218:. The company he founded became a household name and market-share leader. Monster does not disclose its financials, but industry analysts estimate the company is "hugely profitable." Lee calls himself the "Head Monster" and calls the company culture the "Monster Attitude." The company, while still best known for audio wiring, now carries 6,000 different products, such as headphones and home theater components. Its products are sold in more than 15,000 stores and it owns over 375 patents. Monster became one of the largest employers in the
266:(formerly known as Monster Cable Products) later that year. Lee received an order from a Canadian distributor for 30,000 cables. The distributor wouldn't pay until the products were shipped, so Lee took out a $ 250,000 bank loan to pay for the production of the cables. According to Lee, he started the company without business experience or a strategy.
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Within six years from when it was founded, Monster had $ 50 million in annual revenues and 400 employees. The company's growth was primarily due to
Monster training sales staff at electronics stores to bundle the cables with other electronics purchases, an effort the company spent 15 percent of its
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In the late 1970s, Noel Lee wanted to improve the sound quality from his home audio equipment. He didn't have very much money, so Lee experimented with ways to create a better sound by improving inexpensive cabling. At first he worked out of his family's apartment and later in his in-laws' garage,
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football stadium, which was renamed to
Monster Park. Citizens and local government protested that a public facility adopted a corporate name and a local ballot was passed to revert the stadium name after the four-year deal with Monster expired. The sponsorship was partially contentious due to a
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Lee was met with resistance, because the audio industry at the time didn't believe cables made any appreciable difference in the sound and wire was generally provided for free. Lee demonstrated the difference between
Monster cables and zip cord to convince consumers that expensive equipment was
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among his friends. He is a member of the Asian
Business League of San Francisco. He donated $ 75,000 worth of audio cables to the Los Angeles Unified School District. Lee describes his business ethic as "24/7; sleep when you're dead." He lives in Hillsborough, California. Lee is also known for
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brand of headphones, which was later acquired by Apple for $ 3 billion in 2014. According to
Business Insider, Beats Electronics denies that Monster had a role in the design of the headphones. Lee said Beats had no engineers on staff and it spent millions in research and development to get the
290:. Monster created numerous divisions as it diversified into other products, such as Monster Performance Car, Monster Game, Monster Photo and Monster Computer. By 2003, Monster produced more than 1,000 products, including power cords, gaming accessories and cooling products. According to a 2005
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provided by audio vendors for free. Sales improved as retailers witnessed audio demonstrations and saw that his
Monster-branded cables offered better profit margins than other electronics products. Lee is credited with building the Monster business and shaping today's audio components market.
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Lee took an interest in music as a child; he described himself as having a more diverse taste in music than other kids his age. Lee's senior project was an effort to improve the quality of audio from electronics. According to Lee, his high school experiences were "rough" due to the level of
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district in 1978. Lee experimented with different widths, winding methods, and qualities of copper and insulation in audio cables to find an alternative to the zip cord audio vendors gave out for free. He compared different wire constructs, while listening to
Tchaikovsky's
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to start their tour, but it was cancelled two weeks later. The promoter wanted a straight rock band without country influences. This left Lee and his family stranded in Hawaii until they could earn money for travel back home. The band reinvented itself, covering
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wasted on cheap wiring. Sales rose as retailers saw high profit margins selling the cables. Lee provided incentives to retail salespeople to sell the cabling, rather than spend money on advertising. Some critics say this practice creates aggressive salespeople.
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Noel Lee is divorced with two children. His son Kevin Lee, sometimes referred to as "Little
Monster", started working for the company and developed the M-Design product line of high-tech furniture. Lee's son later quit Monster and started his own audio company
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on
December 25, 1948 to Chein-San and Sarah Lee. His parents named him "Noel" because he was born on Christmas Day. His father worked for China's Central News Agency and Lee had four sisters. Lee's parents moved to San Francisco around the same time the
214:" and with changing the consumer mindset to see audio cables as a way to improve sound quality. He was awarded the Plus X Lifetime Achievement Award for his role in shaping a market and was named Northern California Entrepreneur of the Year by
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article, Lee and his company were developing furniture with high-end electronics built-in, wireless products to replace audio cords and a user interface to consolidate the consumer's control of their electronics. Lee and his son worked with
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popular songs in order to attract work. Asian Wood took on other gigs around Hawaii for 18 months before breaking up. Lee continued doing solo gigs for six months after that, before returning to the Bay Area for an engineering job with
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in 2010. Lee has a degenerative nerve disorder that prevents him from walking without a wheelchair or Segway, which he says was caused by exposure to toxic doses of radiation when he worked as a fusion engineer at
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In 1974, Asian Wood was given an opportunity to go on a world tour. Lee quit his job as an engineer in order to be the band's drummer. Asian Wood's members moved to
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band. After the band separated, he founded
Monster Cable Products in 1979, based on loudspeaker cables he invented and manufactured in his garage.
