World’s First Touch Enabled T-shirt
BROADCAST: a programmable LED t–shirt that can display any slogan you want using your smartphone.
For a long time now, T-shirts have been a vehicle of personal expression.A T-shirt clearly tells people something about your personality. So what if you could change it, regularly, by making your Tshirt digitally interactive?The Broadcast Wear Programmable T Shirt is the world’s best connected clothing model that truly looks cool and worth wearing.
The man behind this idea is Hyderabad-based entrepreneur Ayyappa Nagubandi. Recently I got a chance to interview him. Now the interview goes as follows:
Sir tell me Something about yourself
I was born and raised in an army family, where my father was a sepoy. We were never an affluent family and I learnt the value of hard work and the need to stand out from the crowd at an early age. Desperate to prove my mettle and to rise above the financial struggles I grew up with, I started innovating little things at an early age and selling them to those interested. Innovation has always been a motivational force. I have always wanted to create something that would help people and help me shine like a beacon in the crowd.
How this idea came of Startup of “Broadcast Wear”?
Wearable technology is all the rage now. People are constantly looking for ways to tap the potential that technology has to offer and are waiting to be amazed. Innovators are looking for new ways to incorporate technology into the daily lives of users. One day, I was stuck in a boring meeting, thinking about mankind’s achievements in technology, when it struck me that while wearables come has separate entities (bracelets, jewellery, accessories, etc.), there has been no attempt to merge technology seamlessly into the everyday lives of people. The clothes that we wear are just as dumb as a lamppost, and that whatever “smart” we own, is an external tool. What if we had something that would assimilate technology into the very fabric of our lives?
That’s how this company, and its namesake t shirt, came to be.
Why you want the execution of the idea of the startup?
Broadcast t shirt is one of its kind. I am not championing the cause because it is my brainchild. Broadcast is an exquisite piece of innovation. It is the world’s first programmable, touch – enabled clothing!
It will change the world as we know it. While it does have personal uses, it can be used for advertising, marketing, and God alone knows what! This is a revolution in the areas of technology and fashion.
And this idea needs to grow; it deserves to grow. I think this technology has more to offer than we can imagine. And we owe it to posterity to have something like this in reality.
How the team take interest in working or how you form the team or work alone?
I have a team of around 15 people working with me, and all of them are passionate about technology. These are young men and women who love coming up with new ideas for the company to get into. I will not divulge any details right now, but we do have a number of interesting products in the pipeline. The team has been selected after a careful screening process. We look for young people who have an interesting take on things and who are brimming with ideas. We believe that if you enjoy what you do, work no longer remains just work; it transforms into something you live by.
The back story or pains of startup or any failure at starting of this startup
Broadcast is not my first start-up. I have created start-ups before and not all of them have been successful. I have spent sleepless nights, trying to come up with ideas that would be the next best thing since sliced bread. There have been times when the cash flow has been practically non-existent and I had to pawn my wife’s jewellery to pay for the salaries of the employees. Creating a start-up is not a walk in the park. It is fraught with uncertainty and requires a lot of courage to be able to handle those uncertainties. But, my failures and the pains I had to endure did not deter me from constantly wanting to create something better; to bring about that one idea that would disrupt industries as we know it.
How people came to know about your startup.
We started a campaign on Indiegogo to raise funds for the t shirt. That campaign helped us generate a major traction. We have been active on various social media platforms, informing people of our product.
How people appreciated your idea and how you are working now
Our idea has been welcomed with enthusiasm by technology enthusiasts. We have been besieged by requests. Our campaign on Indiegogo raised more than 400% of our initial goal of $25,000!
Currently, we are working on the production and fulfillment of the orders placed vis Indiegogo.
What are the future goals of the startup
In the future, we wish to change the way people wear clothes; we want to create an eco-system around smart clothing and help people lead better lives by bringing technology and fashion together.
Users can place orders from Indiegogo.