When a musician plays an instrument for hours and hours, especially when he is learning and it is a wind instrument, it is not surprising that his roommates and neighbors ask him to take his music somewhere else. What is not so common is for the musician in question to solve the problem by designing an electric saxophone himself, which allows listening through headphones to the relief of people around him.
The inventor is Ramon Mañas, who worked the miracle thanks to his knowledge as an engineer. “It is the same thing that already exists for pianos and drums, but applied to a wind instrument,” explains the entrepreneur. Furthermore, to be able to more easily transport the instrument on his plane trips between Barcelona and Berlin, where he was studying at the time, Mañas ended up creating “the smallest and lightest electronic saxophone in the world.”
To see if the instrument could interest more musicians like him, the entrepreneur made a pre-sale through the Kickstarter platform in March 2019. “In half an hour I had raised the money I had set as a goal and 224 units ended up being sold. in 42 countries in just one month, with a final collection of close to 100,000 euros,” recalls Mañas. The success achieved led him to leave his job and establish the startup Odisei Music in December 2019.
Based in Sant Cugat del Vallès, the startup has a staff of six, which is already working on launching more electronic versions of other wind instruments. Odisei Music had a turnover of close to 400,000 euros last year.
Odisei Music saxophones are sold in more than 50 countries between the company's website and specialized stores in Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. Carlos Sanchís, the marketing director of the startup, advances that they are in talks to start selling physically in other countries, with an eye especially on Asia. To do this, they have the help of the network of entrepreneurs and businessmen Netmentora.
