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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

LOW TECH—Low-Tech Success

one new mba realized that, sooner or later, everybody with a laptop still needs more than their lap to work off of When Maxim Weitzman was finishing up his MBA at UCLA, most of his fellow students were eyeing Internet ventures. He had something decidedly more low tech in mind. The Venezuelan-born Weitzman wanted to design a portable workstation that folks could use with their laptops something that would allow them to work almost anywhere in comfort. The year was 1998, the Internet frenzy was in full swing and Weitzman may have looked like something of an underachiever. No one’s calling him a slacker now. With less than a year of shipments for its first laptop workstation under his belt, Weitzman’s startup, Intrigo Inc., has already brought in $500,000 in sales. In January, the company won the CES Innovation 2001 Award along with a Best of Show award for its Lapstation Pro, honors bestowed annually by the Consumer Electronics Association. And last month, the go-anywhere desk found its way into Workspheres, an exhibit highlighting products that redefine the way people work at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. “It is an innovative and valuable product,” said Matthew Swanston, spokesperson for the Consumer Electronics Association, an industry trade group. “It provides consumers with a very useful function that’s new and thoughtful.” About one in every three laptops is purchased to replace a desktop computer, meaning about 20 million people in the U.S. now use their laptops as their primary PC. Worldwide, laptop users number an estimated 90 million. Intrigo’s principals point out that, with retail prices ranging from $69.95 to $99.95 depending on the model, even 10 percent of that market would yield nearly a billion dollars in retail sales. The Lapstation, a kind of space age breakfast tray, provides a surface for a portable computer with ports that can be used to snap on attachments such as lamps, page holders and personal digital assistants or Palm Pilots. The ergonomically designed desktop fits comfortably over the lap with room below to sit cross-legged while putting the user at eye level with the computer screen. It has curved wrist pads for support, and coated legs to keep it from scratching delicate surfaces or slipping on soft ones, like a bed. It collapses into a unit small enough to fit in a backpack or computer carrying case. Utilitarian as it all sounds, the Lapstation’s origins are somewhat more philosophical in nature. Think Eames chairs, the Movado watch or California’s famed Woody, products that reflect and define lifestyles. “It’s a status symbol that means we don’t need to be tied to desks or offices to be productive,” Weitzman said. The idea for the Lapstation came from Weitzman’s own experience as a student, when he often used a bed tray to work at his laptop. He wanted to design something that would improve upon his jury-rigged desk, but wondered whether such a product would have long-term marketing potential. With a Larry Wolfen Entrepreneurial Fellowship at UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Management, Weitzman pursued his idea, researching the market and, eventually, developing a prototype he took to RKS Design Inc. Ravi K. Sawhney, president of Thousand Oaks-based RKS which has designed appliances, printers, cordless phones and other products for companies like Amana, Canon, Hewlett-Packard Co. and Smith Corona saw in the lapstation not just a product, but a new category of business. “(The venture) had no downside, because we had everything to learn about staging a company and innovating a new product category,” said Sawhney. “The upside was we could create an iconic product company that people associated with nomadic lifestyles.” Sawhney agreed to provide design and other support services for the fledgling company in exchange for an equity position in the fledgling Intrigo. It took about nine months, 10 generations of prototypes and more than $1 million to come up with the first Lapstation, which Intrigo introduced in May 2000. Sawhney, a full partner in the company, concedes that the time and investment were substantial, but so too is the potential payoff. “Once we make that commitment to tooling, we can pop these out 24 hours a day,” said Sawhney. “At the same time, the design becomes a barrier to competition. It would be difficult to provide a better design without infringing on our patents.” So far at least, retailers say, there has been little like the Lapstation available. “Right now we have it under test,” said Pat McCarthy, product research specialist for Micro Center, The Computer Department Store, an 18-unit chain. “I haven’t seen anything precisely like it. There’s nothing as portable, easy to use and attractive.” Along with the newest Lapstation, a smaller and more lightweight version that weighs 2.8 lbs. and folds to a thickness of 1.2 inches, Intrigo is getting ready to market a desk lamp, Lumanite, and document holder, PagePod, that can be screwed into the desktop. Intrigo sells its products from its web site and an 800 number, and through college bookstores and a select group of catalogs. The next step is to explore laptop makers who may want to bundle the Lapstations with their own products. “By the end of the year, we’ll probably have 10 products available,” said Weitzman. “If we keep going, I can see us with 50 products in 10 years, and have Intrigo be the ‘work-anywhere’ company.”

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