In the second episode of season 14 of ABC’s “Shark Tank,” Charlie Katrycz, Max Brown, and Brian Brunsing pitched their unusual gadget, the Banana Phone, to the Sharks in hopes of getting a life-changing investment from one of them.
Banana Phone is a Bluetooth device that lets you give voice commands and take calls. The company’s founders said that they started the business for a unique reason. Since Banana Phone is such an interesting product, many people must be curious about how it has grown since it was on the show. So, let’s see where the business is right now, shall we?
Who Are Banana Phones and What Do They Do?
Max Brown and Brian Brunsing, two of the founders, are both from Buffalo, New York. Charlie Katrycz, on the other hand, is from Toronto, Ontario. Brian went to the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of California, Berkeley. He is also taking a course at the MIT Sloan School of Management on blockchain technology. Aside from co-founding Banana Phone LLC in May 2017, he has also had a very successful career. Brian has worked at Ecosystems as a Consultant for Energy Efficiency and Sustainability.
Also, Brian has worked for the company VISA, which provides financial services, for more than eight years. In 2012, he became a Technical Support Engineer for VISA. Brian took a short break to help start Banana Phone LLC, but he came back to VISA in 2018 and is now the Sr. Director of Ecommerce and Digital Marketplaces. Max, meanwhile, got his Bachelor of Science in business studies from the University of Colorado Boulder and then went to work for the Garrett Leather Corporation. He has worked for the company for more than 14 years and is now the President.
The Banana Phone is shaped like a banana, just like its name. It is a Bluetooth-enabled device that connects to a smartphone and lets the user give voice commands, play music, accept calls, or even access the contacts list. Banana Phone might also appeal to people’s sense of nostalgia, since it looks a lot like cordless phones, which are no longer used. The founders said that the idea for the product came from the song “Bananaphone” by Raffi and the many memes that came from it. At first, it was meant to be a fun toy that people could play with.
Max, Brian, and Charlie are big gorilla fans, and they worry about how fast the species is going extinct. This is another part of their business. So, in 2017, they started Banana Phone LLC and soon after teamed up with Gearing Up 4 Gorillas to give up to 1% of their sales to the non-profit. Even though bananas and gorillas are linked, Gearing Up 4 Gorillas protects the endangered species in Congo’s Virunga National Park, and the founders are happy to give to a cause they believe in.
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What happened to Banana Phone?
Max, Brian, and Charlie decided to use crowdfunding to start their business in 2017. They set up a campaign on Indie Go-Go that brought in a nice investment of around $44,850. Also, most of their marketing is done through social media, and they use memes and jokes in their ads to get the attention of younger people. Even though the device hasn’t changed much since it first came out, the people who made it made sure that it would work with any smartphone that has Bluetooth.
At the moment, interested customers can find the Banana Phone on Amazon as well as on the company’s official website. Banana Phone has also been featured on popular YouTube channels like “Unbox Therapy,” and it has been written about in many high-quality magazines and websites. Even though it’s a fun gadget, most people care about saving gorillas, so the company is likely to grow in the future.
LOS ANGELES, CA: Phones are quite popular. It is important to stay in touch with everyone in your area. The Banana Phone is a strange and interesting gadget that you can buy. In Season 14 of the popular ABC business show “Shark Tank,” the Bluetooth handset phone will be shown.
On “Shark Tank,” Season 14, Episode 2, Brian Bruning and Max Brown pitched the Banana Phone business. Read on to learn more about this amazing gadget, which will soon be on the show because the company that makes it needs Shark’s help to get money so it can grow.
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What is Banana Phone?
The Banana Phone is basically a new type of cordless phone. It lets you talk on the phone while speaking directly into the “banana.” The phone can connect to Bluetooth speakers and devices like Google, Siri, Alexa, Android, and iPhone. The phone is made out of 100% recycled ABS, and the box it comes in is made out of 100% recycled paperboard and can also be recycled. It can be charged again and again because it has a micro USB cord and a lithium battery. On a single charge, a phone can be used for 10 hours of talking and 70 hours of not being used. The phone’s Qualcomm Chipset is made from materials that don’t come from areas where there is violence.
