Phil Neale is no stranger to public criticism, having reached the finals of Britain鈥檚 Got Talent with his brothers and father in singing group The Neales.
Neale, who聽allegedly brought Simon Cowell to tears聽during his family’s performance, is now聽an entrepreneur聽having founded an app designed to help people switch off in the digital age.
On Sunday he returned to our screens in front of a different set of TV judges: the Dragons’ Den investors.
鈥淚 love talking about the business, but you’re by yourself and you don’t know how it’s going to go,鈥� Neale recounted to 老九品茶Cloud after the episode was aired.
鈥淲ith Britain’s Got Talent, I was very uncomfortable singing because I’d never done it before, but I had my two brothers and dad either side of me.
鈥淏ecause you鈥檙e by yourself, Dragons’ Den was more nerve-wracking. If the judges on Britain’s Got Talent tell me that I can鈥檛 sing that鈥檚 fine, I already know that. I knew that going in!”
While the five Dragons declined to invest in the app, citing a lack of proof in the business model, most were positive about Neale and his entrepreneurship.
Investor Peter Jones, who asked Neale to sing during his pitch, said: 鈥淭he very thing that you need to find out is whether someone鈥檚 willing to pay for what you鈥檝e got.鈥�
Neale鈥檚 Birmingham-based聽business is Snoozle, an app designed to allow people to 鈥榮witch off鈥� from their device without the need to turn off their phone completely.
鈥淥ur aim is to help people switch off with their world, not from it,鈥� said Neale.
When the app is on, it turns the screen black and mutes all notifications other than phone calls, allowing people to get to sleep without a phone in their hand. It also records this downtime to gamify users鈥� device-free time.
In the morning, the app plays an audio snippet recorded either by a friend or a content creator. These audio snippets, or 鈥榤icro podcasts鈥�, as Neale calls them, he sees as the future of the business.
鈥淭elling people to have a bedtime and to stay off their phone is easy, but it doesn鈥檛 work,鈥� he explained.
鈥淪ocial media can be a force for good, but it鈥檚 gone too far.鈥�
Neale believes that a small piece of content in the morning, delivered as a wake-up call, will ease the urge to pick up their phone before they are out of bed.
鈥淲ith Snoozle you choose the content that you want and when it鈥檚 delivered to you, rather than that incessant need throughout the day,鈥� he said.
Its users listen to their morning audio snippet or 鈥榤irco-podcast鈥� for 2 minutes and 19 seconds.
This, said Neale, puts the Snoozle platform in a good place to redefine the 鈥榤icro-podcast鈥� medium.
鈥淚ts territory that鈥檚 up for grabs and we’re brilliantly poised to hopefully do that,鈥� he said.
鈥淲e want this to feel as if it’s content. It could be learning a new word every day in French, it could be thoughts on the England versus聽Kosovo football match.鈥�
Neale sees singers, comedians, public speakers and brands creating audio snippets to encourage users to start using Snoozle.
鈥淎 purist could say that any sleep app, or any app that is based around sleep routine is a bad thing, because technology should be boycotted from the bedroom,鈥� he said.
鈥淚f the worst happens and somebody is breaking in, or if there’s an emergency with me, I can’t reach my phone, and I’m cut off from the world.鈥�
Neale sees Snoozle as the perfect compromise, and a source of revenue for those content creators.
He said the firm鈥檚 goal for the next year is to grow its user base.
鈥淲e can give celebrities and brands their own morning radio show to wake up their fans every single day of the year, and that would only have to be two hours鈥� worth of content,鈥� he said.
鈥淚t’s about getting really good creators on board so that they can delight their audience.鈥�
Before Dragons’ Den aired, Neale said that unlike the criticism he received during his pop career in The Neales, Snoozle is a venture he truly believes in.
鈥淚f the Dragons tell me my business is a load of rubbish, I don鈥檛 believe that in my heart,鈥� he said.