Start-Up Aims To Reinvent The Kerosene Lamp

June 8, 2007 by Rich | 18 Comments
In Ideas, Internet, Startup

When starting a business, it’s important to create a product that solves a problem. A small start-up is tackling a big dilemma: 2 billion people in the world don’t have access to electricity.

D.light Design was born out of a Stanford University class project, and it currently has five employees. Chief Executive Sam Goldman spent four years in the Peace Corps in West Africa, where he says he lived with a family that used kerosene lamps to light its home after sundown. Goldman discovered firsthand that not only are the lamps dangerous–one of the children was permanently disfigured in a kerosene fire–they’re an investment, requiring up to 30 percent of the family’s income.

The result of Goldman’s experience is the Forever-Bright, a prototype light-emitting diode (LED)-based device that he showed off to investors and media at SVASE.

The product is a small, white box that doubles as a light and power source. D.light says the final product will last five years and is chargeable off any power source, including solar power, 110- or 220-volt grids, and diesel generators. There will be power jacks in the back for powering other devices, such as cell phones. The Forever-Bright will launch in parts of India and Pakistan next month, Goldman said.

Photo by Erica Ogg.