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In Search For Power

July 11, 2008 by admin 

Henk van Ess

My name is Henk van Ess. A few days ago, I lived a normal life as an internet speaker, writer and consultant. Now I am also a battery dealer. What happened?


I don’t sell gadgets. Never did. Now I do. Something went terribly wrong. Here’s what happened. I’m always in a quest for battery juice because I travel a lot. Yes, I’m that pathetic person that bought a heavy block of metal so I can work for 9 hours on my Macbook Air. For even smaller devices I bought the Philips Power 2 Go, a piece of plastic (PDF, 256 Kb) that kept my iPhone 1.1.4 alive.

The new 3G iPhone is great. But fast HDSPA drains the battery. That’s not Apple’s fault: all major phone manufacturers have to deal with that. 

So I plugged my new iPhone into the Power 2 Go. It worked fine. Yesterday I left a small input cable of the Power 2 Go somewhere in a coffeeshop. Suddenly the clunky battery charger was useless. Somewhat angry I posted in Linkedin: ‘who brings me the smallest rechargable battery for the iPhone 3G without silly cases’.

I wanted it to be certified by Apple. And the product should not explode like Chinese fireworks.

Someone told me I had to contact a manufacturer that works closely with China BAK Battery, a NASDAQ company.

The manufacturer asked C-BAK to build a sturdy battery with no cables.  I asked for a sample and I liked the specs:

- it’s the smallest external battery with 1750 mAh in the world for the iPhone (2G and 3G) that has no cables
- you don’t need any cables when in use
- you can slide the battery in your pocket, it’s only 6 cm high
- the battery doubles the life of your iPhone

Almost twenty friends from Europe asked me to buy the battery for them. So I thought, oh well, let’s order some more. But I hated all the paperwork. So I decided, let’s open a little web shop and my friends can order the thing themselves. Then the dealer asked: don’t you want to become reseller for The Netherlands? We need you to order at least 100 units. I calculated that it would be cheaper to have hundreds of batteries shipped, not 20. So suddenly the question rose: do I want to became the European dealer for this brand new product? Fast forward to the kitchen table.

This morning I asked my pregnant wife for her opinion. ,,Should I accept the offer? I think it’s strange to sell batteries for a person like me. I don’t want to become a battery guy.”

My wife said: ,,But you buy batteries all the time. Don’t you think it’s time to sell some, especially one that you like yourself?”

She’s so funny.

If you want to be one of the first in Europe with a special 3G iPhone rechargable battery, just like me, go for it. Since I have plans for world domination, I deliver worldwide. Well, not me, but Thea and Debby - two nice ladies from my office in Amersfoort. If you’re from the press and want to test the battery, mail me.

So I did it. I’m even a worldwide dealer of batteries now. But only on this website. If you invite me as a speaker or consultant, I’ll deny that I sell batteries. I will refuse to open my suitcase. I won’t say a thing when you ask me: ‘hey, that’s a nice battery, where did you get it?’


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