The Problem
A while back on the internet I saw a picture of a young woman in tears at a restaurant table. She wasn’t on a date, she was surrounded by family. After reading the post it was clear the tears were indeed happy, not sad. For the first time in her seventeen years of living this girl was given a menu she could read; in braille.
Braigo Labs
Braigo Labs is a company which provides low cost blue tooth and internet equipped braille printers to help the visually impaired. Their goal is to help 50 million of the worlds population accomplish a task most of us take for granted. Being able to read independently is a struggle for the visually impaired. Typical braille printers cost around three thousand dollars. Braigo Labs product is sold for 82% less than competitors.
Founder
Braigo Labs is one of the most impressive entrepreneurial endeavors in existence. Its impressiveness is compounded by the age of the founder and its creation story. Shubham Banerjee is 14 years old. Braigo Labs primitive version was built with Lego Mindstorms EV3. The inspiration struck while brainstorming ideas for a seventh grade science fair project. Banjeree is not alone in his journey, as many teachers and mentors are encouraging and helping make the second version of the printer possible. Banjeree says the best advice they’ve supplied is; “Be humble,” and “Innovate for the right reasons — money is not one of them.”
Learning that there are about 50 million people that are not able to read because of an impairment to their vision is incredibly sad. This Bluetooth product is a very innovative product at a very cheap price compared to its competitors. Braigo labs could definitely charge more and make more money than they are but realize that it is more important to allow these visually impaired people to be able to read which most of us take for granted
This is a great business idea, and an excellent way to serve a community that is not as well reached. People who are visually impaired can have a pretty hard life, especially without many of the conveniences seeing people have and take for granted. It is great to see people and companies noticing the issues and trying to help them. Also, from a business standpoint, it is more of a niche market, but it is still a market that has not been reached as well as it could have in the past, and there is plenty of opportunity for growth in that industry.