A dead cell phone battery: Something everyone tries to avoid. There’s even a known phobia associated with it – nomophobia.
inCharge, a Kansas City-based startup founded by Bryan Richard, aims to remedy the problem of limited cell phone battery life by providing free mobile phone charging kiosks in public places.
“The goal is that when you’re out in public we don’t want anyone to feel the pain of a dead cell phone battery,” Richard said.
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The idea came to Richard last October in his discussions and work with people in India, who wanted to know how Americans keep their phones charged.
In India, Richard said, there are about 1.3 billion people, 1 billion cell phones and only 14 million broadband drops to homes, which means a lot of people are using their cell phones and 3G data.
“Overall, the actual infrastructure hasn’t caught up with the people that are there,” Richard said, adding that a typical citizen in India will only receive about 10 hours of electricity per day.
Richard, who is also the founder of iCode, traveled to India in February to do research, visit locations where kiosks might be needed and learn about running a business in the country.
The company will launch three kiosks at Livestrong Sporting Park in Kansas City on Friday. One is also slated for Kansas City’s Power & Light District.
“These are prototypes to test and tune the design,” Richard said. “Following that, we’re going to be putting four in a shopping mall in India in November.”
The prototype kiosk (pictured left), is about 8 feet tall and 30 inches wide and capable of having charging stations on three or four sides. On a charging side of the station, there are four circular discs that rotate to different phone adapters. The stations will initially support iPhone, micro and USB chargers, as well as a few others specifically for India.
“Your phone just sits in a wheel, it’s tilted a bit, so you’re able to still use your phone while it’s plugged in, and on the top of the kiosk we have a 32-inch monitor to play video,” Richard said.
Richard said advertisements — both on the video monitors and on skins covering the kiosks — will be the primary revenue-drivers for inCharge. He said fees could potentially be charged to owners of venues that host the charging stations. But hosting fees and prices for advertising will be determined “on a case-by-base” basis, Richard said.
Richard (right) said inCharge’s main competitors are the variety of mobile phone charging stations found in U.S. airports, but there aren’t many he’s seen in other public spaces.
“Certainly haven’t seen any in India,” he said.
The prototypes will be finished so quickly in part because inCharge received a total of $75,000 of investment from a seed round led by Think Big Ventures in Kansas City.
Herb Sih with Think Big Ventures said the reason inCharge caught his attention was because of the growing importance of mobile devices and their limitations.
“If you have more of these devices, more Wi-Fi access, more people hunting for it and better processors, it burns battery down faster,” Sih said. “The reality is, if your battery isn’t charged, it’s a brick.”
Sih said he was also excited about the potential for expansion overseas in India.
“It isn’t just a mobile charging station, it’s also an opportunity to create a relationship to the consumer,” Sih said, adding that movie production houses in India are already eager to use the charging kiosks to play movie trailers customized for consumers.
Richard was also recently chosen by Think Big Partners to participate in the first Think Big Accelerator, a 22-week program during which startups receive investment, mentoring and business services.
Despite being chosen for the accelerator and raising the recent round of investment, Richard said inCharge is hungry for more.
“We are still raising because of the costs of moving from prototype to production,” he said.
Credits: Photo of prototype courtesy of Richard. Photo of Richard from linkedin.com.
