Danville Native Changes Musical Landscape With His Inventions

In less than three months, 26-year-old Jason Lucash, a Danville-born entrepreneur has managed to catch the attention of weathered Silicon Valley veterans, tech-savvy kids, and Time magazine.

 "It has been crazy," said the San Ramon Valley High graduate, of the last six months, who released two inventions in the last year.

Lucash's company, OrigAudio, designs audio products that might need to be seen to be believed.

With their main office based in Chicago, OrigAudio was founded just last February, yet the new company is galvanizing a presence around the world.

Lucash's latest invention, Rock It, launched at the beginning of 2010, can turn any hollow object into a speaker, by using the scientific transduction principle.

Rock It requires no external power source and is compatible with any device that has a standard 3.5 mm jack. One just needs to place the sticky end of the Rock It pad to almost any surface to hear a room fill with sound.

While music transducers, most commonly known as "music boxes," have been around for centuries, Lucash's Rock It aims to bridge modern technologies like cell phones and iPods, with a belief that anyone should be able to share music.

Priced at a reasonable $49.99, the invention has also started to appeal to less wealthy areas of the world.

Lucash said OrigAudio is doing exceptionally well in South Africa where over 40 million people, of a population of nearly 48 million, have cell phones, but many do not have electricity.

Speaking from Gainesville, Florida, the Univeristy of California, Davis graduate seemed surprisingly upbeat for someone who has been on a whirlwind press junket since TIME named his other OrigAudio product, Fold and Play, one of the "50 best inventions of 2009," at the beginning of this year.

Fold and Play was launched in August 2009. And Lucash said he sold over 90,000 Fold and Play speakers (which retail at $16) from November 2009 to February 2010.

Fold and Play speakers are made from eco-friendly recycled cardboard and are ideal for environmentally conscientious music aficionados.

When folded, the fashionable three-inch cubes become somewhat of a self-powered, origami (hence the name OrigAudio) one-watt listening station.

Initially, the design called for Fold and Play to be made of plastic, but Lucash insisted on going green.

"Eco is just so cool," he said. "All of the cardboard we use is from pizza boxes and stuff like that. Plastic will be here forever and when you think about all of the landfills already here…well, I just wanted it to be a totally green object." 

While media outlets like the "Today Show," "Fox Business News," Billboard and Parade, are quick to note the sleek design aesthetic and green-based materials of Lucash's products, his inspiration for Rock It and Fold and Play is rooted in his travels and love of music.

"I remember specific moments of my life when a song is played on the radio. Just the other day a song came on my shuffle and I was reminded of a really wonderful time I spent traveling and this one particular bar in South Carolina," he said.  "I have also been playing electric bass for over 16 years and that has also formed how I feel about music and its ability to be a shared universal experience."

A new OrigAudio item is slated to launch sometime in mid-April.

So what's Lucash's advice for young entrepreneurs:  Listen to your gut even if everyone tells you your idea will fail.