Bar time phone charger The Perkinator snapped up by Google
Anyone cool enough to be mooching about in the VIP area of Soho House festival later this week could well end up using an invention made by Guy Winterflood, former stockbroker and progeny of City grandee Brian Winterflood.
The broker-turned-inventor has produced a device called The Perkinator, which allows you to charge your phone in a bar using a locker system. The product is only in its soft launch phase but was picked up by the all-seeing tech-eye itself, Google.
The internet giant is sponsoring the VIP tent at the Marble Hill event this Thursday and will be deploying the Perkinators. Guy, who is also working on another start-up, an app called Letyano, is enjoying his new career path. “Derivatives are just a theory, nice to have something physical,” he told The Capitalist.
"It came from being stranded one afternoon in central London with a flat battery on my iPhone and being completely unable to get anyone to charge it up for me, despite offering to buy something," he added.
The Perkinator is designed to sit behind a bar or reception desk and to be operated by a member of staff. The key is then handed over to the phone owner while their phone charges in the splash-proof, secure drawer. The unit can be secured directly to a flat surface using specially designed feet and there is an accompanying app which will show phone users where to find their nearest Perkinator when battery levels run low. Snazzy.