There is more to a company than just a really cool product or two. The best businesses are built on revolutionary products mixed with value-adding opportunities, marketing, partnerships, and leadership. Dome Audio has all of that in spades.
On this episode of Up Next in Commerce, I sat down with my friend Timothy Wright, a Super Bowl champion and the chief strategy officer of Dome Audio, a disruptive headphone technology that has the world’s first surround sound, bone conduction headphone. Tim breaks down what it took to build the patented bone conduction technology (sneak peak, just imagine a sketch, a cad file, and a 3d printer…). Plus, we dive into how they are thinking about licensing and IP partnerships, and hint at a possibility for how they plan to utilize NFTs in the future. We also had a fun discussion that took us behind the scenes of his pro football journey with five NFL franchises that resulted in a Super Bowl XLIX ring, and lessons he has taken from the world of football and brought into his business ventures. Also, as a quick side note, I am an investor in Dome Audio, but this podcast is for pure informational purposes and not to be used to drive investment decisions. So with that, enjoy this episode with Tim Wright!
Main Takeaways:
- Dream It, Build It: There are products on the market for just about everything. But who’s to say those products can’t be improved? Game-changing companies are built on ideas from people with the drive to put them into action. Use the resources at your disposal — your experience, your connections, the technology available — and iterate until you find the way to make a product that brings something unique to the marketplace.
- More Ways Than One: To have long-lasting success, companies need to find multiple avenues they can use to bring value. The product is one thing, but how else can you bring a different customer base or demographic to the table? The more ways you can monetize, the better.
- One Degree of Separation: To drive engagement and build buzz, you have to get in front of an audience. To do that, you have to build a team and partnerships that mirror, or are affiliated with, that target audience. The closer you can get to the people you want to reach — through brand partnerships, influencers, etc. — the better off you will be for a strong launch.
For an in-depth look at this episode, check out the full transcript below. Quotes have been edited for clarity and length.
Key Quotes:
“Growing up, I was always had the traits of being a leader. I had the traits of being a visionary and at that time, we can kind of connect that to just having a big imagination, but I always loved to execute whatever I thought about.”
[On being traded to the Patriots] “I feel like the way I came into the NFL through the back door, me just solidifying my legacy, my story, who I am, my presence of Tim Wright in the NFL. I went up there and I was just mission-minded, laser-focused on the task at hand. And I remember walking in the building and meeting Bill Belichick. And he goes, “Tim Wright, we’re glad to have you here, but literally, you’re going to be starting in the game tomorrow because we want to see what you’ve got. And you’ve got to learn 60 plays overnight.” So I’m like, ‘Woo, okay, here we go.’ But this is how I was trained… And so I walked in that locker room and I remember passing future Hall of Fame players, Pro Bowl players, All-Pro players. And I remember them walking me up to Tom Brady and they said, “Hey Tom, look, who’s here?” And he was texting and sitting down in front of his locker. He threw his phone in his locker and he stood up. He said, “Timmy Wright.” He said, “I know who you are. I’m glad you’re here.” He said, “Let’s go make history,” and I literally looked up and my locker was right next to Tom Brady…And so I went into that season, catching six touchdowns from the GOAT, the Greatest Of All Time, and bringing this Super Bowl championship ring home, and that hardware home. So now, that’s a part of my story and I use it to inspire the next generation.”
“We have this interchangeable component that you can attach to the headphone called a Dome Cover, and the Dome Cover blocks out the outside world and amplifies the music that you’re listening to. But on the face of the Dome Cover is a blank canvas, which we call Headphone Real Estate. And so this Headphone Real Estate allows us to collaborate with brands and celebrities around the world, organizations, countries, continents, and literally, we can create a story and a conversation with those Dome Covers. But for the consumers, they are now walking around in a sense as billboards, mobile billboards. So for brands and celebrities or anybody we collaborate with, consumers will be wearing their logos and their brands literally on the sides of their heads.”
