Tech's Greatest Join the CT Hall of Fame
October 31, 2018
- Author: Jeremy Snow
September/October 2018
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CTA is honoring pioneers of audio and retail
Two weeks ago, we highlighted a number of 2018 Consumer Technology Hall of Fame inductees, like smart home pioneer Peter Lesser and acoustics legend Edgar Villchur. The remaining 10 inductees are equally influential, making major advancements in retail, audio and online communications. This year’s honorees were responsible for Skype, industry-standard speakers, and independent retail stores that are still known today in their respective cities.
Want to meet and honor these great minds? Register today for the Hall of Fame Dinner on November 7 at Capitale in New York City. Come celebrate the great work of these revolutionary inventors and businessmen. To learn more about the 2018 inductees, go to CTA.tech.
Jim Thiel and Kathy Gornik
Consumer technology is known for its important duos: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak; Bill Gates and Paul Allen, and so on. For Thiel Audio, Jim Thiel and Kathy Gornik worked together for more than 30 years, using their respective skills in audio and business to create one of the century’s most well-respected speaker companies.
Jim Thiel started his speaker company in 1976 from a dirt-floor garage, but slowly developed Thiel Audio in a few years through stellar engineering and speaker design. Kathy Gornik, Thiel Audio’s president, stood by him every step of the way, making most of the business decisions. While Thiel handled the tech, Gornik drove around the mid-Atlantic, selling loudspeakers to independent audio specialist dealers. In the early years Thiel struggled to secure loans and funding – even packing their own food for the 1977 CES.
Their big break occurred in 1980 when Thiel developed the Thiel CS3, their breakthrough speaker. To help sell it, Gornik turned down most dealer applications, waiting to do business with the best dealer in any given market. This strategy helped double the company’s annual revenues each year for five years running.
Thiel’s success proves that every good technologist needs a good business partner, and vice versa. If it wasn’t for Gornik’s passionate approach to the business behind Thiel Audio, Thiel’s speakers may have never reached the market it deserved. As Gornik says, always follow these three business tenets: "Satisfy the customer, satisfy the customer and "satisfy the customer."
Skype Founders
When Skype first began, its creators worried if anyone would sit in front of a computer to talk to someone. It may seem obvious now, but the idea of voice chat over the internet was radical in 2003, the first year Skype launched to immediate success.
Before founding Skype, Janus Friis, Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu, Jaan Tallinn and Niklas Zennström developed Kazaa in 2000, a peer-to-peer file-sharing service often used for music. Kazaa saw massive popularity and at one time became the most downloaded internet software, but as record labels started questioning the legality of the software, the team sold Kazaa to pursue something new.
Originally, the team developed Skype for their own use. Looking to cut down on their expensive international phone bill, they leveraged their peer-to-peer technology to create a voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) communication system that let them talk to another computer using internet connection.
After a year of testing, the team released Skype. It became an immediate success thanks to its usability, speed and clarity. The fact it made international calls for free didn’t hurt, either. Skype continued to grow, and at its peak was acquiring five new users every second. Skype even became its own verb – entering the prestigious club with companies like Google. The company added video chat and by 2005, eBay bought the company for $3.1 billion.
Today, the Skype founders continue to innovate. Zennström, founded and became CEO of tech investor Atomico in 2006 and, in October 2015, became the head of the European Tech Alliance (EUTA). Heinla and Friis co-founded Starship Technologies, a company developing tiny self-driving vehicles for commercial delivery. Heinla, Kasesalu and Tallinn also co-founded Ambient Sound Investments, a seed investment company specializing in B2C software.
The Retail Angle: Robert Cole and Michael Romagnolo
Even after an inventor thinks up an idea and the manufacturer produces it, the work is still not done. Someone must sell it. And no matter how revolutionary you think your product is, if you don’t have a good sales effort behind it, it won’t take off. To honor the art of the sale, CTA will induct World Wide Stereo’s Robert Cole and DOW Stereo/Video’s Michael Romagnolo – two businessmen who started their own stores and used first-rate customer service to show consumers the joys of technology.
Cole founded Philadelphia’s World Wide Stereo in 1979, mostly depending on bank loans and some extra cash from a friend. Cole followed his life mantra of “doing well by doing good” and made sure his store ran without spin-offs or gimmicks. Today, World Wide Stereo remains a local institution and highly profitable venture, trending towards to $70 million in 2018.
Meanwhile, Romagnolo’s DOW Stereo/Video caught on in 1971, where it became known as a “launching pad” of new technologies. Throughout the years, customers lined up across the block to get their hands on the newest devices, like 8mm camcorders and digital cell phones. DOW's penchant for showcasing new tech created both a cool-factor bond with tech-savvy customers, as well as a trusting bond with manufacturers looking for high-profile national retail exposure for their as-yet unknown next-gen technologies.
Join as we celebrate these industry leaders and others, on November 7, 2018 in New York City. Register today for the Hall of Fame Dinner.
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