stackable space, EzeeCube is the sleek, modular and completely wireless solution to your cloud storage woes, and is compatible with both iOS and Android. Powered by XBMC, an open source media center app, EzeeCube can also be used as a Blu-ray player and a game console.
As a multimedia expert that’s worked for a number of startups in Delhi, Singapore and NYC, Ashok also led Goldman Sachs’ in-house development team in streamlining the firm’s video conferencing facilities. Being a software guy through and through, Ashok found the transition into hardware development difficult. But with encouragement from Ariane Li, his co-founder and mother of his one and a half year old daughter, the two started UNOCU (the startup behind EzeeCube) to help the non-technical people in their lives.
“First it was trial and error. I started finding some ready-to-use hardware codes on the internet,” he said. “The hardware wasn’t user-friendly because it’s made for hackers like me, so we needed to make it aesthetically pleasing so anyone, like my mother, could use it.”
Ashok said that EzeeCube was designed to bring value to the masses, especially for those who are not technically savvy, and the media center’s intuitive interface will reflect their team’s dedication to a great user experience.
EzeeCube’s Indiegogo campaign’s most popular perk is the ‘Super Early Hackers Special’ that comes with a full warranty. With 46 out of 100 already claimed, it goes for US $179.
Lend your support for Hong Kong hardware by backing Ezeecube here.
Ashok Jaiswal on Startbase.HK: Ashok Jaiswal
EzeeCube on Startbase.HK: EzeeCube
Thank you for the coverage!!!