Small device creating big profits for local startup
EL DORADO HILLS - A local start-up is hitting it big with a product born from the pandemic. It's called MuteMe. As video conferencing continues to be the norm, the device helps you know whether you are muted.
Parm Dhoot, one of MuteMe's co-founders, says the idea originated from his frustration with the "mute" function on video conference calls. He noticed a growing number of people struggling to know if they were muted or not.
"Every single day someone would have a problem with their mute button and that's true pretty much everywhere," Dhoot said.
He came up with a device that connects to your computer and lights up green when the microphone is live. It only took a few months on Kickstarter to become one of the hottest tech devices on the market.
It started as a simple mute function on a computer. Since then, the device works on all of the major video conferencing platforms like Zoom, Skype, Google, Teams.
"We've been shipping the product for about 12 months. In that timeframe, we've made roughly $1.2 million in sales. So, not bad for a little company running out of a garage at home still," Dhoot said.
As of today, they have sold more than 30,000 devices. They are also being sold in over 1,000 Staples stores across the country.