“We have an element of Dome which is going to create impact in the world. And bone conduction is the technology that the hard of hearing uses to listen to sound, to listen to music, and all your audio needs. So now, for the first time, nearly 500,000,000 people in the world can now utilize a headphone in Dome Audio to have those first of it’s kind experiences in a way that they never had it before.”
“Over the years I became so fascinated by these different business models, whether it’s Amazon, whether it’s Facebook, hardware, software, and I study. I’m a sponge and I soak up all of this knowledge, and then I take it and I extract the things that apply to what we’re doing with Dome Audio and how we could connect the world.”
“What our identity is, is almost like every time a new movie, a new hit movie is about to hit the market, you have these previews and you have where you build this anticipation with your market and consumers, and people are excited about the next drop. And so that’s what we’re able to do with our Dome Covers, is create that excitement and always keep that fresh and that newness coming to the market. And that’s what we’re bringing together.”
“With these Dome Covers having that unique headphone real estate ability, and being able to collaborate with the biggest brands and celebrities in the world. That’s what our focus is and what we’re on a mission to do is go after the 0.01 of the A-listers, so that we can now create that brand and bring that brand of Dome, in association with these other brands around the world that’s pioneers or just the titans within their own industry and space. And so by doing that, that drives the brand equity of Dome Audio. And then with our portfolio of IP, along with the ability to touch nearly 500,000,000 people in the world who haven’t heard sound through headphones for the first time, bringing all of that collectively together is where we want to position Dome for a historic exit at the end of the road.”
“We’re being very strategic about who we collaborate with, but the partnerships that we have around us, the individuals who are either directly connected to a brand or a celebrity, or their one degree separation away, that’s who we’re building our team around Dome Audio, to be able to then position that and offer it to those individuals or those brands.”
Bio:
“Tim Wright epitomizes the phrase, “More Than An Athlete”. During his career at Rutgers University as a student-athlete, he maintained high honors with a niche focus in sociology. After graduating, he went on to the NFL, earning record-breaking success to become statistically one of the leagues top tight ends. The following year, he was an instrumental piece that helped the New England Patriots win the Super Bowl, catching 6 touchdowns from legendary Tom Brady during that season.
Understanding the platform he achieved becoming a Champion and the knowledge he acquired about the business of professional sports, he felt this was an opportunity to develop business ventures for his life after the game.
Wright is a visionary and strategic thinker who is in touch with the world’s social shifts and trends and how they relate to a product/company such as Dome Audio. His background and experience give him the instinctive ability to suggest strategies that will maximize its impact on Domes widespread consumer base.”
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Transcript:
Tim:
Hi, my name is Timothy Wright. I’m a Superbowl champion, co-founder and Chief Strategic Officer of Dome Audio Inc.
Stephanie:
Hey there, and welcome back to Up Next In Commerce. I’m your host, Stephanie Postles, CEO at Mission.org. Today on the show, we have Timothy Wright. He currently serves as the Chief Strategic Officer for Dome Audio. Tim, welcome to the show.
Tim:
Thank you so much Steph. It’s a pleasure to be on here. [crosstalk]
Stephanie:
It’s awesome feeling like I have a friend coming on the show. Just so everyone knows, Tim and I got some background. I’m very bullish on his company.
Tim:
Yes.
Stephanie:
Super sweet, amazing dudes. So that is why he’s here today. Tim, I want to hear… Let’s go back before Dome Audio. Before we get into it, I want to hear a little bit about your background, your childhood, give me all the details?
Tim:
All right, perfect. So I am a native of Neptune, New Jersey, down by the Shore area, and I was fortunate to grow up being the only child and having so many relatives, aunts, uncles, my parents, my grandparents. All four of my grandparents literally lived down the street from each other.
Tim:
So I had a lot of cousins, a lot of friends growing up, and everyone poured into me and I will say, I am a product of my community. And growing up, I was always… I had the traits of being a leader. I had the traits of being a visionary and at that time, we can kind of connect that to just having a big imagination, but I always loved to execute whatever I thought about.
