ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Seth Burgett tried out three different kinds of earbuds when he was training for a half Iron Man triathlon, but found all of them — even the custom-fitted ones — to be so painful that he developed headaches.
He knew that he couldn’t be alone and that many others probably shared his pain from portable music players and cellular headsets. So Burgett quit his job as a research and development manager at Bausch &Lomb to develop a product that was easier on the ear.
Two years later, his gamble appears to be paying off. It turns out his ears are not unique.
“People have consistently said, ‘I just thought I had weird ears,”’ Burgett said, adding that many of his customers have become fanatics after dealing for years with earbuds falling out or hurting.
Since September, his young business, Yurtopia, has sold tens of thousands of “Yurbuds” — custom-fitted, rubber-tipped caps that go over earbuds and sell for $20 a pair. They have been designed so they avoid the pain points in your ear, do not fall out when you run or move, and improve sound quality.
The success hasn’t just been in sales. Despite the recession, the company has managed to attract more than $2 million from investors. About $750,000 of that came from professors and classmates at Washington University’s Olin School of Business, where Burgett recently received a master of business administration.
Forbes also named Yurtopia the 9th most-promising U.S. company last year.
And Burgett and his partner, Rich Daniels, are still riding high from the buzz they created at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month where their booth drew long lines and the attention of major media outlets. Best Buy is now testing Yurbuds in 65 of its cell phone stores around the country and offering the product at www.bestbuy.com.
Revently, Yurtopia launched its iPhone application. Through the application or by going to www.yurbuds.com, a customer can send in a picture of his or her ear with a quarter next to it to provide scale. The company will then mail a pair of earbud tips out of one of six sizes that best fit that customer.
Yurtopia also hopes that Best Buy — or another big retailer, such as Apple Inc. — will pick up the product for their stores.
Housed with other start-up companies at the Center for Emerging Technologies in midtown St. Louis, Yurtopia now employs six people, five interns and several part-time workers.
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