i3 - January/February 2019 - 92

Business

By Jeff Schrum

CT R E P O RTS

CTA Startup Grads

ecognizing the critical
role startups play in
driving innovation and
growing the industry, CTA
began welcoming startup companies in 2011 with a membership category designed to meet
their needs and still offer full
benefits. Among them, access to
CTA market research and networking opportunities rank as
the most valuable benefits. "Our
staff and members offer a
wealth of expertise and knowledge to help newer companies
make the connections and
secure the tools they need to
thrive," says Deb Kassoff, CTA's
director of member programs.
Today, CTA's startup membership comprises a quarter of
the association's members.
What's more, CES 2019 hosts
the largest startup event on the
planet, Eureka Park. i3 recently
talked with three startup members to hear how CTA helped
them connect and grow.
Joe Born
Chairman and
CTO, Aiwa Corp.

An industry veteran, Joe Born
knew that membership in CTA would
prove essential as
his new audio company launched.
With barriers to
entry lower and competition among startups increasing, Joe says staying informed
and connected was paramount to his success. He believes access to CTA market
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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019

research has been invaluable for tracking
consumer insight as well as the ability to
connect startups with their peers. "CTA is
a key part of our network," he says.
Relationships with other startups and
companies - often with differing products but similar missions - has been a
critical component to his success. "For
example, our sales used to be based on a
relationship with a buyer or merchandising manager," he explains. "Now we
do seven figures of business with
Amazon. Our asset is not the relationship, it's the knowledge, the understanding of how the algorithms work, how to
present your products on Amazon's pages
and so on." That knowledge emerged
from the company's network, developed
through participation in membership
organizations like CTA. "We have to connect to our peers to share as much
knowledge as we have to thoughtfully
connect vertically with our supply chain."

Jeff Gindin
President,
Cycling
Designs, LLC

Jeff Gindin joined
CTA in the early
stages of his company. This journey,
however, was
unexpected.
Enjoying a bicycle
ride on his first day of retirement, he
turned a near-collision from a passing
vehicle into a new business idea and
ultimately a company. The product,
Cyclesight, is a bike-mounted rear-view
camera and event-recording solution
that gives cyclists a full view of their surroundings without turning their head.
Newly retired from Microsoft, Jeff
explains that he launched his startup
knowing a fair amount about software
and operations, but very little about
manufacturing. The relationships he
formed within CTA - both peer-to-peer

and mentor-protégé, as part of CTA's
Mentor program - proved invaluable.
"At my first CES I signed up for a mentoring session - five of them actually," he
says. Advice from those meetings proved
quite helpful by being part of industry
discussions to find solutions to his
unique challenges. "I'll participate in a
CTA Small Business Council meeting
taking notes and something hits me over
the head," he says. "I hear something,
and it triggers an idea that I can use in
my business." Jeff is now releasing a
redesigned prototype of his product and
beginning a new round of fundraising.

Sunil Koduri
zSolutionz, LLC

"Since this is my
first startup, I
wanted to join
those who were
facing similar
challenges in succeeding during the
initial stages," says
Sunil Koduri of
zSolutionz. CTA's Startup membership
category provided that opportunity.
Sunil is developing a health and fitness
application that analyzes body movements using computer vision and
machine learning algorithms.
Understanding the dynamic and competitive environment in the health and
fitness category, Sunil relies on CTA
market research to track consumer
trends and purchasing behaviors to
refine his product's features and capabilities. "Without these reports, it
would have been much more difficult to
create a robust software application in
a short time frame," he says. Sunil credits his participation at Eureka Park for
generating new contacts and business.
When asked about trends in the health
and fitness area, Sunil points to artificial intelligence as a bright spot for category growth. "This a great opportunity
for small companies, especially startups, to positively influence the direction of health and fitness."
I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

http://www.cyclingdesigns.com/ https://aiwa.co/

i3 - January/February 2019

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