July 30, 2009

SlouchBack inventor
Londonderry native wants to make dorm life easier
By Heidi Masek hmasek@hippopress.com

After four years of college, Londonderry native Tyler Price knows plenty about hanging out in cramped dorm rooms. That’s why he and a former classmate developed the SlouchBack, a product that turns a bed into a couch. Price, 23, now of Boston, graduated from Londonderry High School in 2004 and from Roger Williams University in Rhode Island last year with a degree in journalism. The SlouchBack is on sale now — see SlouchBack.com. The company will ship directly to dorms.

Q: So what’s the SlouchBack all about?
We like to think of it as a solution to minimal amounts of living space in small quarters, namely college dormitories. My friends came up with an idea when we were freshmen. We were always at social gatherings, if you can call them that, in dorm rooms. At the end of the evening everybody ended up uncomfortably sitting on the beds. Futons, bean bag chairs ... are cumbersome and expensive. So this is kind of a solution to that. It’s an inflatable unit that can be stored between the bed and the wall. You simply plug it in, turn on the built-in pump, it inflates in 30 seconds. Then when you’re done entertaining, studying ... simply turn the pump to deflate, it deflates itself, and put it back. [It costs $99.99.]

When did it go from a nice idea to something you could make money off?
My senior year, Andrew, my business partner, and my friend Jeff entered a business class competition at the school. During that time, the business school caught wind of the idea and entered it in a Rhode Island state business competition. At that point, they enlisted my services and we started working together. We researched the competition. It didn’t win, but at that point, we started recognizing the idea that this is something that people could use and have interest in.

A group of you went on a tour of a few colleges to get feedback. What did you learn during the tour?
That was great, we had a great time. The three of us took to the college campuses, some were scheduled, others we just showed up and tried to interact as best we could. We dropped off 75 units over five schools in the Northeast. We gave them to the students and asked them to test it out for the last two months. We administered surveys through Facebook. We generated a bunch of knowledge about the product, changes we needed to make, people’s perceptions. We used that to adjust the product itself. Before, it was just a prototype. The one that’s on sale now is about six inches wider on each side and a little thinner to create more seating area. The most important part: we added cup holders. That’s been a huge hit as well so far.

Obviously this fits in dorm rooms, but do you have other living scenarios where the product could fit?
The logical thing is boarding schools, summer camps that have similar dormitory-style living. But also small apartments. I’m living in Boston now and a lot of times when we’re in apartments, there’s not that much seating area. It’s great to just simply place on the ground for a movie night. I use it in my bedroom now to do work. It’s not limited to a dorm room. It works in pretty much any small living area. You could have a story night at the end of the night with mom. We really feel like it can be an asset to any living situation.

How is business?
We just launched sales July 1 so we’ve had good early success. We’re really pushing the back-to-school theme. We want to be involved with that. But also, students will recognize its use once they’re in school. The business is growing every day.

Thinking back, how important was experiencing the dorm room environment?
I guess invaluable is kind of a strong word. It’s almost, you learn so much about how you interact with people, what people you want to surround yourself with. Our experience allowed for this idea to grow out of this. This doesn’t happen for everybody. I was randomly paired my freshman year with a roommate and I still work with him every day. It can be great.

Any plans for supplementary or additional products in the future?
Absolutely. One of our big things with Slouch, LLC, we wanted to start producing simple space-saving solutions for all aspects of dorm living. SlouchBack is the first product, but we’re not limiting it to that. We’re already in the process of developing our next product. We do really want to stay connected with academic communities. We want to stay connected, so when things change, we’ll be ready. — Jeff Mucciarone