2. Unplugged Team
Ari Atkins
Stanford ’12
Design/Engineering
Andrew Penrose
Stanford ’12
Business
Charlie Glick
Stanford ’13
Media Intern/
Guitarist
Advisors
Tony Lillios
Founder/CEO Speck
Mike Cassidy
Entrepreneur
Ken Kantor
CEO ZT Amps
Dave Beach
Stanford ME Prof
3. Guitars Today
70%Of guitarists we surveyed say yes. (82)
Big Amps Bulky Effects Pedals+ = Stuck at Home
Does gear transport and
setup discourage you from
playing electric guitar?
4. Guitars Tomorrow
• Effects
• Recording
• Uploading
• Guitaraoke
• Interactive
Lessons
• 3rd Party App
Platform
73%Of guitarists we surveyed say yes. (82)
Can a built-in amp
and iPhone app
substitute for
traditional gear?
Built-in Amp + Smartphone Interface = Jam Anywhere
5. Prototyping: January 2011- March 2012
Market
Guitars and Gear
= $1.5B
Guitars
Amps
Effects
Musical Instruments
TAM = $6.4B
Source: Music Trades April 2011
2M
guitars sold each year in the US
20M
guitarists in the US
50M
guitarists in the world
7. $0
$20
$40
$60
$80
$100
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Revenue(M)
Other Instruments
Apps
Guitars
Prototyping: January 2011- March 2012
Business Model
3.9% of
US Guitar
Market
$1M
$4M
$19M
$42M
$63M
$100M
8. Manufacturing & Logistics
Components
Made in
China
$30
Parts we Design
Made in
China
$40
Shipping
$10
Assembly
Bay Area
Factory
$10
Retailers
Sell for $210
$120 Margin
Direct to Consumer
Sell for $350
$225 Margin
Shipping +
Handling $35
$350 Retail
$90 COGS
9. Prototyping: January 2011- March 2012
Distribution
Pre-Launch Campaign Goal: $100,000 in Preorders (100% Direct)
Short Term (2012) Strategically Chosen Local Stores (80% Direct)
Long Term (2013+) Guitar + Consumer Electronics Chains (50% Direct)
10. Prototyping: January 2011- March 2012
Marketing
Direct Sales
1. Guerilla – concerts, parks, etc.
2. Guitar Blogs, YouTube Channels
3. SEO/SEM
Social Music Videos
Musician
Endorsements
Retail
1. In-Store Demos
2. Guitar
Mags, Catalog
s
11. Prototyping: January 2011- March 2012
Funding
Product Development September 2011 – June 2012
First Production Run July 2012 – June 2013
Scale Up July 2013 – onward
1
2
3
$50K
$850K
$2M VC
• Hire 3 Engineers, 1 Sales
• Ship 5,000 guitars
• Reach Breakeven Point
• Scale up production and distribution
• Design guitars, bass, keyboard, drums
Lemnos Labs
• Warehouse, Investment, mentorship
• Six guitar designs
12. Make Music
However You Want,
Wherever You Want,
Unlimited.
602.451.0150
founders@unpluggedinstruments.com
13. Prototyping: January 2011- March 2012
Business Model
0
20
40
60
80
100Revenue($MM)
Other Instruments
Apps
Guitars
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Mid-
Range
Guitar
Free app
and some
effects for
sale.
High and
Low End
Guitars
Artist
Packages +
Guitaraoke
Bass Guitar
API, 3rd party
apps, Androi
d
App
Keyboard +
Drums
SDK, Develo
pers sell
effects
Sell hardware
internationally
Develop new
music tech apps
3.9% of
US Guitar
Market
Notas do Editor
Graduating from Stanford next week where Ari studied ME, I majored in STS with focus in Econ + Biz. Ari Acorn, I did BD Pandora Our advisors are manufacturing experts and entrepreneurs with experience in both hardware and software.
playing guitar for 10 yrs, and mass-market electric guitar technology hasn’t changed much in 60 years. You still need big amplifiers and bulky effects pedals to get those nice electric guitar sounds that we all love. Lugging around our amps and effects pedals was never fun, and neither was paying for them. We surveyed 82 guitarists and 70% of them had this problem too.
Our solution is The Unlimited Electric Guitar.It feels and plays like a classic electric, but also has a built-in amp and iPhone app that makes your music experience truly unlimited.Ari’s going to give you a taste of what it can already do.
This guitar appeals to a lot of people.There are 50M guitarists in the world and 20M in the US alone, with 2M guitars sold each year.The market for guitars and related equipment reached 1.5 BILLION last year, and the total market for musical instruments was 6.4 Billion.
Fender and Gibson are the most well-known guitar manufacturers, and they’ve been making the same classic guitars since the 50s. They haven’t really innovated at all in the last 60 years.There are a few guitar-related iPhone apps like GarageBand, but they can actually work with our guitar to extend its functionality even further.Fernandes and a few other companies make guitars with built-in amps, and they sell about 20,000 units a year. But, they don’t have any iPhone integration and our demo will show you the difference in sound qualityThere are also a few guitar like products out there that are more geared towards people who don’t know how to play guitar. A real guitarist would never be satisfied with them.
Our distribution strategy will use a three step process, starting with our Kickstarter campaign that launched yesterday.We see Kickstarter as a great way to sell a few hundred guitars and get our beta guitar in people’s hands, in order to measure demand and get feedback.Our second step will be selling around 80% thru our website and launching in local guitar shops. These will be strategically chosen for urban areas with a lot of foot traffic, so one guitar on display will do a lot to raise brand awareness.At that point, the guitars and our iPhone app will be ready for mass-market distribution in bigger chains like Guitar Center and Best Buy.Guitar Center’s Director of Merchandise reached out to us this week and loves what we are doing.He asked us about our pricing and if he could have a sample, and told us deal terms that would be much more favorable than anticipated so we may launch with Guitar Center early.
Our favorite aspect of the Unlimited, which we believe is the most marketable, is the freedom to play anywhere.We’ve played it in parks, beaches, camping trips, and just about everywhere else, and the people we’ve met indicate that the guitar will sell itself.Our primary marketing strategy will be to create social music videos outside the range of outlets, with well-known and up-and-coming artists that love our product.We’ve been talking to Fearless records about doing promotions with one of their bands like Eve6 or the Plain White T’s.Besides professional musicians, we plan to send samples to prominent guitar blogs and YouTube channels.These guitar media have large, loyal followings and this is a relatively low-cost tactic that will effectively reach a large audience.We’ll also demo the Unlimited in local guitar stores and experiment with advertisements in guitar magazines and catalogs.
During our time here at Lemnos, we’ve been improving our guitar design and developing the iPhone app for our beta launch that started yesterday.We’re now raising a seed round that will enable us to build out the team, ship 5,000 guitars, and reach breakeven by June of next year.At that point, we may decide to raise institutional funding to scale up and design more Unplugged Instruments.