Matt Younkle is the Inventor of the TurboTap beer dispensing technology that pours beer up to 4 times faster than conventional taps and wastes less due to reduced over-foaming and spillage. Many stadiums across the US use the technology including Wrigley Field, White Sox Stadium & many more.
It was Popular Science – Top Product of the Year and TIME Magazine Best Inventions of the Year.
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The idea of TurboTap stemmed from waiting in long lines for beer at the Memorial Union at University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Matt also cofounded Murfie which takes your CDs off your hands, digitizes your collection so you can access in the cloud and recycles the plastic case.
What will you learn in this interview?
-How did he come into the creation of TurboTap?
-What were the challenges of creating the actual product?
-Did they test the product on other liquids besides beer?
-What were the different routes he has taken business-wise?
-Has he ever had any product failures along the way?
-What happened when he first tried to launch TurboTap?
-What motivated him to continue work on TurboTap?
-What is the best advice he gives entrepreneurs?
-What are the toughest parts of his business?
-What makes buying music via Murfie different from purchasing on other music sites?
-What is the best advice he has received from his mentor?
FUN FACT:
He was on a team that created the technology behind the first food to be grown in outer space.
Business Mentors, Tools, Books mentioned:
Thomas Edison – American inventor and businessman
Richard Schoofs – Inventor and entrepreneur
A little background about Matthew Younkle:
Matt Younkle is an inventor with an eye for business. His product development work has spanned a wide range of industries: from space research, to networking software, to draft beer. Matt’s successes have resulted in the first food to ever be grown in space and the world’s fastest retrofittable beer tap. His projects have been featured in USA Today, Popular Science, The Wall Street Journal, TIME Magazine, CNN, CNBC, FOX News, Chicago Sun Times, the New York Times, National Public Radio and the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Matt is requested speaker on topics of innovation, intellectual property, patents and the commercialization of new products.
Matt is the founder of Laminar Technologies, LLC and developer of TurboTap, a line of beer dispensing products. Laminar was a 2005 winner of the Chicago Innovation Awards, and TurboTap was named a top invention by both Popular Science and TIME Magazine.
Matt’s latest venture, murfie.com, is a social music marketplace that represents a new way to buy, sell and trade digital music. Matt is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison with degrees in computer science and electrical engineering. He has been awarded thirteen US and international patents.
A little info about TurboTap:
TurboTap is draft beers’ only Rapid Dispense Retrofit. Installed on your draft system in minutes, the TurboTap quenches beer-thirsty crowds up to 4 times faster than a conventional tap. Each pint or pitcher is delivered with a perfect, profit-boosting, flavor-enhancing collar of foam. And it only takes about one minute of training to be able use it.
A little information about Murfie:
Murfie was founded in May 2011, by Matt Younkle and Preston Austin. Younkle’s product development achievements include the first food ever to be grown in space and Turbo Tap, the world’s fastest retrofittable beer tap. Austin brings to the table over two decades of experience in emerging technology.
In January 2012, Murfie closed a funding round of $1.4 million, which gives us a solid foundation to forge ahead with new phases of development. The funds will help us scale up our technical and operational infrastructure as well as sharpen up our marketing initiatives. There are nearly 2 million businesses created in the United States every year, and only 600 to 800 get venture capital funding.
Murfie has the distinction of being one of 13 companies chosen from hundreds of applicants for TechStars, a program considered to be the top startup accelerator in the world. Murfie has been featured on National Public Radio’s “All Tech Considered,” in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Green Blog, PC World, as well as received mentions in Fast Company, Springwise and Daily Disruption.
There’s a ton of other awesome features that make Murfie the best place to buy music.
For starters, you can:
Stream your CD and vinyl collection in lossless format on Sonos and VOCO devices
Un-purchase any album you buy within 24 hours for full credit back to your account
Sell your CDs and vinyl records in a personal shop
Trade albums with other members
Add albums to your Wishlist, choose a price, and select Autobuy to have us automatically buy it for you when it becomes available
The Murfie universe currently has over 12,000 members with an inventory of 500,000 discs. Every CD and vinyl record in our warehouse belongs to a Murfie member, which makes our operation extra special. When you buy another member’s CD or vinyl record, or see a collection, there’s a person behind it, and we think that’s pretty cool.
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