Paul King and Hercules Networks' ACM.
Regular ATMs charge you a buck or two for convenient access to cash.
But this machine gives you a charge — for your cellphone.
When Paul King was a senior at Carnegie Mellon, his cell phone died while he was driving to see a friend. As he drove past ATMs outside shops, he remembers thinking, “People can get cash anywhere they want, but they can’t charge their phone anywhere.” So after graduating with a degree in psychology in 2005, King considered starting a business to make and sell standalone charging machines for mobile devices….
The result is a machine that can charge any mobile device in about 10 minutes. It includes a TV screen positioned at eye level that plays a 10-minute loop of ads (advertisers include Bank of America (BAC), Cadillac, and AT&T (T)) and content (the content comes from a partnership with CBS (CBS)). The business makes money selling advertising and by leasing the machines to companies looking to attract crowds to their booths at conventions.
King’s company, Hercules Networks, is just getting going, but it’s already a finalist in Business Week’s “Best Young Entrepreneurs” contest. For anyone who has ever dealt with switching cellphones, what makes the product truly impressive is that it works with nearly every kind of phone, regardless of what unique connector each company uses. His target market is conventions and airports, where people simultaneously need their phones, use them heavily, and don’t always have a convenient or fast way to recharge them.
