Success Stories
“I wouldn't be an entrepreneur if it wasn't for Stars of Science. The show was a stepping stone in my career. I learned many things but the most important one was how to think like an entrepreneur and the realization that I can design, develop, and get a product to the international market if I set my mind to it,” noted Bassam Jalgha, Stars of Science season 1 winner.
Project & Impact
Bassam sought to ease the path for millions of music lovers through his auto-tune device for string instruments, Roadie Tuner; an automatic tuner for stringed musical instruments such as classical, bass, electric, acoustic guitars, banjo, mandolin, and ukulele. Bassam quickly secured a U.S. patent after he won the first season of Stars of Science in 2009, and a few years later, he decided to focus on his innovation, co-founding Band Industries with his friend Hassane Slaibi.
The Aftermath of SoS
Before embarking on his entrepreneurial journey, Bassam, along with other technology enthusiasts, founded Lamba Labs Beirut Hackerspace, the first hackerspace in Lebanon and one of the first in the Arab world. This hackerspace serves as a community hub where individuals from diverse disciplines—such as arts, graphics, computer science, and engineering—come together to share tools and knowledge. Since its inception in August 2012, Lamba Labs has hosted 40 workshops and organized special Build Nights, where large groups collaborate on various projects.
In 2013, Bassam left his teaching position at the American University of Beirut to further develop his invention. Not long after, he started his own company, Band Industries, with long-time friend Hassane Slaibi. Together they launched the first crowdfunding campaign, which raised USD 180,000 and allowed them to hit the international market. His admission into the famous HAX accelerator program in China (the world’s first and largest) intertwined with countless days and nights of hard work was just the beginning for Bassam.
Three rounds of crowdfunding later, Bassam launched the next versions of Roadie Tuner: Roadie 2, Roadie Bass, and Roadie 3. The newer versions featured improvements based on customer feedback. To date, over 100,000 units have been shipped to more than 55 countries worldwide, demonstrating the product’s widespread acclaim and the robust support from the music industry.
A big reward for Bassam has been the experience he’s gained managing a blossoming company. He’s beefed up his hardware development team, taken on interns, and learned how to handle a multinational business. In recent years, they have focused on music education by building Roadie Coach, the next-generation education tool that uses state-of-the-art signal processing and AI to identify students' musical performance progress and practice habits. They launched Roadie Coach in 2023 as a hardware product and mobile app to help beginning musicians learn, record, and practice their music.
Throughout his journey, Bassam participated in several talks, he also won the Techcrunch Disrupt NY Audience Choice ( 2014) as well as the London Design Award for Roadie Tuner. For future plans, Bassam is working on further developing Roadie Coach and other innovative solutions in the musical technology field.
Bassam in the news
Bassam’s work has been featured on international websites, including hackaday.com, lifehacker.com and howtogeek.com, and appeared on the front page of instructables.com. For more information about his activities, please visit:
http://www.gizmag.com/roadie-guitar-tuner-review/35827/
http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/18/hands-on-with-the-amazing-roadie-tuner/
http://www.guitarworld.com/gear-review-roadie-automatic-guitar-tuner
http://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/review-the-roadie-tuner-1.2082550
http://www.cnet.com/news/roadie-tuner-turns-those-pesky-guitar-pegs-for-you/
http://thenextweb.com/gadgets/2013/11/26/roadie-smart-tuner-will-take-pain-tuning-guitar/
Follow Bassam
Insta, X, FB @ roadietuner
