From Drummer to Tech Innovator
The Inspiring Journey of Willis Desai and the Haptique RS90
“An AV systems integrator from Ahmedabad is today a proud entrepreneur whose product – Haptique RS90, a universal remote hub for smart homes – is ready to hit the global market. Wilis’ journey has been far from smooth, and he had to move to France to raise money and launch his product. He speaks to AV Today about the hurdles he faced and how he managed to get around them.”
Willis Desai has always had a penchant for music and technology. He started his journey as a teen drummer in his church choir, dreaming of becoming a professional musician. By 2008, he was playing for garba events and local functions, earning a few hundred rupees.
Willis kept learning – the fundamentals of Indian and Western classical music and how to use technology in music and in 2009, he became a professional drummer, a music conductor, and a recording artist.
His day job at Yamaha AV Square in Ahmedabad involved selling musical instruments and handling pro audio equipment, Yamaha mixers and studio monitors. On weekends, he dabbled in music production, mixing, and mastering for local studios. All this sparked a lifelong interest in audio engineering.
Willis’s ability to address customers’ audio needs led him to join a local system integrator in 2012, where he designed AV systems. A severe accident and bouts of typhoid later, he worked with Qubix Technologies in Bangalore, honing his skills there before returning to Gujarat.
The Birth of Cantata
In 2013, Willis’s entrepreneurial spirit led him to establish Cantata Communication Solutions, an AV consulting and system integration company. Starting with just two people (they are now 17 strong), Cantata focused on turnkey projects ranging from discotheques to corporate offices. Willis also developed a deep understanding of acoustics, learning how sound travelled without modern sound systems in ancient churches.
Cantata was soon considered the best system integrator in Gujarat, delivering high end projects for Reliance Industries, Adani Shantigram, Gujarat Tourism, Red Cross, various Municipal Corporations and others. Willis won a large project to redesign the sound and light show for Jallianwala Bagh’s 100th anniversary, employing cutting edge technology for an unparalleled audiovisual experience.
By now, Willis and his team excelled in audio, visual, lighting acoustics and control systems. Armed with this expertise, he came up with an idea for developing a product for home entertainment in 2022. He set up a proof of concept (POC) for Haptique.
The Haptique RS90: A Game-Changer in Smart Home Technology
Around this time, Logitech discontinued its Harmony remote, leaving a gap in the market that Willis wanted to capitalise on. “Why not replace Logitech Harmony?” he thought. World over, remotes were giving way to voice assistants, but there was still a market for a single universal remote that was simple, affordable, and could connect with legacy devices as well as futuristic technology, he believed. This led to the conceptualisation of Haptique RS90, a universal remote controller that could seamlessly integrate legacy devices and modern smart technology using the familiar Android platform.
Turning this into reality however, was challenging. It was difficult to get the necessary funding in India. Willis also understood the market enough to realise that a universal remote controller would be better accepted and adopted in the western world than in India.
A chance visit to France changed Willis’ fortunes. He discovered the La French Tech visa program, a multi-year residence permit for foreign entrepreneurs, investors, and employees in the tech and innovation sectors and registered for it.
Applicants had to have a good concept which would be approved by one of the 15 listed Government consultants, called incubators.
Only three of the incubators showed any interest in IoT as a technology. One got back to him after seeing his 3D model and detailed plan. Willis remotely collaborated with the company for three months for a fee of 600 dollars a month. With his product officially “under incubation”, he applied to the French government for a visa. He had to fill in a detailed government questionnaire, explaining why he chose France, how it would benefit the country, whether he could make the cultural shift and his knowledge of France’s geography and economy.
Finally he got a free start-up visa for himself and his family. He set up his new company in France, with initial investment from India as ODI (Outward Direct Investment).
Willis’ software team in India included an IoT consultant, web developers, application developers and backend server developers.
The Haptique RS90 emerged as a sleek IoT device, intuitive remote capable of supporting over 7,000 major brands and platforms. It employs infrared, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth to control a wide array of smart home and entertainment systems, delivering a seamless user experience. The remote’s support for protocols like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Infrared ensures that it remains versatile and future-proof, adapting to the evolving landscape of smart technology.
The Haptique RS90 is more than just a remote. It embodies Willis’s vision of integrating physical buttons and digital technologies into a single, user-friendly platform, replacing the over dependency on smart phones in today’s modern smart home ecosystem and simplifying everyday life of users.
Crowdfunding Success and Future Plans
Funding was a major obstacle in Willis’s journey. He invested all he could raise personally into the initial hardware design and development. Further funding in India became a challenge — venture capital was limited and local investors were not interested in hardware start-ups.
He and his wife had poured in all their savings into setting up Cantata in France with an initial investment of 1.25 crore rupees. However producing a high-quality universal remote like the Haptique RS90 on a global scale would need additional funding.
Even in France, investment in hardware technology wasn’t forthcoming. Willis tried unsuccessfully for bank grants and loans. Willis began to explore alternative avenues to bring his product to market.
A B2B partner who was an RTI (Remote Technologies Incorporated) distributor was interested in the product. However, he wanted to see samples before committing any investment. This meant running a production batch of at least 200 units with an investment of Rs 35 lakh that Willis didn’t have.
Willis finally zeroed in on Kickstarter, a popular crowdfunding platform as a possible funding alternative.
The process needed meticulous planning and execution. The success of crowdfunding hinges on a 2 minute video campaign showcasing the idea on the platform. Creating video alone cost around Rs 20 lakh.
Being the resourceful person he is, Willis bought a camera, wrote his own script, and together with his wife, began to shooing in India. Using AI tools, he produced a high-quality video that effectively conveyed his vision for the Haptique RS90.
The next step was to reach and engage with the right audience. Fortunately, an Armenian company, The Crowdfunding Formula (TCF), which had watched the Kickstarted took an interest in the Haptique RS90. TCF provided invaluable insights and support, suggesting optimal campaign launch timing and social media buzz strategies.
The efforts paid off remarkably. The campaign exceeded its initial target of 9,000 Euros within twenty minutes. Within a month, it had raised over 300,000 Euros, with projections suggesting it could surpass 1 Million Euros by campaign end. This success not only validated Willis’s vision but also provided the financial backing needed to scale production and meet growing demand for the Haptique RS90.
The first batch of products should be ready soon and Willis has ambitious plans for the future.
The story of a boy from Ahmedabad who overcame all odds to transform an idea into a global product from a company incorporated in France, manufactured in China with software developed in India is a testament to Willis Desai’s innovative spirit, hard work and relentless determination to make his dreams come true.
How crowd financing worked for Willis
- Picked a crowd funding platform, Kickstarter
- Created a two minute video advertisement describing idea
- Identified interested buyers and sent them targeted emails
- Declared the total amount to be raised—9000 euros
- Enlisted help from The Crowd Funding agency to run ads
- Offered buyers a “reward” – a product at a heavily discounted price
- Reached his goal of 9000 Euros within 90 minutes; reached 350,000 euros at the time of writing
- Will have to pay 5 percent as platform charges to Kickstarter and 3 percent for the payment process platform
- Expected to touch 1M Euro by end of the Campaign
- All the money collected goes into manufacturing