Tim:
And I remember going into drawing. I used to love art and I used to love projects in school, and I prided myself on having the best projects. So I can remember when the teacher said that we’ll have a project, all the students raising their hand saying they want to be in a group with me. So I just loved that response and I fed into it, and I always delivered on my part.
Tim:
And growing up, I actually used to landscape with my grandparents. Starting from the age of three, I would follow them all around the yard, they’ll be landscaping. And that’s where I developed my visionary skills for just seeing something that others may think looks horrendous, and all of a sudden, you just see a beautiful yard with everything manicured, like all the lines being precise.
Tim:
And that’s where I really started to develop that, and I can remember each season, as I got a little bit older, I used to go around knocking on doors, whether that was mowing people’s lawn or raking people’s leaves, or shoveling snow. So I hustled from a very young age, and I started to develop that business acumen.
Tim:
But then as I got a little bit older and more demands, more responsibility, I couldn’t do as much of the things that I loved when I started, when I was growing up and being groomed by my grandparents. So I then went to the barbershop. My dad took me to get my hair cut almost every other week. And the barber had messed my hair up and I broke out in a slight rash on my forehead. And my dad said, “You know what? I’m going to buy a pair of clippers and this is never going to happen again.”
Tim:
And with my background, loving art and just landscaping in the yard with my grandparents, I had the confidence that I can cut my own hair. And so the bag of clippers used to sit in my room and I said one day, “You know what? I’m going to just try it.” And I tried it. I pulled out the mirror, old fashioned style, cut my hair, and I never looked back. All of a sudden, all my friends started asking me for hair cuts. I was cutting my relatives.
Tim:
And then as I went through high school, that’s when I had got the opportunity to have over a dozen full scholarships by my junior year in high school, and I ended up choosing Rutgers. And the neat thing about that is I went to Neptune, and Neptune’s school name is Neptune Scarlet Flyers.
Tim:
And then I actually transferred to Wall High School and their school name was Wall Crimson Knights, and I happened to live on the street named Rutgers. And when you put all three of those together, it spells out Rutgers Scarlet Knights, and that’s why I ended up choosing to go to school, which was about 45 minutes from where I lived.
Tim:
So again, the community behind me, family supporting the games, having 30, 40 people at each game, it was amazing. So that’s why I chose the school, and I ended up going in there. I red shirted my freshman year, but I established my identity of the player and a teammate who cuts hair.
Tim:
And so I was able to, of course, learn the game of football at a Division One Collegiate level, and then also cutting people’s hair from around the school. And what was not known at the time was that I was cutting students’ hair that was representing different parts of the world. So it was people from all walks of life, students from all walks of life that were asking me for haircuts. And I was managing being a full-time barber, a full-time scholar student, and a full-time football player.
Stephanie:
Oh, my gosh.
Tim:
And I did that five years throughout college. So I pretty much established the name, The Right Cut. That was a brand that pretty much became known around Rutgers, and The Right Cut, everybody sought after it. And I delivered and I put my signature on their head every time.
Stephanie:
What do you mean? Your actual signature?
Tim:
No, no, no. Not my actual signature. What I mean by that is I gave them my best every time I actually cut their hair.
Stephanie:
Okay. Darn. I was hoping for a little TM on everyone’s head.
Tim:
Right. No, I did get creative a few times, for different events where people wanted some artwork in their hair, I can do it all. And it was a passion and love of mine that really catapulted my business acumen, my business experience, and really just took me there from a visionary standpoint, to think big, think large, and then go out and execute. So that’s what I attribute all that background to.
Stephanie:
Man, I love that. Okay, so then tell me about diving into the NFL? Obviously, if anyone sees the video, they can see that Super Bowl ring on your finger.
Tim:
Yes, yes.
Stephanie:
Yeah, there you go. Let’s hear a little bit about what that process even looked like, getting into the NFL and maybe some of the lessons you learned while in there?
Tim:
So I think in parallel track growing up, being a visionary, being a leader, being one that all my friends used to want to, “Hey Tim, so what are we going to do today?” I will be the one that will be figuring these things out, using my imagination. But when I fell in love with football, it was because I was playing outside. And a lot of what we see today in our younger generation, some kids don’t even own a bike. Some kids don’t even own a football or a basketball, a soccer ball.