This is a new and interesting way to have fun. People will like this idea, and the phone that looks like a banana will become a sign of coolness. It’s easy to use the Banana Phone. Connect the Banana to your smartphone through Bluetooth, and then use the phone’s voice assistant to make or receive calls, play music, and check the weather. The User Manual talks about other features. You can answer a call by pressing the home button. Siri can be told to make a call by speaking to it. Users must press the multifunction button to play their favorite music.
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Who started the group?
In 2017, Max Brown, Charlie Katrycz, and Brian Brunsing started a company called Banana Phone LLC. They’ve been friends for many years. Or at least when they were canoe trip campers and guides at Camp Pathfinder in Ontario. Max Brown and Brian Brunsing started this as a side project and raised money for it through IndieGoGo. In 2017, they raised $44,850! The people who made the Banana Phone did so for a number of reasons. One, they have a strange sense of humor about Rafi’s song “Banana Phone” from 1994. In the early 2000s, this song was the source of hundreds of memes. Their product, a Bluetooth-enabled phone handset that connects to your smartphone, is a tribute to both the song and the memes. The “Fruit Tech revolution” began with the Banana Phone, a yellow cellphone and speaker in the shape of a banana that connects to your smartphone through Bluetooth. You can talk to your friends through Siri or Google Assistant by pressing a button or giving voice commands.
Max is the president and CEO of Garrett Leather Corporation, which is the world’s largest privately owned distributor of high-quality Italian leather. Max used to be the vice president of sales. In that position, he was in charge of more than 50 independent sales reps, distributors, and showrooms around the world.
Charlie is in charge of technology for the company. He also made Loonskin Labs, which uses biomimicry to make fabrication machines, and Undu Wearables, which makes natural, reusable heat packs to treat pain in the lower abdomen and back. Charlie is now working on his PhD at the University of Toronto in Materials Science and Engineering.
Brian is in charge of Banana Phone. As a Senior Account Manager for Visa, his “day job” is to consult with Fortune 500 companies. He has worked in sales and marketing as well as designing and making products.
They put this product on the market for a certain reason. Max and Brian love gorillas a lot. They give 1% of all sales (there have been more than 4,000 sales in 21 countries so far) to an organization called Gearing Up 4 Gorillas that works to protect gorillas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Congolese mountain gorilla is in danger, so the boys will help in any way they can.
How much does the Banana Phone cost, and where can I get one?
The current price of this Banana phone, which is $39.99, is listed on both its website and Amazon. On March 12, 2022, well-known American actress Reese Witherspoon put up clips on Instagram in which she tried out the Banana Phone. “I bought different things from Instagram ads. Episode 1: Banana Phone, “she pointed out. The video that Reese Witherspoon made to promote this phone also got a lot of attention. 75% of the people who bought this phone on Amazon gave it 5 stars. Most reviewers have said good things about this phone.
What happened to Banana Phone?
Now, all three guys work at the firm part-time, but if a Shark gets involved, at least one of them will have to go full-time.
Who will rip it off?
Whether or not they make a deal will depend on how well they sell. The Sharks may have trouble with flat sales. From what we’ve learned, their crowdfunding campaign in 2017 was a big deal, but there hasn’t been much talk about them since then. One might think that sales peaked in 2017 and have been flat since then. The Sharks would not like that. At least until they went on “Shark Tank.” Robert Herjavec might invest if any other Shark does.
On Friday, September 30, 2022, at 8 pm ET, Season 14, Episode 2 of “Shark Tank” will air on ABC. Find out about new products like The Woobles, Banana Phone, Stealth Bros. & Co., and Turbo Trusser in the latest episode.
Did you miss an episode? Want to get caught up? Episodes can also be watched on demand and on Hulu the next day. On Amazon Prime Video and iTunes, you can also watch old seasons and episodes.
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