The Banana Phone is a novelty Bluetooth-enabled system that may join to smartphones. However, the corporate is pushed by its mission of defending endangered gorillas within the wild. Brian Brunsing and Max Brown pitched the enterprise on season 14 however didn’t get a deal. As of 2024, Banana Phone is price $2.5 million.
About the Founders
Brian Brunsing and Max Brown are natives of Buffalo, New York. They are childhood buddies who each attended the University of Colorado Boulder. They have a 3rd companion, Charlie Katrycz from Toronto who’s the CTO. He has based corporations reminiscent of Loonskin Labs and Undu Wearables.
Max began his profession because the VP of Sales for the Garrett Leather Corporation. After 11 years, he was promoted to president. Brunsing has labored as a guide at Ecosystems and is at present a Senior Account Manager at Visa.
Founding the Company
The three amigos are greatest buddies who share a love for gorillas and bananas. And this was what impressed them to create the Banana Phone, a retro banana-shaped telephone with “cool” options.
It doesn’t have contact display know-how, however it’s suitable with Bluetooth-enabled voice assistants reminiscent of Siri and Alexa. The system connects to a smartphone to play songs and obtain calls. But it doesn’t have textual content/electronic mail notifications or TikTook for that matter.
When the startup launched in 2017, they partnered with Gearing Up 4 Gorillas to donate 1% of its income to shield mountain gorillas in Congo and Rwanda. They created an IndieGoGo marketing campaign that raised $45,000, with over 1,000 models in pre-order.
Getting on Shark Tank
Getting on the present was the end result of 5 years of constructing a model that takes us again to easier occasions. The success of the crowdfunding marketing campaign made the trio understand that their product has potential.
Also, having a wacky product undoubtedly helped get them on the present. In the previous, weird companies reminiscent of “I Want To Draw A Cat For You” did bag a deal!
Shark Tank Appearance
Brian and Max gave a robust however lighthearted pitch. The Sharks have been shocked once they revealed, Banana Phone had $1.2 million in lifetime gross sales and $400,000 in web earnings. In 2021, the novelty merchandise did $540,000 in gross sales and a revenue of $123,000. One by one, the Sharks dropped out and the very fact nobody was working full-time on the enterprise wasn’t interesting.
After Shark Tank
Banana Phone gross sales are primarily pushed by internet advertising and Amazon. Although they didn’t get a deal, the publicity from Shark Tank will give them a brief increase in gross sales. Some followers disliked the product however cherished the charity facet.
#BananaPhone is silly to me. But I like their charity part. @ABCSharkTank #SharkTank 🍌
— John G (@JohnG500) October 1, 2024
The founders don’t spend lots of time working Banana Phone as they’re an Amazon FBA enterprise. This means they outsource the entire transport to Amazon who takes care of every thing.
You can purchase the handset system for $39.99 on Amazon or their web site, BananaPhone.io. The firm works carefully with AVC Sense, a “full-service Amazon account management consultancy” to drive income. They are actually providing a particular low cost for Shark Tank followers on their web site.
The product primarily has optimistic critiques on Amazon, the place it averages 4.5 stars from over 1,280 customers. Currently, Banana Phone will make round $500,000 in annual gross sales and is price $2.5 million. Given that Bannan Phone is a one-off product they could battle to develop gross sales after the Shark Tank impact fades.
