SIMO

December 2017 - Present

Collaborator: Constantine Hartofilis, Parsa Shahidi, Esiri Madagwa Jr.

SIMO is the first professional project that I have worked on. It is a portable modular speaker that offers the user surround sound on-the-go experience without the complication of setting up, wiring up or pairing up. SIMO is the first product of Pangissimo, an audio technology start-up that I co-founded. By personally going through the development process of a commercial product, and handling business operations, I have strengthened not only my problem-solving and communication skills, but also my leadership sense.

Let it surround you.

Problem Statement

SIMO is inspired by a need for music that we frequently encounter in our daily lives. As college students that love spending weekend nights with friends, we have a higher need for music entertainment. However, despite the wide variety of products available on the speaker market, few choices can fully satisfy our needs. The steep price and arduous installation of home audio system deter many consumers away, and portable bluetooth speakers, although being widely popular, don’t provide the surround sound immersion that we desire.

In short, the problem we are solving is that consumer can’t find a balance between accessibility and music immersion in the billion-dollar speaker industry.

Critical Functions

Surround Sound: Each of SIMO of packed with individual amplifier and subwoofer; when surrounding you, the immersion experience is unmatched in its class.

Multi-Connection: By utilizing our patented the "5.8G + bluetooth" wireless connection system, you can use SIMO like a single speaker, no extra setting up is needed.

Simultaneous Charging: One cable to charge them all. Utilizing contact charging, all four units of SIMO are able to be charged together through one USB-C cable.

Speaker Phone: The microphone on the master unit allows the user to talk to friends anywhere and listening them on all four units, perfect for phone meetings in a big conference room.

Dynamic Setup: Users can choose to use from one to all four units depending on the occasions.

Industrial Design: Less is More

The original concept of SIMO had a hexagonal, hive-like design, which was quickly overthrown because when the units are combined together, the irregular shape of the system would be hard to carry.

The second design, inspired by vintage speakers, features four volume units and a larger subwoofer. Although later during the discussion with ODM from Shenzhen, we decided to eliminate the subwoofer due to practical reasons such as cost and power consumption, most of the second design was made into the final version.

The final design of SIMO is consistsed of one master unit and three subunits, all of which are identically shaped. By adding an outer case with a handle, SIMO can be comfortably and securely carried, which later became very important to me as I carried the prototype to everywhere from presentations to investor meetings.

For a Close Look

Product development with Shenzhen

I constructed the technology framework of SIMO’s critical functions such as multi-connection and simultaneous charging after independent research and consulting with industry experts. During this process, I reached out and partnered with audio developers and OEMs in Shenzhen, China, and utilized their expertise in electronics, sound tuning and manufacturing to optimize the preliminary design into a leading industry standard product. So far we have made six generations of prototypes and established the manufacturing infrastructures in Shenzhen.

Business, Marketing, and Everything Else

I Part of the fun of co-founding a startup was that I had the opportunities and responsibilities in almost every aspect of the company. I got in touch with the BU Law Clinic to incorporate “Pangissimo, LLC”, and wrote the technical description with a patent attorney for SIMO’s provisional patent filing. In the summer of 2018, Pangissimo was selected to participate in the Innovate@BU summer accelerator, and in April 2019, we became the winner of Boston University New Venture Competition. Step by step, I built connections with many industry professionals and gained invaluable knowledge as an entrepreneur.

I also worked as the main creative designer of Pangissimo for marketing, where I picked up photography, video production, graphic design and other skills on the way. By launching a crowdfunding campaign on kickstarter, Pangissimo raised over $64k to bring the SIMO to its first adopters.