In the second episode of season 14 of ABC’s “Shark Tank,” Charlie Katrycz, Max Brown and Brian Brunsing introduced the Sharks to their unusual device, the Banana Phone, in hopes of earning a life-changing investment from one of them.
Banana Phone is a Bluetooth device that allows you to give voice commands and answer calls. The company’s founders said they started the business for a unique reason. Since Banana Phone is such an interesting product, many people must be curious as to how it has performed since it was on the show. Let’s see where the business is right now, okay?
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, hails from Toronto, Ontario. Brian went to the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of California, Berkeley. He is also taking a blockchain technology course at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. Aside from co-founding Banana Phone LLC in May 2017, he has also had a very successful career. Brian has worked at Ecosystems as an energy efficiency and sustainability consultant.
Brian has also worked for VISA, a financial services company, for more than eight years. In 2012 he became a Technical Support Engineer for VISA. Brian took a brief hiatus to help found Banana Phone LLC but returned to VISA in 2018 and is now Sr. Director of E-Commerce and Digital Marketplaces. Max, meanwhile, earned his Bachelor of Science in business administration from the University of Colorado Boulder and then went to the Garrett Leather Corporation. He has been with the company for more than 14 years and is now President.
As its name suggests, the Banana Phone is shaped like a banana. It’s a Bluetooth-enabled device that connects to a smartphone and allows the user to give voice commands, play music, answer calls or even access the contact list. Banana Phone could also appeal to people’s nostalgia as it looks a lot like cordless phones that are no longer used. According to the founders, the idea for the product came from Raffi’s song “Bananaphone” and the many memes that arose from it. First it should be a fun toy for people to play with.
Max, Brian and Charlie are big gorilla fans and worry about how quickly the species will become extinct. This is another part of their business. So in 2017 they founded Banana Phone LLC and soon after teamed up with Gearing Up 4 Gorillas to donate up to 1% of their sales to the non-profit organization. Though bananas and gorillas are connected, Gearing Up 4 Gorillas protects endangered species in Congo’s Virunga National Park, and the founders are happy to donate to a cause they believe in.
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What happened to Banana Phone?
Max, Brian and Charlie decided to start their company with crowdfunding in 2017. They launched a campaign on Indie Go-Go that raised 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 grab the attention of younger people. Although the device hasn’t changed much since its launch, the creators have made sure that it will work with any smartphone that has Bluetooth.
At the moment, interested customers can find the Banana Phone on Amazon and on the company’s official website. Banana Phone has also been featured on popular YouTube channels like Unbox Therapy and has been written about in many quality magazines and websites. Although it’s a fun gadget, most people care about rescuing gorillas, so the company is likely to grow in the future.
LOS ANGELES, CA: Telephones are very popular. It’s important to keep in touch with everyone in your area. The Banana Phone is a strange and interesting device to buy. In the 14th season of the popular ABC business show “Shark Tank” the Bluetooth mobile phone is shown.
In Shark Tank Season 14 Episode 2, Brian Bruning and Max Brown introduced the Banana Phone business. Read on to find out more about this amazing device that’s about to be featured on the show because the company that makes it needs Shark’s help to get some money to keep it growing.
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What is banana phone?
The Banana Phone is basically a new breed of cordless phone. You can use it to make phone calls while speaking directly into the “banana”. The phone can connect to Bluetooth speakers and devices such as Google, Siri, Alexa, Android and iPhone. The phone is made from 100% recycled ABS and the packaging it comes in is made from 100% recycled cardboard and can also be recycled. It can be charged again and again because it has a micro USB cable and a lithium battery. A phone can talk for 10 hours and remain idle for 70 hours on a single charge. The phone’s Qualcomm chipset is made of materials not sourced from areas where violence reigns.
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 via Bluetooth, then use the phone’s voice assistant to make or receive calls, play music and check the weather. The user manual talks about other functions. You can answer a call by pressing the home button. Siri can be instructed to make a call by speaking to it. Users need to press the multi-function button to play their favorite music.
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Who founded the group?
In 2017, Max Brown, Charlie Katrycz and Brian Brunsing founded a company called Banana Phone LLC. They have been friends for many years. Or at least when they were campers and canoe 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. First, they have an odd sense of humor regarding Rafi’s 1994 song “Banana Phone.” In the early 2000s, this song was the source of hundreds of memes. Their product, a Bluetooth-enabled phone that connects to your smartphone, pays homage to the song and the memes. The Fruit Tech Revolution started with the Banana Phone, a yellow banana-shaped mobile phone and speaker that connects to your smartphone via Bluetooth. You can talk to your friends via Siri or Google Assistant by pressing a button or using voice commands.
Max is President and CEO of Garrett Leather Corporation, the world’s largest privately held retailer of premium Italian leather. Max was formerly Vice President of Sales. In this position he was responsible for more than 50 independent sales representatives, distributors and showrooms around the world.
Charlie is responsible for the company’s technology. He also made Loonskin Labs, which uses biomimicry to create manufacturing machines, and Undu Wearables, which makes natural, reusable heat packs to treat lower abdominal and back pain. Charlie is now working on his PhD at the University of Toronto in Materials Science and Engineering.
Brian is responsible for Banana Phone. As a Senior Account Manager for Visa, his “job of the day” is advising Fortune 500 companies. He has worked in sales and marketing, product development and manufacturing.
They launched this product for a reason. Max and Brian love gorillas very much. They give 1% of all sales (there have been over 4,000 sales in 21 countries so far) to an organization called Gearing Up 4 Gorillas, which works to protect gorillas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Congolese mountain gorilla is in danger, so the boys help where they can.
How much does the Banana Phone cost and where can I get it?
The current price of this Banana phone which is $39.99 is listed on both its website and Amazon. On March 12, 2022, popular American actress Reese Witherspoon Instagrammed clips of her trying out the Banana Phone. “I bought various things through Instagram ads. Episode 1: Banana Phone,” she pointed out. The video Reese Witherspoon made to promote this phone has also garnered a lot of attention. 75% of people who bought this phone on Amazon gave it 5 stars. Most of the reviewers have said positive things about this phone.
What happened to Banana Phone?
Now all three guys work part-time at the company, but if a shark gets involved, at least one of them has to go full-time.
Who’s gonna tear it down?
Whether or not they do business depends on how well they sell. The Sharks may have problems with home sales. From what we’ve learned, her crowdfunding campaign was a big deal back in 2017, but not much has been talked about since. You’d think sales peaked in 2017 and have stagnated ever since. The sharks wouldn’t like that. At least until they moved on to Shark Tank. Robert Herjavec could invest when every other Shark does.
Season 14, Episode 2 of “Shark Tank” will air on ABC on Friday, September 30, 2022 at 8 p.m. ET. Catch up on new products like The Woobles, Banana Phone, Stealth Bros. & Co. and Turbo Trusser in the latest episode.
Did you miss an episode? Do you want to be caught? Episodes can also be viewed on-demand and next-day on Hulu. You can also watch past seasons and episodes on Amazon Prime Video and iTunes.
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