In October, 2008, as an Olin Business School Executive MBA student, Seth Burgett  entered the Olin Cup with his venture, known then as Verto Medical Solutions. Seth is an active triathlete and his earphones were painful and often fell out of his ears during training. With his background in minimally invasive surgical devices, Seth and his team developed technology to digitally scan ears, enabling the sale of custom fit earbuds. That year, Seth won the student award of $5,000 in the Olin Cup, and developed his pitch to Best Buy to carry the product.

After the Olin Cup, the product developed into Yurbuds, an ergonomically brilliant, acoustically driven headphone which is guaranteed not to fall out, even at extreme activity levels, while still providing an unparalleled level of comfort and fidelity.  Since then, not only did Yurbuds manage to raise more than 10 million dollars from investors, with more than $1 million from the Olin Business School community, it was also named the 9th Most Promising Company in America by Forbes, won the same design award as the iPad, and their website was voted the best website in the world.  On June 18, 2014, the St. Louis Business Journal announced that Yurbuds was acquired by Connecticut based Harman International Industries for a reported 37 millions dollars.  Still headquartered in St. Louis, most recently the company was highlighted in a Forbes.com article titled: A Cue From Apple: How Yurbuds Stood Out In A Competitive Market.  Dying to get a pair of Yurbuds for yourself?  Visit their website to learn more on where you can pick up a pair. Just can’t get enough? You can also follow them on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Seth Burgett, Founder