Today we’d like to introduce you to Marissa Dupont.
Marissa, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
oneTesla was started back in 2012 by two then-MIT students, Bayley Wang and Heidi Baumgartner. They came up with the idea for a musical Tesla coil kit and thought others would enjoy it so they launched it on Kickstarter. The campaign went viral–raising over $169,000–and they had to shut it down after only three days because they were worried the two of them would not be able to fulfill all the orders! At that point, they hired some high schoolers to help them out and the company was born.
In 2014, they launched their second Kickstarter for the second version of the kit (the oneTeslaTS) and a smaller version (the tinyTesla). This also went viral (but they did not have to shut it down!), raising over $367,000. At that point, they were able to hire me! I was unemployed at the time and found their ad on Craigslist. I thought it sounded like a cool place to work and I was right! I started that August as Marketing Manager. I was in charge of social media, print and media design, updating the website, and customer service. About a year later, they hired Audrey Spencer as Videographer/Industrial Designer.
In 2015, Heidi left the company to pursue her Ph.D. and I became Chief Operating Officer. This has been very exciting for me, learning how to run a business, managing inventory, and ordering parts (in addition to my previous responsibilities). At that time, Audrey also took on a lot of additional responsibilities. Between she, I, Bayley, and our technician, Richard, we get everything done! My background is actually in writing (I have a BFA from Emerson College in Writing, Literature, and Publishing), web, and graphic design (I have a Master’s in Web Design and New Media from the Academy of Art University), as well as marketing. Working in science has been really exciting and I’ve realized how much I’ve missed it. Growing up, I was always into the outdoors, science kits, and astronomy, but in high school, I started drifting away from that stuff. I suspect that a lot of this has to do with women not being encouraged to pursue science careers. So I’m glad to be back in that world. It’s especially awesome to see all the girls who come to Maker Fairs (we exhibit at these fairs every year)–more and more attend every year!
It is funny that Audrey and I now do the bulk of the work and we both have backgrounds in the art (she went to MassArt for Industrial Design).
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
We’ve had a couple of hiccups in terms of manufacturing. That has been tricky to manage. We had hired a local company to put together our parts bags and they became a real problem. They made a lot of promises they couldn’t keep and did not prioritize our business so we ended up deciding to break ties (which was an ordeal). At one point, they refused to relinquish our parts (all of which we had paid for). Luckily, we were able to get everything back without getting lawyers involved, but that was stressful.
Another thing that has been challenging is working with Chinese manufacturers. We have a few custom-made parts, and save a lot of money by having them made in China. However, having those items shipped by boat makes it really tricky in terms of timing and knowing exactly when things need to be ordered. But I’m getting the hang of it!
Please tell us about oneTesla.
oneTesla makes DIY musical Tesla coil kits. They shoot sparks and play music using electricity! The Tesla coil was originally invented by Nikola Tesla back in the 1800’s as a way to create wireless energy. He wanted to use it to power the world! However, he never realized his vision. We have taken his invention and turned it into a kit that you can build yourself. It teaches soldering, electronics, and the principles of physics–and who doesn’t love lightning?
This is how it works, on a basic level. It’s taking the electricity from your normal wall outlet (about 110 volts) and amplifying it through the logic and power elements on the PCB. Then it cycles between a primary wire and secondary coil (about 1600 turns of hair-thin copper wire), building more and more power. This electricity is stored in the top load until it shoots out of the copper rod at the top at around 100,000 volts! These sparks heat and cool the air, creating high and low-pressure changes, just like how lightning creates thunder. Basically, it’s a tiny, controlled lightning storm! Everything is run by our SD card interrupter. You save converted MIDI files onto a card, put it in the interrupter, and that tells the coil what volume (power) and pitch (frequency) to play via an optical fiber.
Our goal as a company is to provide a full line of Tesla coils for every level. We just launched the Teslette, a small slayer exciter which uses the same principles as a Tesla coil. Though it doesn’t shoot sparks, it wireless lights up fluorescent light bulbs. And at only 9 parts, it’s great for a beginner or for classrooms. Then we have the tinyTesla Musical Tesla Coil Kit for the intermediate user. And for advanced builders, we have the oneTeslaTS Musical Tesla Coil Kit. We are deeply committed to education, which is why all of our coils are sold as kits. Many students build our coils for science fair projects or electrical engineering classes. And we’re hoping to have the Teslette in many classrooms in the future.
What sets us apart from our competitors is that we provide everything you need to build the coils, including a pre-wound secondary. Some of our competitors actually send you a PVC pipe and a roll of copper wire and make you do it yourself! As I said above, the oneTesla TS secondary coil has over 1600 windings–can you imagine doing that at home? We also provide a custom heat sink and toroid, which are hard to source on your own. Our sourcing all of the components for you saves a ton of time and money.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
As far as the company, I would be a little more conservative financially. Luckily, Bayley helps me with that. As far as my career, I wish I had gotten into science earlier!
Pricing:
- oneTeslaTS Musical Tesla Coil Kit, normally $399.99, use code BosVoy10 for 10% off!
- tinyTesla Musical Tesla Coil Kit, normally $229.99, use code BosVoy10 for 10% off!
- Teslette Slayer Exciter Kit, normally $24.99, use code BosVoy10 for 10% off!
Contact Info:
- Address: oneTesla LLC
249B Lowell Street
Wilmington, MA 01887 - Website: oneTesla.com
- Phone: 6176845822
- Email: nikola@onetesla.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/oneTesla_official
- Facebook: facebook.com/oneTesla
- Twitter: twitter.com/oneTesla1
- Other: youtube.com/onetesla
Image Credit:
Bayley Wang, Audrey Spencer
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