AGSM graduate revolutionises the car radio experience

In mid-2013, Phil Hayes-St Clair was driving home from his daughter’s music lesson when a radio promo for Bon Jovi concert tickets caught his attention.

“I knew my wife would love it, but I also knew I’d never remember in a million years the content of that ad,” recalls the AGSM MBA graduate. “It just got me thinking: surely I can’t be the only person to have this problem.”

Hayes-St Clair’s response was to come up with AirShr - a mobile technology that allows radio listeners anywhere in the world to save, share or buy anything directly from radio.

“It’s a way to remember something you love at a moment’s notice,” says the 37-year-old. “You can be driving along and hear something on the radio - music, news, talk, a commercial, anything – that for whatever reason piques your interest and you decide you’d love to do something with it, whether it be share a funny segment, take advantage of a deal or download a song. All of these things are normally difficult to do while you’re driving.”

Due for official launch in Australia in two-months, AirShr will be available free from the Apple App Store and Google Play and can be used anywhere radio is playing. A small bluetooth remote that accompanies the smartphone app has also been developed for in-car use.

“When you hear something you love, simply push the bluetooth remote once,” he explains. “That sends a signal to your phone to take a brief recording of the ambient sound in the car. We match this sound with a vast array of radio streams to identify the station and the content you heard. This takes a matter of seconds, but we only send you back the digital reminder of that content so you can re-live those radio moments once you get out of the car. This to ensure you won’t be distracted by your phone while you’re driving. We also built a passenger mode to allow people who aren’t driving to AirShr moments from within the app.”

Hayes-St Clair completed his MBA full-time in 2013 after leaving his investment management career to concentrate on becoming a first-time parent. Of all the aspects of his MBA experience, he pinpoints the program’s International Business in Asia component as the most significant. During a three-city visit to China as part of the subject, he took advantage of an unexpected opportunity to casually pitch the AirShr concept to General Motors in Shanghai.

“With just an idea and no actual technology, I pitched it as though it was real,” he recalls. “Two-weeks later I was speaking to the head of GM’s global telematics division, who said, ‘I hear you’ve got a really interesting idea’. That call effectively provided the first indication that the idea had merit. It inspired me to think differently about whether we could do something with AirShr. That was really the start of it.”

To find out more about the AGSM MBA Programs visit our website.