An internship experience led a student to start his own company with a product and a mission filled with passion.
Joshua Fairbairn arrived in Guangzhou, China, with $500 and not knowing a soul. After making use of social networks and connections he found nine contacts that wanted his help with various services from product development to quality control.
“Creating for others was not fulfilling my passion,” Fairbairn said. “I used these experiences to help me learn exactly how to take an idea to creation to market. My passion is listening to music. What better way to follow my dreams than to create a stand-out pair of headphones? And from that was born HeadCase Sound.”
The company has since partnered with five charities that are matched to a specific color of headphone. $10 from every set of headphones goes to the charity the consumer chooses via its color choice.
Fairbairn’s vision for HeadCase Sound was molded and perfected by an African proverb shared with him by Eugene Cho, Founder of One Day’s Wages, an organization striving to eliminate global poverty.
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together,” Cho said.
“As global citizens we knew that we wanted to contribute back to society and create generational change,” Fairbairn said. “We came up with the idea when we realized that music has brought people together since the beginning of time. I know that by harnessing the power of sound and putting it into five sexy matte colored headphone models we will start a movement that is more than music. We have teamed up with five notable charities because together we can raise the awareness required to help make a dent in a world that needs help.”
Fairburn lives by a quote his partner, Elyakim Samuel, likes to recite: “The world is your canvas, so leave your mark.”
Taking notes from his role model, Richard Branson, and the experiences he was afforded through BYU Kennedy Center’s individual experience internship, Fairbairn is hard at work making his dream of having university students across the nation unite to one cause come true.
“We want to create momentum amongst the youth of the nation,” Fairburn said. “By creating a team of Global Citizens we will be able to create a snowball effect and make this thing bigger than any of us can imagine. I would highly recommend to explore through similar opportunities (his individual internship experience) to every student on BYU’s campus. Professors look forward to working with motivated students and love to see us taking the initiative to accomplish big things in the world.”
HeadCase Sound accepts donations, shares and comments on social networks, as well as the purchase of its product to further its global awareness mission. The headphones range from $50 for a single pair to a $3,000 supply reserved for interested stores and boutiques. One hundred units of each product are now being sold at a discounted rate on the company website, www.indiegogo.com/headcasesound.
