By Carolyn Gray Anderson
“Break up with your chair,” declare the inventors of the Readydesk standing workstation. “Sitting too much hurts you physically, mentally and emotionally.”
If more and more people are joining the “stand-up revolution,” it may be because the hazards of a sedentary work day include not just poor posture and reduced metabolism, but also a tendency to poor mental health and social skills and even cancers. But the “cure,” manifest in the trend in standing workstations, has seen a slew of complicated and expensive options that replace rather than work with the furniture you already have.
The Readydesk, with its more-than-40 height combinations designed to ergonomically fit people 5’3” to 6’3”, may change the game as the most affordable answer to the increasing demand for standing workstations, priced at a comparatively low $169 and built in the USA. It’s one of the first standing desks to provide two independently adjustable shelves — one for monitors, and one for a keyboard and mouse — and it holds 10 times its own weight, according to entrepreneurs Ben Larson (FEMBA ’13) and Joe Nafziger. Light and portable, the six separate pieces are assembled without tools.
“Using the Readydesk at your home or office says to the world, ‘I won't let The Man keep me sitting down!’”
It’s an earnest slogan from two earnest guys with a Kickstarter campaign.
Ben Larson (FEMBA ’13) and Joe Nafziger grew up together on neighboring Midwestern farms. They trained side by side in boot camp for the Illinois Air National Guard, funding college degrees through their service. And then they migrated to California a decade ago to embark on their careers.
“Both of us have had to work since we were old enough to pick up sticks or push a lawn mower,” says Larson. “A broad range of life experiences since then have equipped me with a strong work ethic and a willingness to take the road less traveled.”
In 2009, that road took Larson on a six-month stint as an adventure travel guide. He worked in tech and entertainment before enrolling at Anderson in 2010. He later interned with and then worked full-time at Electronic Arts. He has been worldwide communication strategy manager at Hewlett-Packard since July 2013 and just finished working on the launch of Sprout by HP, the company’s first “immersive” computer — a large touch-enabled flat screen with an overhead projector that doubles as a 3-D scanner.
After college in Illinois, Nafziger juggled selling cars and playing in a band with getting some advertising training, eventually landing freelance copy writing assignments that led to full-time jobs, and winding up at the San Diego-based integrated marketing company i.d.e.a. as associate creative director.
Their latest venture is the business collaboration they funded through Kickstarter. Nafziger — who has what Larson calls “an inclination toward mechanical function and visual solutions” — built a crude version of a standing workstation. Larson, then earning his MBA, recognized a marketable product. “I was sitting in classes listening to successful entrepreneurs speak, watching classmates start businesses,” Larson says. “And then I see my buddy Joe has built this crazy stand-up desk. So I call him and say, ‘I think we can sell this thing.’”
Thus was launched the Readydesk, simple as that.
Not quite, says Larson. “Neither of us have product design experience. We hired multiple industrial engineers from Craigslist. We got feedback from all of our friends. We built the prototypes ourselves. We did market tests with follow up surveys. Joe has a good eye for functional design even though he has no training. That helped. Also, Joe’s advertising background and copywriting skills helped us develop really compelling communications, which goes a long way on Kickstarter.”
The witty campaign features Larson and Nafziger dead-panning about the “dinosaur parts” you’re likely to develop by sitting at a non-ergonomic workstation: stunted “T-rex arms” from working at a keyboard that sits too high or “brontosaurus neck” from hunching over your monitor.
Having pledged to raise $18,900 on Kickstarter by December 5, they managed more than $30,000 before the deadline. The funding will buy product materials and pay for larger scale manufacturing, which Larson and Nafziger plan to keep local in San Diego. “We could lower our expenses by going across the border, but we will continue to support American manufacturing,” they promise. And if better fitness is one of your New Year’s resolutions in 2015, your Readydesk can ship in January.
So, how are they making this look so easy?
“One of the lessons that really stuck with me from my Entrepreneurship and Venture Initiation class is that succeeding in a new venture is 1 percent idea, 99 percent execution,” says Larson. “Anderson taught me the importance of that 99 percent and gave me the skill set to get it right. It’s been a lot of fun seeing a little bit of everything I studied — supply chain, operations, marketing, finance — all coming into play in the course of setting up a business. It’s on a small scale, but it’s really cool to have that end-to-end view and to have the knowledge set to make informed decisions in all areas.
“I was motivated to earn an MBA first and foremost because I wanted to become a successful entrepreneur,” he says. “Anderson taught me the importance of making a minimum viable product and getting market feedback. Maybe the biggest asset Anderson gave me was the confidence to just get out and do it.”
As for what’s next for Larson and Nafziger, they plan to grow the “Ready” brand into new products that include add-ons and accessories for the Readydesk (cup holders, cable management, standing pads), but they’re also looking at how they can provide a certain “readiness” in other areas of life where people need help. “Our company exists to improve people’s lives by designing products that allow them to work in healthier ways, and to be ready for whatever life throws at them,” says Larson. “We believe that by helping people make small adjustments to their daily habits, we can improve their performance and increase their happiness and sense of well-being.”
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