Jason Lucash, co-founder of Costa Mesa, California-based supplier OrigAudio, has been named the Emerging Entrepreneur of 2012 by Entrepreneur Magazine. The Entrepreneur of the Year awards recognize the top small businesses in three categories: established, emerging and college-based companies.
“This to me is like winning the best actor awards at the academy awards,” Lucash said. “It simply doesn’t get any better than this.”
Lucash founded OrigAudio with business partner Mike Szymczak in 2009, after both met while working at JanSport. Using origami as inspiration, the two devoped their foldable speakers and began selling them on the company’s website. OrigAudio entered the promotional products after receiving an order for 50,000 units from the U.S. Marines, and have since been showcasing their products at trade shows across the country. Later that year, Time magazine named the company’s foldable speaker as one of the 50 best inventions in 2009, leading to OrigAudio selling out of its stock during that holiday season.
While the company’s products are now available in more than 5,000 stores nationwide, Lucash maintains that the premiums industry is one of their focal points. “The promo industry has been great for us and the response has been tremendous,” he explained. “Our stuff is so different and unique, distributors have been loving it because it’s got a huge wow factor that they can use in client meetings, or even getting in the door for the first time.”
OrigAudio has expanded its product line over the past several years, while continuing to focus on audio devices and other electronic accessories. “Our fully digital custom headphones have done extremely well for lots of catalog programs, company stores and GWP programs,” Lucash said. The company’s top-selling product, a device called Rock-It that can turn any object into a speaker, has sold more than 750,000 and remains popular with end-buyers.
In addition to his role with OrigAudio, Lucash has appeared on ABC’s “Shark Tank” and has spoken at universities around the country. The company’s business remains his top priority, and he had high expectations for the year to come. “2013 will be our best year yet as we continue to come out with new products that will continue to turn heads in the promotional product community,” he said.