Tim:
So this exposure that I got when I was younger, being able to play with my friends and cousins and really develop that grit and that toughness, and just that desire to go out and excel and win. I just loved the ability to win and go out and produce.
Tim:
And so I was a captain from Pop Warner, and then a captain in high school. And then when I got to college, I had to serve my time and obviously learn behind some great athletes, but I then became a captain in my junior year.
Tim:
And then in my senior year, I was voted the sole captain on all offense, where there were three defensive captains on the other side of the ball for my senior season. So that was a tremendous honor, but it was a responsibility.
Tim:
And my opportunity to go into the NFL, the odds were stacked against me. I had a tremendous coaching staff. I had a tremendous leader as a coach with Greg Schiano, and then my senior year, Kyle Flood, he replaced coach Schiano when coach Schiano went down to Tampa Bay.
Tim:
But in hindsight, him going down to Tampa Bay, me not knowing, okay, I’ve got to go through the entire senior season before I can even think about the NFL and what that future holds, the lessons that I learned and just the culture that was surrounding me to pursue excellence and in every facet, meaning studying a playbook, going out there, executing, mitigating mistakes, playing your best every snap, giving it 110%, beating out your competition, beating out the guys next to you.
Tim:
I applied all of that, and I had an opportunity in my rookie year. I was training for the Draft and I was pretty much training for the Pro Day, and I went through the Pro Day. I had a pretty solid Pro Day and I didn’t get drafted. And literally, right after the last pick was chosen, I started getting calls all around the NFL from different teams that were looking for the opportunity for me to come on their team.
Tim:
And all of a sudden, I got a call from Greg Schiano which was my coach at Rutgers, and he said, “Hey Tim, how would you like to come down here to Tampa Bay to earn your position, to beat out the competition, and really have a chance to secure your future in the NFL?” And I said, “Coach, say no more. I’m going to come down there and I’m going to make it happen,” so I flew down there.
Tim:
Three weeks into being in there, I came in as a wide receiver, 220 pounds, and he ended up switching my position to tight end because he felt I had the best opportunity to make the team and use my skillset as a faster, bigger body. I’m a bigger body than a typical wide receiver, but I’m faster than most tight ends.
Tim:
And so I had this knack about me that I could apply and really be effective immediately. And we know in the professional ranks, if you aren’t effective immediately, then you’ll be cut and you won’t have a chance to even have a future and a professional setting.
Tim:
So I went out there and I gave them my all. I was laser focused and literally I was [inaudible] at tight end. And as the several days went by, the weeks went by, guys started falling down left and right with injuries. Guys were combating the actual coaches and they weren’t seeing eye to eye, so guys were getting cut and I was just continually and gradually climbing up the charts.
Tim:
And by opening game, I had made the three-deep, I had made the team, made the special teams and I started bawling out. And four games into the season, I earned a starting job at tight end, and never looked back for the rest of the year. So I ended up breaking the franchise record for five touchdowns, and I ended up tying the NFL record for the last decade with 54 catches, which was a record held for literally 10 years [crosstalk] tight end.
Tim:
So that really set the trajectory of my career, and then all of a sudden, the New England Patriots came knocking on my door and I was on the field in training camp in my second season. I ended up getting a tap on my shoulder and they literally told me, “Hey, we appreciate what you’ve done here so far, but we’re going to end up trading you to the New England Patriots.”
Tim:
And in a matter of three hours from tapping on my shoulder, I was on a plane to New England and never saw Tampa Bay again until I went back that following year.
Stephanie:
Oh my gosh. What were you thinking? When you’re like, “Wait, this is my guy, he bet on me, he gave me this opportunity [crosstalk],” and then all of a sudden, it’s like, “Bye.”
Tim:
Yes. So I’m a firm believer in the Lord and I just believe everything happened for a reason. And I feel like the way I came into the NFL through the back door, meet me just solidifying my legacy, my story, who I am, my presence of Tim Wright in the NFL. I went up there and I was just mission-minded, laser-focused on the task at hand.
