Published in: Authority Magazine
The Future Is Now: Richard Adams Of Hygiene IQ On How Their Technological Innovations Will Shake Up The Tech Scene
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Since my high school days back in England, I have had a fascination with software and how technology can improve people’s lives. I’ve been privileged to help develop many technologies that we now take for granted in our everyday lives, from cell phones to streaming TV to headphones. I moved to the U.S. 10 years ago and joined Beats by Dre, a pioneer in Bluetooth listening technology, and supported the acquisition by Apple. There, I learned the importance of making products that “just work” and reducing complexity for the consumer. It led me to see the vision for a great opportunity with the product concepts we wanted to develop at Hygiene; I haven’t looked back since.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
Ah, well at a previous start-up in the U.K., my team and I applied to be on a TV show called Dragon’s Den which was a predecessor to Shark Tank here in the U.S. Bizarrely, we got a call back the very next day and they told us to show up at the studio in two days’ time. It was a crazy day, with almost no time to prepare, so we basically winged it and came out with an incredibly large offer from the investors. It taught me an important lesson: know your product, know your customers and know the value of what you have. The video is on YouTube somewhere, but I’m not divulging the link!