Entrepreneurs Spotlight – The Face of Innovation

By Grace Ellis

As the popularity of AM/FM radio slowly wanes, listeners crave the music and broadcasts they want without the hassle of commercial interruptions. Internet radio is a solution to the consumer dilemma of instant streaming, however, even Internet audio streams have issues of accessibility by tying the listener to a computer. In response to these problems, Jake Sigal, CEO of Livio Radio, simply has made Internet radio more available to consumers.

By founding Livio Radio in 2008, Jake Sigal has already established himself as an innovator and a visionary at the age of 28. He has launched over 20 successful products in to the market and is a member of CEA’s Small Business Council. Prior to starting Livio, Sigal invented the original USB turntable, the first product designed to facilitate the conversion of vinyl records to CD or MP3 format. He is also listed as a co-inventor of the iDJ, an iPod-based mixing console.

Livio Radio lets users listen to NPR® and Pandora® in the home and they also have launched an iPhone application to make it easy to listen to Internet radio stations in the vehicle.

Why did you choose to focus your business around Internet streaming radios?

My focus has been for music and engineering/technology − it’s in my blood. I worked through college as a nightclub DJ using vinyl and was the section leader of the OU 110 drumline. My first job after school was working to help bring vinyl into the computer for DJs. Then I took vinyl to CDs and iPods for my boomer parents through the USB Turntable I invented. Then I worked on satellite radio for the car. Internet radio is the latest "hot thing." Today we make Internet radios for the home and a Livio iPhone application for the car. Who know’s what we’ll be using in 10 years for audio but I know I’ll be involved.

Your company has landed impressive partnerships with Pandora and NPR. How has working with other well established brands helped your business?

Pandora is the greatest music service in the world. Period. It’s an honor to work with them. The NPR content and the staff at NPR are the real reason for the success of The NPR Radio by Livio. For both radios we developed the features and menus with Pandora and NPR employees. It has also been awesome to have both companies include us in their photo shoots, websites, blogs, and press interviews. For an (at the time) 26-year-old starting a new company, that’s huge!

The Livio Car Internet Radio app for the iPhone was just launched last week. How do you see this changing the way people interact with music?

Pandora has changed everything with 2-way personal communication with a music service. Our app complements Pandora with live and local radio stations from around the world. Think of our app as the world’s largest FM/AM antenna for your car. We’re not the first company to create an Internet radio station with RadioTime for the iPhone. However the fact that our app is designed for use in the car and we are working with automakers and the aftermarket is a game changer for adding 42,000 live and local streams to your in-car radio.

What is the one piece of advice for starting a business that you would like to share with entrepreneurs?

Find a solution for a problem, not a problem for a solution.

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This entry was posted on Monday, July 19th, 2010 at 9:38 am and is filed under In Vehicle Electronics, Innovation Movement. Reply to this post, or trackback from your own site. Follow responses to this entry through the comments RSS feed.