While most kids were waking up in the middle of the night because of nightmares, Nick Anusbigian was waking up because of innovative dreams.
“Since I was a kid, I was always coming up with like crazy little ideas,” Anusbigian says.
Now rather than waking up, Anubigian’s most recent invention helps people stay up. The HyperChiller is a gadget that uses stainless-steel chambers filled with frozen water to chill coffee in under a minute. Users can make iced coffee without the dilution caused by melted ice and the stale taste caused by refrigeration.
Freshly brewed coffee fills the gap between the two chambers, and then the liquid is “flash cooled” to about 62 degrees within a minute. Because each chamber is locked to the lid, liquids won’t mix and the user doesn’t need to wash the chiller after each use.
In April, Anusbigian’s cool idea earned him second place in the 2015 FAU Business Plan Competition’s student track. Since then, the entrepreneur has been perfecting the gadget’s design, communicating with investors, collaborating with manufacturers, finalizing patents and garnering consumer interest.
On July 6, he launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $15,000 for production and manufacturing costs. If the company achieves its goal by Aug. 9, it will submit its first order of HyperChillers, which, if all goes according to plan, would arrive by December. Following the Kickstarter campaign, Anusbigian says he plans to produce a short infomercial and distribute the product through fulfillment warehouses.
“I want to build it slowly and make sure people understand it before it gets into retail,” Anusbigian says.
Once the HyperChiller generates more consumer interest, Anusbigian says he will try to push his product into retail stores like Walmart, Target and Bed Bath & Beyond.
Anusbigian was working toward a master’s degree in accounting at FAU, but he may put that on hold if the company continues to do well.
“It’s exciting,” Anusbigian says, “I’d much rather be working for myself and create something.”
When asked if his wife was supportive of his new endeavor, he chuckled and said that she’s concerned but is supportive of him.
“It’s everything we have,” Anusbigian says, “but if I didn’t do it, I wouldn’t be able to sleep. ”
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About Cresonia
Cresonia Hsieh is a journalism junior minoring in business administration and Spanish at the University of Florida. When she’s not writing a story or doing a photo shoot, she enjoys Netflix binge watching, trying out new restaurants and listening to others attempt to pronounce her last name. (Hint: It’s pronounced “shay”.) You can reach Cresonia at cresoniahsieh@yahoo.com.
