Bouncy Balls… With Music! A Very ODD Pitch On Dragons’ Den
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George Taylor
- 7th February 2022
- 7 minute read
AS SEEN ON DRAGONS’ DEN: ODD Ball is a musical device that harnesses the power of music to inspire children and adults through music, play, learning and therapy.
Put simply, ODD Ball turns ball-bounces into music.
The device is an innovative, playful musical instrument: connect it to the app, and tap into a vast array of sounds (including percussion, keys, guitars, and more). Jam to your favourite artists using Spotify or Apple Music. Record and create tracks. Sample your voice and play it, AND last but not least, share your creations with your friends.
Although ODD was set-up in December 2017, it took a while for Nathan Webb and Pasquale Totaro to develop and finalise the product, and therefore, trading and sales officially began in November 2020. Three years in the making, the product is visually playful, and it’s sonically masterful, with a swift, enthusiastic uptake – that has sparked the public’s imagination.
Peter Jones and Steven Bartlett were the first to eagerly show off their skills, with a scintillating, debut ODD performance. But beyond the visual spectacle of the product, there is also a robust business model that the Founders were keen to show the Dragons:
“We are extremely ambitious, and we see a fantastic opportunity for ODD to become a household name. Beyond ODD Ball, we have an exciting roadmap of products and services that all have their routes in the same base principals as ODD Ball: making music playful. In order to take the business to the next level, we were looking for investment partners who are inspired by our business idea,” said one of ODD’s Founders, Pasquale Totaro.
“We entered the Den because there are a lot of really smart heads on the panel, and we thought of it as a perfect platform to road-test the appetite for what we are doing,” he added.
“There are lots of music tech products out there, but with ODD, we’re doing something very different,” said ODD’s other Founder, Nathan Webb.
“We identify deeply seated behaviours, and we tap into these to create new, intuitive interactions. Everybody instinctively knows that when you bounce a ball, you have a sonic feedback, and with ODD Ball, we augment that feedback into delightful consequences. But ODD is about MORE than just delight. It’s about inspiring the next generation of musicians,” added Nathan.
And 2022 looks as though it’s going to be an exciting year ahead for ODD.
After their appearance on Dragons Den, Nathan and Pasquale launched ‘ODD Sounds’ (a place where you can download as many sounds and sound libraries as you want to play on your ODD ball). Also, they moved forward on exciting new product developments, AND they developed a mouth-watering ‘Version 2’ of their supporting app, – unlocking a whole suite of new features for ODD enthusiasts.
Nathan Webb and Pasquale Totaro met at the Royal College of Art. Whilst studying Product Design there, they discovered a mutual passion for making objects that spark people’s imaginations. Nathan is a multi award-winning designer, with ten years experience in product design, UI design and visual communication. During his time, he has worked with some of the most disruptive companies on the market, including Uber, Apple, and the BBC.
Pasquale has a background in music, product design, and engineering. He studied Mechanical Engineering at MIT. He has worked as product designer in the iPad team at Apple, and with some of the most prominent companies on the planet, including Ferrari and Mercedes.
ODD are currently undertaking a general round of investment. They’re looking for more than one investor to join their team, – to propel their vision globally.
Find out more here: https://oddballism.com