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262:(CES) in Chicago in 1979, using a borrowed portion of someone else's exhibit area. Lee received a positive response at the event and founded
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185:. On nights and weekends he played drums for an Asian country rock cover band called Asian Wood and worked on his home audio equipment.
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product started, but that their contract was poorly constructed, giving all the intellectual property to Beats when it wasn't renewed.
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255:. According to Lee, Pacific Stereo was the first electronics retailer to give him a chance to sell Monster cables in their store.
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Noel Lee's first job out of college was as a laser fusion design engineer at a government-run nuclear research center called the
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Lee enjoys collecting gadgets and has a collection of old sports cars. He enjoys socialising with musicians and counts
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In connection with his background as a musician, Lee founded the record label Monster Music in 1999, signing
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throwing large parties at the Consumer Electronics Show and spending time with celebrities at the event.
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revenues on by 1998. Lee kept the company private and grew the business, despite pressure to go public.
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202:. He also worked as an independent salesperson for several small speaker companies in San Francisco.
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Lee's audio cables met corporate resistance at first, because most audio cabling at the time was
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849:"Here's An Interview With The CEO Who Missed Out On The $ 3.2 Billion Apple-Beats Deal"
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Lee called the 12-gauge audio cable he created "Monster" due to its size. According to
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Noel Lee is credited with turning the audio cable market into a "profitable
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Lee spent $ 50,000 in personal savings to demonstrate the cables at the
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872:"Monster founder's son flies solo with Sol Republic headphones launch"
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discrimination against Asian-Americans at the time. Lee attended
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173:, where he earned a degree in mechanical engineering in 1971.
719:. Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity. Archived from
132:. He quit his engineering job in 1974 to play drums for a
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792:"CES Watch: Monster's Noel Lee to Launch New Lines"
713:"Monster Founder Noel Lee Gets Geeky About Cables"
231:which they rented from family after moving to the
658:Miller, Paul (February 2008). "Wired for Sound".
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819:. September 11, 2005. Archived from
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494:"Monster move puts name on Marquee"
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941:American people of Chinese descent
676:Guttenberg, Steve (July 3, 2012).
619:Jay P. Pederson (April 29, 2005).
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951:Businesspeople from San Francisco
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870:Carnoy, David (August 23, 2011).
847:D'Onfro, Jillian (May 11, 2014).
274:Establishment and diversification
912:NAMM Oral History Library (2020)
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899:Life is tough for an HDMI cable
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590:"'Head Monster's' winning ways"
528:Head Monster is Mad About Music
110:. He is the founder and CEO of
761:Safer, Will (April 30, 2009).
407:. Greenwood Publishing Group.
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124:and subsequently did work in
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401:Hirahara, Naomi (2003).
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303:to collaborate on the
122:mechanical engineering
152:Noel Lee was born in
177:Engineer and drummer
313:San Francisco 49ers
116:Lee graduated from
936:American inventors
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851:. Business Insider
717:Home Theater Geeks
251:table and sold it
216:Ernst & Young
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638:February 26,
636:. Retrieved
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926:1948 births
896:Lee, Noel,
855:December 9,
108:businessman
63:Nationality
920:Categories
531:, Cal Poly
459:2013-05-09
350:References
148:Early life
87:Occupation
52:California
37:1948-12-25
905:, Monster
687:March 20,
660:HiFi News
498:USA Today
292:USA Today
249:ping pong
878:March 1,
727:April 5,
625:. Gale.
233:Richmond
220:Bay Area
141:zip cord
128:for the
104:engineer
100:Noel Lee
67:American
25:Noel Lee
297:Dr. Dre
226:Origins
206:Monster
169:, then
90:CEO of
874:. CNET
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449:Vision
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195:Top 40
190:Hawaii
903:(PDF)
305:Beats
288:Shana
880:2015
857:2014
829:2013
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729:2013
689:2013
640:2013
627:ISBN
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