Tim:
And I remember walking in the building and meeting Bill Belichick. And he goes, “Tim Wright, we’re glad to have you here, but literally, you’re going to be starting in the game tomorrow because we want to see what you’ve got to do. And you’ve got to learn 60 plays overnight.” So I’m like, “Woo, okay, here we go.”
Tim:
But this is how I was trained. This is how Greg Schiano trained us in college, to be able to flush out what you knew before, flush out some of the bad plays or the turbulence that you went through before in a series or a game, and now wake up, go apply it, go learn a new playbook, go learn the things you have to do, to go be great and excel.
Tim:
And so I walked in that locker room and I remember passing future Hall of Fame players, Pro Bowl players, All-Pro players. And I remember them walking me up to Tom Brady and they said, “Hey Tom, look, who’s here?” And he was texting and sitting down in front of his locker. He threw his phone in his locker and he stood up. He said, “Timmy Wright.” He said, “I know who you are. I’m glad you’re here.” He said, “Let’s go make history,” and I literally looked up and my locker was right next to Tom Brady.
Stephanie:
Yes.
Tim:
And I said, “Wow.” I was playing Tom Brady when I was 13-years old and now my locker is next to him. And so I went into that season, catching six touchdowns from the GOAT, the Greatest Of All Time, and bringing this Super Bowl championship ring home, and that hardware home. So now, that’s a part of my story and I use it to inspire the next generation.
Tim:
Of course, I use it to kind of create conversation with different settings that I need to, but I know this is a blessing from the Lord and I cherish it, and I know the responsibility and the platform that I had to continue to shine a light for the future, and that’s where my purpose is.
Stephanie:
I love it. When we first met, I remember you were dropping some quotes from past mentors, coaches and all this. And I was like, that’s what made me even interested in Dome Audio to begin with, because I’m like, oh, your history, your grit, how you’re even thinking about building this company. So let’s jump over to that now.
Tim:
Let’s do it.
Stephanie:
Let’s tell everyone a bit about what is Dome Audio?
Tim:
Yes. So Dome is a disruptive patented technology, and we’re on a mission to impact the way the world experiences sound. So just to give you quick context on what it is, Dome is the world’s first surround sound, bone conduction headphones. So this headphone is an open ear technology, which allows you to listen to your music, take your phone calls while seamlessly hearing the world around you.
Tim:
But then we have this interchangeable component that you can attach to the headphone called a Dome Cover, and the Dome Cover blocks out the outside world and amplifies the music that you’re listening to. But on the face of the Dome Cover is a blank canvas, which we call Headphone Real Estate.
Tim:
And so this Headphone Real Estate allows us to collaborate with brands and celebrities around the world, organizations, countries, continents, and literally, we can create a story and a conversation with those Dome Covers. But for the consumers, they are now walking around in a sense as billboards, mobile billboards.
Tim:
So for brands and celebrities or anybody we collaborate with, consumers will be wearing their logos and their brands literally on the sides of their heads. But then we have an element of Dome which is going to create impact in the world. And bone conduction is the technology that the hard of hearing uses to listen to sound, to listen to music, and all your audio needs. So now, for the first time, nearly 500,000,000 people in the world can now utilize a headphone in Dome Audio to have those first of it’s kind experiences in a way that they never had it before.
Tim:
And then we have these other elements of creating a proprietary app, which are going to unleash some one of a kind and first of its kind features that we’re very excited about, and we can get into that. But overall, our mission with Dome is to bring the world together and connect the world together through sound and literally change the behavior and impact the behavior of the way people experience headphones, and that’s what we’re on a mission to do.
Stephanie:
Amazing. Yeah, when these came in the mail… You can’t buy them yet.
Tim:
Right.
Stephanie:
When will they be on the market for people to buy?
Tim:
So we’re anticipating at the top of 2022. So hopefully Q1, but latest Q2 of 2022, we’ll have our product in the world, yes.
