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trueCall

Breakthrough:
An innovative device that stops nuisance phone calls from getting through to you.

Inventor:
Steve Smith, United Kingdom

Financial reward:
$1 million +

The Story:

It is one of the frustrations of modern life; unwanted and nuisance callers, particularly telemarketers who try to sell you everything from double glazing to door hinges, a zillion things you either already have or don’t want. With innovations in automated call centre technology there has been an explosion in the volume of unsolicited calls. But now there’s a little device called trueCall which will screen your calls and send unwanted callers on their way.

It was invented by software engineer Steve Smith who had been designing software for the call centre industry for more than 20 years. He comes from a family of inventors; his grand-father invented an electric clock and his great-uncle devised magic tricks.

The Problem of Nuisance Calls

Smith was intrigued by the problem of nuisance calls and carried out extensive research on the subject. He was shocked to discover the anger and anxiety felt by some people who receive unsolicited telephone calls. For example, he came across elderly people who would be afraid to leave their house if they received a silent call in the morning, thinking it might be a burglar checking to see whether they were in or not. He decided that something needed to be done. He searched for a product but couldn’t find one and so he developed his own.

TrueCall is about the size of a paperback book and plugs into a home phone line to create a “safe zone” between the caller and the receiver.

It sits between the wall socket and the phone and checks every call that comes into your house. If it recognizes the caller it lets them through, if it doesn’t it asks them to identify themselves. It records their message and then rings you with a recording of the person giving their name. This leaves you with the choice to accept or reject the caller (many telemarketers might give up by this point). If you decide to reject, the device relays a rejection message to the caller “We are not interested in your call so please hang up now and don’t call us again.” The invention can stop all kinds of nuisance calls including recorded message calls, malicious calls and telemarketing calls.

Selling to Consumers

The biggest challenge for Smith came not so much from designing and developing the product, but in selling it to consumers. Smith’s background was in software and so selling a physical product was new to him. And although the trade publications were waxing lyrical about his invention, the readers were not his core market. The difficulty was that he had developed an entirely new product, rather than a modification of an existing one, and so had to educate people as to why they would need it.

Facing the Dragons

In a bold move he decided to go on to the BBC TV program Dragon’s Den. It wasn't to gain financial backing as he already had that, having made a fortune from selling previous businesses. But he was after publicity, contacts, credibility, and exposure. His appearance achieved a rare feat of all the dragons wanting in on his business. If anything tells you that you’re onto something big then it’s five multi-millionaire entrepreneurs wanting a slice of your action. He eventually secured £100,000 ($160,000) investment from telecoms magnate Peter Jones.

Since that appearance in July 2009 sales of trueCall have gone through the roof, and more than 30 companies have been in touch wanting to sell the product. Jones has also been introducing Smith to managing directors of his other business interests and there are firm plans to adapt the technology so that it can be adopted by mobile phone users.

by Paul Arnold

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