Lehigh University graduates invent device to connect laptops, tablets

sidecar laptop tablet connector

Easton resident Matthew Fuchs demonstrates a prototype of a laptop and tablet connector product he and fellow Lehigh University graduate Adrian Velazquez have invented, which they call the SideCar.

(Express-Times Photo | SUE BEYER)

Matthew Fuchs, Adrian Velazquez and just about everyone they know works on a computer with dual monitors.

That’s at home, that is, or in their office. But while out-and-about, there’s not an easy way to set up a laptop with a second monitor.

That’s where their idea for a device they call SideCar came about. The hard plastic device can connect a laptop to a tablet.

“Everyone is just so much on-the-go but there was nothing like it,” Velazquez said.

Velazquez, Fuchs and Katelyn Noderer invented the device while students in Lehigh University's master's in technical entrepreneurship. Noderer now works at Stanford University but Fuchs and Velazquez are trying to launch their product from the Lehigh Valley.

Last week, they put SideCar on the market through the online financing website Kickstarter. Within three days, they had already raised more than $3,100 toward their $21,000 goal, which they have to meet by Oct. 24 to be successful.

Fuchs, of Easton, said he's regularly trying to come up with new inventions. He's not sure if SideCar is his million dollar idea, but both he and Velazquez see it as a good product to test the market with at least.

Through Kickstarter, they’ll be able to receive customer feedback, test the product’s marketability and hopefully make enough money to pay for a large test batch, Fuchs said. If their $21,000 goal isn’t met, the online investors get their money back.

“We can do all this market study without us getting out of our chairs,” Fuchs said.

The initial Kickstarter launch has already provided the duo, who work under the company name Venos, with valuable feedback, Fuchs said. Some customers feel the proposed $30 price tag is too much while others think it’s a steal.

The SideCar is a hard plastic device that can connect a laptop to a tablet.

Also, the device is designed to work with Apple products but customer feedback will give them a better idea if there’s interest among PC users as well, Fuchs said. The SideCar works with some PCs but because of their more varied sizes, Venos doesn’t guarantee the SideCar will securely hold, Fuchs said.

Fuchs, 25, generally works out of his home or at co-working sites Hive 4A in Allentown and SoBeCoWorks in Bethlehem. Velazquez, 23, of Venezuela, is currently visiting family in Miami but will likely return to the Lehigh Valley if their SideCar business takes off.

Fuchs and Velazquez, who both also received undergraduate degrees from Lehigh, believe the university's master's in technical entrepreneurship gave them a great foundation to launch their own company. They were both part of the program's first graduating class to finish in May.

Lehigh Professor of Practice Michael Lehman said the program’s first 14 participants are already doing exciting work just a couple of months after graduating. About half have landed jobs where they’re working for startups or in new product development for established companies and the other half are trying to launch their own business ventures like Fuchs and Velazquez, he said.

Their SideCar invention is definitely worth testing on Kickstarter, for the experience in marketing and sales if nothing else, Lehman said.

“It’s a great example of how they went through the process of seeing a problem and validating it with customer feedback, and then prototyping it and marketing it and now pushing it out to the broader market,” he said.

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