Tell us the story of how and why you started your company.
Zivix was founded on the idea of teaching people to learn guitar and become musicians through the use of smart sensor technology and companion software. A lot of the drive was to answer the call of the thousands of Guitar Hero and RockBand players who wanted to learn an actual skill, but have fun doing it. While our goal was originally to develop a full-size guitar around this model, we saw an opportunity to develop a portable solution that worked with the latest mobile devices. The versatility of the app marketplace and the uniqueness of our solution allowed us to carve out a nice market for not just learners, but musicians on the go, traveling guitarists, and those who want to create and record with any sound they like.
What’s your most recent success or milestone hit?
Our most recent success was becoming the #2 Kickstarter project in Minnesota with the latest version of our digital guitar, the jamsitk+. We gathered nearly 3000 backers in just over a month, and will soon be in Apple and other retail stores this fall, just 4 months after the close of our Kickstarter project.
Where do you see your startup in 1 year?
I see us continuing to innovate in the mobile music world, especially on the music education side with a larger presence in schools. Hopefully we'll have more recognition as a mass-market product as the experience improves and we reach a larger audience through marketing and positive reviews from customers. We'll have had another year to gather feedback from our customers, improve the app experiences, and continue to integrate third party technology for new forms of music creation and learning. While we most likely won't have the next jamstik model ready by then, we'll have a much better idea of exactly what it may become. There might also be a few other surprises coming from us in the next year.