Stephanie:
Cool. Yeah. This product, when it came in the mail, I tried it on. Just so everyone kind of can think about what it looks like, it wraps around your ear.
Tim:
Right.
Stephanie:
And your ear is basically open, so you can still hear what’s going on around you.
Tim:
Right.
Stephanie:
But the sound quality is insane. I’ve had Beats, I’ve had Bose, I’ve had all the things, and yeah, the quality is crazy. The Bone Conduction piece of it, it’s so different than even the other competitors out there. I want to kind of hear about the thought process when you guys were going about you and your partner building this, what did early days look like? You even had the idea of, “We need to have a better headphone in the world?”
Tim:
Correct. So my partner, who is the developer of the IP Dome Audio, his name is Ben White. And he actually had a 25-year music career as a musician, songwriter, and producer. And so obviously, the Dr Dre story, Dr. Dre, Jimmy Iovine being music executives and producers.
Tim:
And so they had that background to kind of create Beats and what it was. And so with Dome is even more unique, and I believe even more disruptive because my partner, he actually got his hands on a pair of aftershocks bone conduction headphones, which is considered the leading brand in both induction.
Tim:
And 99.9% of the bone conduction headphones in the space, they use a two-point speaker system. So when he put those headphones on, he heard the sound and he said, “Okay, I understand it. I get it. Bone conduction has been around for some time, but I feel that there’s an opportunity to make this technology even more profound and enhance the experience of what’s out there.”
Tim:
And so he said, “If you have two speakers on mostly all the headphones in his space now, what if you added two more speakers and made it a four-point speaker system?” So Stephanie, exactly to your point, that crescent shaped design that wraps around the ear which is one of our patents, that houses the four speakers that sit on the jaw bones in the front, and the two mastoid bones behind the ear.
Stephanie:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Tim:
And so that’s what creates that full fidelity experience. And so he said, “Okay, now that I have the four-point speaker system in my mind and that’s my vision, now I have to create a design of the headphone that can now house it, and then can be something that could be viewed as somewhat conventional, but has an unconventional and first of its kind experience.”
Tim:
And so this headphone, unlike all the headphones that you may see in conventional headphones and all the headphones that you may see in bone conduction, this headphone was invented from scratch.
Stephanie:
[crosstalk] 3D printer, right? [crosstalk].Tim:
Literally, it came from a concept in Ben White’s mind…
Stephanie:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Tim:
Through a sketch on paper, to literally a CAD file on a computer, and then that being printed and then manifested with probably 30 or 40 different components being brought together and fused together, created by my partner’s hands. So the spirit that’s infused in these headphones is what the world is going to receive once they get them.
Tim:
So the time, the meticulousness that we’re pouring into this, and everything we’re bringing into the engineering, the crafting. Folks around the world and consumers will envelop an inexperience with these headphones that they never had before.
Tim:
So that’s what we’re very excited about it. And just to bring this statement home, the basic function and design of headphones haven’t changed since they were invented in 1910 by Nathan Baldwin. And now, after 110 years, a revolutionary headphone experience has now emerged in Dome Audio.
Tim:
And so we’re just very excited to be able to bring this first of its kind technology to the world, and we have several models in the queue that will roll out over the year. So what we’ve been able to do with our own in-house prototyping capabilities with building our IP, is iterating not only on our hero product, but the several products that’s going to follow it.
Tim:
And so the R&D that’s been important to it, the experience that my partner brings with the passion that he’s driven behind, that’s what… When he invited me to this opportunity back in 2018 and he showed me this, we already had a three-year relationship that’s been building prior to that, since we met in 2015, after I won the Super Bowl, and we started working on a couple of projects together.
Tim:
And so our relationship and the chemistry that developed, it’s almost equivalent to your Bill Belichick in terms of age, in terms of excellence, as well as your Tom Brady in terms of age and excellence, and coming together, we’re building his business model.
