When Ishan Patel was a boy, his grandfather – who lived with the family – suffered from severe hearing loss. “It started with him becoming estranged from his family, who wouldn’t even talk to him, and some of the adults began to resent him, even though they loved him,” Patel says. “No matter how much you love someone, imagine having to tell them the same thing five times in a row. Hearing loss isn’t just about not being able to hear. It affects everyone around you.”
Fast forward to when Patel dropped out of school to start out an artificial intelligence company that did not pan out, and then in 2017 he learned that the Food and Drug Administration was going to alter the rule and allow the sale of hearing aids without a prescription. counter, without prescription.
“This was the moment when the space was formally regulated,” he says. “There is great progress being made in the healthcare industry all the time, but this is a dramatic change for one of the senses that controls the entire quality of life.”
When the rules modified in 2022, Patel was ready. He had a hearing aid prototype and an online customer base of several hundred thousand Americans. He took the product to Walmart, which wanted his $189 hearing aid to sell on store shelves, but for lower than $100 in six months.
It was every entrepreneur’s dream and nightmare. Today, Patel’s company Listening to the audienceis on track to have over 1 million customers by the end of the yr. All this made Patel a finalist in our list of 20 progressive leaders Entrepreneur 2024.
What went through your mind when the Walmart team told you they wanted your hearing aid, but at almost half the retail price?
I’ll always remember the conversation with our retail advisor. He asked me, “Are you the only person in the world who can produce this product?” I said, “I may have been the first to do it, but it would be hubris to say I was the only one who could put it down.” At that time it was a do or die decision.
We have adopted a lower profit margin and challenged everyone in our supply chain on all components to scale back these costs while maintaining FDA quality standards. We needed to determine who would assemble our patent-pending design in this particular way. Nobody desired to do it.
Why did suppliers resist?
They would fairly sell a multi-thousand-dollar hearing aid at a huge margin through existing distribution channels than change component costs and operating costs.
How did you persuade them to work with you?
Honestly, it was about sharing the vision of the company – not only what we had achieved, but also the greatness. We were one of the largest firms in the industry, and 80 percent of the global market was unserved. This is what a big mistake this industry has made. I talked them into lowering their margins and reconfiguring their supply chain processes.
This is when customer demand skyrocketed, creating latest problems.
The entire company has grown quite dynamically. Not only shopping takes place at Walmart; brand awareness also emerged. From our partnership with Walmart to today, we have tripled in size. In 2022-2023, we increased our revenues almost 4 times, and by the end of this yr they may increase 8 times.
The supply chain was definitely under strain for the first few months. For several weeks, our inventory levels at Walmart dropped to dangerous levels.
What will Walmart say when this happens?
Walmart said, “Figure it out.”
You don’t have to hit it exactly perfectly. And every little thing can change. You may have to alter many, many times, but ultimately the basic vision will remain the same. I could truthfully come forward and say that the proven fact that I needed to alter was proof of the success of this vision.
This made higher quality producers willing to work with us. Not everyone may be Apple and order the same quality sound components at the same prices, but this latest supplier we are working with has what they call “Apple Level” certifications. They don’t even work with you unless you are at a certain stage.
When solving problems, you used the solutions as springboards for further development.
I think a key element in the decision-making process was with the ability to determine what I could produce now. And having that result, what could I show and then build from there. It’s a chicken and egg thing, but you have to go for it.
We turned defeats into victories. These were the points of failure. This is how far we could have come, but how do we deal with it and grow from it?”