Where Are They Now? Update from 2010 eGames Winner, Leiva Strings

February 13, 2012

Italo Leiva doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who’d string you along.

But he is.

And if you’ve been wanting to learn to play the guitar, you probably won’t mind at all.

Only two years ago, Italo, then a psychology major at NC State, developed a set of color-coded strings to make it easy to learn the guitar – or any stringed instrument. The color of each string corresponds to the seven notes of the music scale as well as to sheet music with color-coded tunes.  “I just thought it ought to be easier to have fun playing music,” explains Italo.  “I was in a cognitive psychology class at the time and was learning about how people learn.  The idea just came to me.”

Several competitions later, including top honors in the 2010 eGames and the prestigious Mass Challenge, Italo, along with partners Ahmad Abdel-Ghani, Caleb Primm and Cheron Bruce, is waiting for a shipment of Leiva Strings to arrive for distribution to a large-scale client who wants to buy them in bulk for sales in the music education market. For the consumer market, focus groups and two local Mom-and-Pop guitar shops will provide feedback on the product, and then the team will look for more investment to help expand the project to national chains.

Right now, Leiva Strings is working out of the EI Garage.   “This space is an incredible resource,” says Italo.  “And now with Dr. Beckman’s classes, we are learning so much more about our possibilities.”  Italo is referring to the new Arts Entrepreneurship courses taught by Dr. Gary Beckman, Director of Entrepreneurial Studies in the Arts, which is the nation’s first campus-wide Arts Entrepreneurship Minor.  “We’re so grateful to Dr. Beckman,” he continued, “and to our other advisors, Gordon Smith, Drew Hannah, and David Rendall.  It’s so important to find people who share your vision, and we have.”

The biggest surprise of the last few years?  “No matter how good your product is,” says Italo, “people are still wary. And they all ask for something different; there’s really no such thing as a secret sauce.”  And his best advice to fellow entrepreneurs is to “bootstrap as much as possible – just do as much as you can by yourself.” Cheron adds that it’s “important to be persistent.  Keep looking at the big picture, and don’t give up.”

Leiva Strings is currently preparing to compete in the 2012 Lulu eGames in the Arts Feasibility Study Challenge.  But in five years, “we see ourselves running a successful, global business,” says Caleb.