Tim:
And when he showed me the rendering of the headphones, that’s when I saw the interchangeability of the Dome Covers, and I realized that collaboration’s what we witnessed from Supreme and Louis Vuitton or Off-White and Nike, or even what Tesla is doing in some of their ways with scarcity marketing, all of those different examples out there.
Tim:
I just, over the years, became just so fascinated by these different business models, whether it’s Amazon, whether it’s Facebook, hardware, software, and I study. I’m a sponge and I soak up all of this knowledge, and then I take it and I extract the things that apply to what we’re doing with Dome Audio and how we could connect the world.
Tim:
And so, because headphones are ubiquitous technology and it’s universal, and it’s so many different demographics and markets we can touch, with our Dome Covers is where we create the initial conversation. And that’s how we always… Basically, what our identity is, is almost like every time a new movie, a new hit movie is about to hit the market, you have these previews and you have where you build this anticipation with your market and consumers, and people are excited about the next drop.
Tim:
And so that’s what we’re able to do with our Dome Covers, is create that excitement and always keep that fresh and that newness coming to the market. And that’s what we’re bringing together.
Stephanie:
Yeah. I love that. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this to you before, but I had an idea around the Dome Covers. Have you heard about NFTs?
Tim:
Yes.
Stephanie:
I’m thinking about putting the designs in an MFT where Louis Vuitton, they are like, “We’re dropping this hot new design. We’ve got 50 of them…”
Tim:
Correct.
Stephanie:
[inaudible 00:22:00] NFT, and then people can download that file. And it really is only one of 50, put them on the Dome Covers exclusive.Tim:
There we go. Let’s go Stephanie, let’s go. Keep bringing them.
Stephanie:
There you go, I was thinking about that the other night. I’m like, “Oh, I should tell Tim this.” And now I’m going to go to bed because I’m very tired. But
Stephanie:
Yeah, those Dome Covers, see, they make it seem like you are literally at a concert. You go from having the open air concept, which is still awesome. And then you put them on, you’re like, “Whoa,” in a whole different world.
Tim:
Yes. So it’s truly giving the market options.
Stephanie:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Tim:
And that’s what our value proposition is. That’s what our unique proposition is to our consumers, is when you wear conventional headphones like Beats, Bose, since Sennheiser, Panasonic, you’re essentially putting yourself in a box, and you’re disconnecting yourself from the world because you don’t have that situational awareness.
Tim:
But now, with Dome headphones, you have this open air listening experience, where you have the option to go in privacy mode while wearing something that’s fashionable in the brands that you love. And so that’s the options that we’re bringing to the world.
Stephanie:
Love it. All right, the last thing I want to touch on a bit is partnerships because you guys have some awesome access to people, obviously, with your background and history. And you’re already getting really good organic content from people just trying out the Dome headphones.
Stephanie:
I see that you’re bringing it into different football players, very well known people trying it on for the first time, getting their reactions, very authentic. Tell me how you all are thinking about authentic content and striking up awesome partnerships?
Tim:
Yeah. No, great points, Stephanie. So what we identified, what we realized is that each collaboration or each partnership, or each licensing opportunity, we will engage with the brands directly. And so these will be individual unique deals across the board, and each one could potentially look different in terms of… And what we have the inherent ability to do within our business model is offer a royalty or rev share opportunity.
Tim:
And that’s where your one component headphones that you just put over your ears or in your ears, they don’t have the ability to offer that. And so with our uniqueness of our Dome Covers which are interchangeable, we can offer the royalties around those Dome Covers in those specific looks. So that’s the first step, is that unique, one-off, one by one type of deal structures were offered.
Tim:
But the other standpoint is that with these Dome Covers having that unique headphone real estate ability, and being able to collaborate with the biggest brands and celebrities in the world. That’s what our focus is and what we’re on a mission to do is go after the 0.01 of the A-listers, so that we can now create that brand and bring that brand of Dome, in association with these other brands around the world that’s pioneers or just the titans within their own industry and space. And so by doing that, that drives the brand equity of Dome Audio.
