About Think Radio
The “How did we get here?” story.
Think Radio.
It was going to be about stage-lighting-controlled light-up LED wristbands for live events.
It still is!
But not just yet.
When the bottom fell out of the live-event sector, Think Radio made an unplanned diversion towards the livestreaming sector. Now that live events are coming back, the Think Radio first product is about a “lighting rig in a lunch-box” concept of wireless, ambient & immersive lighting, equally suited to fast-to-set-up live events and the livestreaming sector.
What Think Radio is.
Think Radio is a bootstrapping company, where product development is financed through engineering services, and spinning out parts of the company’s core technology.
Think Radio does gadgets. After spending a lot of years in a lot of technology companies learning what makes a really great gadget.
Gadgets that needs no instruction manual.
Gadgets that are easy and fun to use.
Gadgets that do exactly what you hope they will do, do it easily, and are never frustrating to use.
Who am I?
I’m Dominik Ostrowski, founder of Think Radio. I’m a chartered engineer and electronics PhD (Imperial), with most of my career spent in technology start-up companies. Much of that has involved embedded systems, particularly in handheld electronic devices.
In recent years I’ve specialised in low-power/short-range radio communications, particularly Bluetooth and other proprietary radio systems that are becoming a central part of the “Internet of Things” (IoT).
Along the way I’ve worked in molecular biology, spent some years as a lecturer, and built an awful lot of prototypes.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominik-ostrowski-9b56249/
How did I get here?
I grew up in a family building company, I also part-trained as a traditional wooden boatbuilder. However my career started in designing and building ultra-specialised scientific research gear, at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB), in Cambridge UK.
After a PhD at Imperial, and through a fortuitous personal connection, I worked for Psion through the golden age of their groundbreaking Series 5 personal organisers (remember what we used before we had smartphones?). Psion were the kings of usability which paved the way for much of what came next. From there it’s been start-up companies (almost) all the way.
What Think Radio is today.
Most of my career experience being in start-up companies, including the CTO role. I’ve finally taken the plunge with Think Radio and getting to minimum-viable-product. I’m very motivated towards the business having strong ecological and social values.
Unicorns and Zebras
We know what unicorns are. They are those vanishingly rare companies that achieve extreme valuations, and that some investors relentlessly (and usually fruitlessly) search for the next example of.
So What’s a Zebra? To state the obvious, unlike unicorns, zebras are real.
Zebra companies are both black and white, they are profitable and they improve society. But they don’t sacrifice one for the other.
Zebras are also often some form of mutual, commonly with an employee-owned, co-operative type company structure. And, like real zebras, they want to band together in groups, and protect and preserve one another.
THINK RADIO STRIVES TO BE A ZEBRA
And, unsurprisingly, all its activities are considered in terms of their ecological and environmental impact. Be more Zebra!