Twenty-two-year-old Jonathon Nostrant’s impish smile speaks louder than words as he refuses to comment on the projects his company, Moshi Lifestyle, is working on. All he’ll say is the Woodland Hills business, known for its consumer electronics that listen and talk back, is gearing up for big changes that will hopefully mark significant growth in the near future. “I do think things are going to get rockin’ and rollin’ pretty soon!,” he says. Nostrant was a junior at USC’s entrepreneurial studies program, and studying abroad in China, when he first came across the voice recognition technology that would guide his business future two years ago. The Valley entrepreneur who grew up in Tarzana and later attended Viewpoint School in Calabasas, had launched his first business at the age of 12, a DJ company called DJs at your Door, which he ran until the age of 15. He had also tried his luck at a website business. Upon finding this new voice control technology in China, Nostrant immediately identified a niche, and didn’t hesitate to jump at the opportunity. He partnered up with his father, who came onboard as an investor, and they launched Moshi Lifestyle in November 2008 with their signature voice activated alarm clock. With the words “Hello Moshi” the alarm clock comes to life and responds to commands by calling out the time, date and temperature, setting an alarm, turning on a night light or lulling users to sleep with soothing sounds. In its first year the company did more than $2.4 million in sales to retailers including Bed, Bath & Beyond and Brookstone. The company has since added other products including its voice control digital clock radio and its voice control travel alarm clock. Moshi Lifestyle is now launching a voice control Bluetooth car speakerphone just in time for Father’s Day, which will allow users to dial and answer calls without ever having to take their hands off the steering wheel. A new Moshi iPod App is coming soon, according to their website. Q: You launched your business with your father, how is the company structured? A: I’m an equal partner of the company. My father is the president of the company; he’s the investor and is in charge of sales, distribution. I’m in charge of basically the operations, the marketing, the direction where we’re taking the company, the technology… basically making sure that our products get done. We design all our products, we develop them, we outsource the manufacturing to China and we import it, warehouse it, and ship it. Q: Who are you shipping to? A: We ship online. We ship to Bed, Bath & Beyond, Brookstone, Hammacher Schlemmer, Target.com. Those are the big ones. Q: Why did you believe in this technology? A: I see a wave of technology that’s about to happen. It’s already starting. Apple recently purchased a voice recognition search company, you’ll start to see [this voice recognition technology] in the app community on the iPhone, you’ll start to see it in phones, GPS systems… it’s going to be a wave. Two years ago when we first saw the demo of this technology I saw it. I see the potential for it in the future. Voice recognition technology is starting to get to the point now where it’s actually becoming fundamental – and this is actually the first product that’s successfully allowed people to do something with their voice in a simple application. We’re using just a simple IC [integrated circuit chip] that’s running the voice recognition software directly on the device. And all our products work right out of the box; there’s no set-up. Q: How do you envision the future of computer electronics? A: In the next five years, pretty much every electronic device will have voice control on it, whether it’s on the device or managed by some other outside computer system, you’re going to start seeing it a lot more and it’s going to be very cool. Q: Why did you start with clocks? A: That was the application that we felt would be most beneficial for the consumer because everybody hates setting an alarm clock… I know I hate setting alarm clocks. Q: What are you expecting with the launch of your Blue Tooth car kit? Are you excited? A: I’m really excited about it. I think it’s going to be a great product. It’s the first truly hands free car kit and it works with any phone. People were saying there were truly hands free Bluetooth car kits years ago but you still had to turn it on and every time you wanted to say a command to it you had to push a button. We eliminated one of those steps. You still have to turn it on but now you can say a trigger word, ‘Hello Moshi’, and you don’t even have to take your hands off the steering wheel to make a call. Q: What’s your dream for the company? A: Moshi will become a household name in the voice controlled region and it will do a lot more than what you are seeing right here. We’re basically going to take over the nightstand. That’s our niche, the nightstand niche. We want to be known as voice control for your nightstand. We’re trying to position ourselves as a premium electronics company. Our quality is there, the technology is there, we’ve put a lot of focus and emphasis on how the technology and the products interact with the consumer, we focus a lot on the user interface, which is incredibly important to us, and that plays into our design of our products, how they’re positioned, priced and marketed. Q: Any growth plans? A: We’re going through a huge transition right now. We can’t disclose details right now but we’re working on something big. I do think things are going to get rockin’ and rollin’ pretty soon! Q: What has been the most rewarding impact that your product has had so far? A: Our first alarm clock won the Stevie Wonder Vision Award and it was really cool when we met with the blind community and people were coming up to us and thanking us and shaking our hands… that’s been a really rewarding feeling. A lot of blind and elderly people love the product because they don’t have to push any buttons to set their alarm clock, it’s very easy for them to use. Aside from [our travel alarm clock] all our other products that plug into the wall are fully voice controlled meaning that you don’t have to push any buttons to activate it. You can use a trigger word so you can literally be laying in your bed, eyes closed, dry mask on, and you can literally say ‘hello Moshi’, and then say ‘set alarm’, ‘set time’, ‘get temperature’… Q: What led you into this business? A: I always new that I wanted to start something in college, ever since I was a little kid. I loved technology; I always thought I would be running a brand when I was younger. I used to draw things in notebooks and think of weird products like virtual reality products and how they would work and all these different things, and I still have those notebooks. So I think I always did want to do this. I love what I’m doing. Q: What was it about running a brand that appealed to you? A: It’s fun, you’re creating a story for your product, you’re creating an image, a perception and you’re also creating a lifestyle, a culture… a brand tries to give a feeling to the consumer. Q: What’s the feeling you hope consumers get from your product? A: Innovative, groundbreaking, peaceful, soothing, calm… if you look at our website it’s all very clean, simple easy, relaxed. We want to give you a real relaxed feeling. Q: What challenges have you encountered? A: Communicating what the product does is always a challenge. I think the biggest challenge with marketing these products is actually communicating the value of what they bring to the consumer. How much these products actually benefit and save you time and they’re so much faster and easier to use. I mean if they can make your life a little bit less stressful, why not? In terms of challenges, this is a difficult business to plan. The electronics business is very competitive, margins are razor sharp, and the technology is difficult to work with. We’re a very young company, everyone in the company is probably in their 20’s besides my dad and we all work as a team, we’re trying to conquer this uncharted territory, and we’re having fun.
Guided by Voices
