WeaKnees in the Press
WEAKNEES - CORPORATE BACKGROUND
WeaKnees TiVo upgrade kits are like auto after-market accessories but
for the DVR, giving audiences as much as 20 times more storage space
to record and store programming.
In early 2001, when WeaKnees co-founders Michael Adberg and Jeff Shapiro
were making their initial foray into the world of TiVo upgrade kits,
WeaKnees was simply a way to fund their raging habit.
Sushi habit, that is.
WeaKnees started out with a product. After upgrading the capacity for
his very first TiVo before even using it, Adberg showed the finished
product to Shapiro. Soon the duo, who first met as undergrads at UC
Berkeley in the late 1980s, began to think there could be a business
behind selling upgrade kits for TiVo DVRs.
With Adberg’s background in computers, and using Shapiro’s
law degree and business experience, the two outfitted complete TiVos
with the upgrades and began to sell them on eBay in 2001. Any profits
they made would be used solely for their frequent sushi dinners.
Adberg and Shapiro soon discovered their innovative product was popular
with consumers.
“We began to have a pretty decent following on eBay,” Shapiro
says of the deluge of orders “Then it just started snowballing
and we had to create our own web site to handle the orders.”
Adberg says the initial site was “very basic,” simply created
for customers to submit kit orders online.
Indeed, at the time both of the co-founders were still holding down
full-time jobs—Shapiro as general counsel for a consulting and
software development application firm and Adberg, as a computer consultant.
Aside from customer demand, WeaKnees also received notice from influential
people in the tech world such as Leo Laporte, who featured the company
and its co-founders on his TechTV show, “The Screen Savers”
in 2002 and in 2003. Shapiro and Adberg were then asked to be the Technical
Editors for the book, “Leo Laporte’s Guide to TiVo.”
WeaKnees has also been featured by David Pogue of The New York Times,
along with The Wall Street Journal, and Time, WIRED and PC magazines.
By then, Adberg and Shapiro decided there was enough demand to concentrate
full-time on WeaKnees. In 2003, WeaKnees obtained its first official
place of business, a warehouse, but only to move to an even larger warehouse
a year later.
“Our business has grown astronomically since we started,”
Shapiro says, citing a 12 to 15 percent growth rate per month in the
company’s first three years.
In addition to the stand alone upgraded TiVo units, WeaKnees also sells
TiVo DVR upgrade kits that can be easily installed by consumers with
capacities up to 1,000 hours, DIRECTV DVR/TiVo combo units with up to
850 hours capacity, High-Definition TiVo DVRs with 130 hours of HD programming,
and parts and accessories to improve the ease of upgrading TiVo hard
drives and internal parts.
WeaKnees has also partnered with Maxtor to provide premium TiVo-Qualified
Maxtor QuickView drives in their complete TiVo units and upgrade kits.
Today, WeaKnees is committed to maintaining their high standard of
customer support and helping consumers to understand the technology
before them, not to shy away from it. WeaKnees is also keen on adapting
with the ever-changing digital technology to keep the business flourishing.
“We love the challenge of adapting to changes in the technology.
It’s fun and invigorating and most importantly, keeps us fresh,”
Adberg says.
CONTACT:
WeaKnees
310-842-4700
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