Tim:
And then with our portfolio of IP, along with the ability to touch nearly 500,000,000 people in the world who haven’t heard sound through headphones for the first time, bringing all of that collectively together is where we want to position Dome for a historic exit at the end of the road. Within the next several years to 60 months, we want to be able to position Dome to do that.
Tim:
So these strategic partnerships and the selectiveness that we go into it, we’re being very strategic about who we collaborate with, but the partnerships that we have around us, the individuals who are either directly connected to a brand or a celebrity, or their one degree separation away, that’s who we’re building our team around Dome Audio, to be able to then position that and offer it to those individuals or those brands.
Tim:
And so that’s how we’re approaching our partnerships from that manner.
Stephanie:
I love it. It’s super smart, I’m excited watching where you guys are headed. You know I’m bullish on you and Ben, the whole team.
Tim:
Yes.
Stephanie:
So yeah, it’s been really fun to be a part of it. All right, we have a couple minutes. I want to do a quick lightning round brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. This is where I’m going to ask you just a couple of questions, and you have 30 seconds or less to answer.
Tim:
I love it, lets do it.
Stephanie:
All right. First one, the best piece of advice you’ve ever received from a business perspective?
Tim:
Yes. Yes. So I think this can go across the board. So I love this one, it says, “Success is not owned. It’s rented, and rent is due every day.” And so you’ve got to wake up with the mentality that you can never be comfortable, and every day you have to give it your best.
Tim:
When you put your feet on the ground, give breath in your lungs and you go out, you’ve got to go out and achieve greatness, and earn greatness to have success. So that’s one.
Stephanie:
That’s a good one, yeah. See, you always have the best quotes. That’s why I had to start off with that one.
Tim:
Yes.
Stephanie:
All right. Next one, what’s one thing you don’t understand today that you wish you did?
Tim:
Ooh, I believe the power of relationships. When I was younger, a lot of people that I met, I just met just out of genuine happens chance, and coming across them, I created the friendship, but I didn’t understand truly, as I do today, the value of every relationship, and there’s a reciprocation that goes with that.
Tim:
So now that the last, I would say 10 years or so that I understood that, I’ve been able to call on folks or bring folks within the ecosystem of what I’m doing, and together you’re stronger. So you’re stronger in numbers, and that’s what I realized.
Tim:
So that’s what I say, if I knew that in my younger years, I can have a larger Rolodex of people that can really make a difference, but that’s what I would say.
Stephanie:
Yep. Well, you’ve got that now. So now you get to [crosstalk] capitalize on all angles.
Tim:
Absolutely.
Stephanie:
All right. If you were to have a podcast, what would it be about and who would your first guest be?
Tim:
Well, if I had a podcast, it would be about… I would like to capture the journey of individuals who have now achieved a level of success. And because I look like him, I’m often told this and I’d say, he’s my brother, I would like to bring in LeBron James on my podcast and talk about his journey, and really be able to tap into some of the excellence that he’s doing today, whether in community, in a business on the court, and in his profession, and really tying that home. So that’s what I would do.
Stephanie:
I love it. I’m pretty sure LeBron does listen to this show, pretty sure. So get on his podcast [crosstalk] All right. And the last one, when are you getting to Austin? That’s a real question.
Tim:
Yes. We are getting to Austin on the first thing smoking. So I’ll be out there as soon as possible, trust me. I can’t wait to come down there to Texas to visit, to really scope it out and really be a part of that fabric. So I’m very excited about that, for sure.
Stephanie:
Yes, us too. All right Tim, it’s been awesome having you on. You have to come back for a round two when Dome is out in the world, but until then, where can people find out more about you and Dome?
Tim:
Yeah. So you can visit our website at domeaudioinc.com. Of course, you can follow us on Instagram @dome_audio. You can follow me timwright81 on Instagram. You can reach out to me through email if you would like to create some partnership opportunity, or just collaborate in any way, at tim@domeaudioinc.com. It’s easy to remember, just put it in there and let’s connect and I’m looking forward to it.
Stephanie:
Amazing. Thanks so much, Tim.
Tim:
Thank you, Stephanie. I really appreciate it.
