Israeli Startup Pause Lets You Lock Up Your Cell Phones — And Take a Pause

Pause, a new Israeli startup, is offering a device which lets people lock up their cell phones. The company says that this way people can take a Pause to remember how to live for a while.

The company was started by 3 childhood friends, Ori Levine, Ronen Geffen and Yuval Lazzi who have known one another other for more than 30 years, as well Yuval’s wife Lidar. Pause was actually the brainchild of Yuval and Lidar Lazzi.

So how does it work? Basically Pause is a metal box which blocks all signals to your cell phone. You just put your phones into the box and enjoy your time with the family or friends without fear of interruption.

Once you open the box to take your phone out it will re-connect with your service and get all of the texts, notifications and list of calls missed from the time when the phone was locked away.

So why not just turn your phone off? Well many times people forget to turn their phones back on for quite a while and miss out on important calls or messages during that time. And of course most people never bother to turn them off in the first place.

You can pre-order your Pause if you take part in its crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. For $39 you can reserve a starter kit and for $65 you can get its family kit. As of this writing Pause has raised $9, 546 from 180 backers out of a total goal of $36, 000.

The money will be used to begin production on the product. It expects to begin deliveries in March 2017.

But Pause had already raised several hundred thousand Dollars from a combination of angel investors and family members. So why look to crowdfunding for the rest? In a word, marketing.

As Ori Levine, the CEO of Pause, put it to Jewish Business News in an interview, “We spent a lot on development and making our product and now we decided to go to crowdfunding for the rest of the money needed because its not just about getting the money, its also about seeing the response and getting in touch with your customer base, its market reach, you can see what your potential customers want.”

But don’t market research firms offer companies data about the consumer?

“We did some market research with private firms but it is not the same, ” explained Ori. “They do not talk to the customers. Eventually you need to see the customer’s state of mind. When you go to Indiegogo you get exposure as well as raise money.”

“Crowdfunding is making it easier for a new company to reach the market and even before you have a finished product.”

So crowdfunding allows a new company to not just raise needed funding, but also learn about its potential customer base. Also the people who take part in a crowdfunding campaign do not invest in the company, but instead pay in advance for goods to be delivered at a future date. This lets a startup know that it has a market for its product and where that market is located.

Pause is promoting its product with families. The firm sees it as the perfect tool for parents who want to have some quiet quality time with the kids. This could be at the dinner table or when you get the family together for a game of Monopoly.

The family angle is part of the reason why Pause has chosen to go with Indiegogo for its crowdfunding campaign.

“We picked Indiegogo over Kickstarter because it is a better platform for family products because it has a different demographic base, its more international and Kickstarter is more aimed for the us market, ” added Ori Levine.

So with crowdfunding a new company can kill two birds with one stone. Well three actually. It can raise funds, get valuable information about the potential markets and get the word out about its product or service without spending any money on advertising.

And this is exactly what Pause is doing.