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Henge Docks, LLC created the first line of truly comprehensive docking stations for Apple's current crop of notebook computers. They are based in Arlington, Virginia just outside of Washington, DC and feature a continually expanding portfolio of computing accessories.

The Company

The roots of Henge Docks, LLC sounds a bit like the opener for an off-color joke, "A future product designer, future lawyer and future physics teacher all meet on a playground in the 3rd grade...". Well, twenty-some-odd-years later those kids reunited, coming from all over the United States, to form a company with goal of turning a few pages of product drawings into a full line of innovative products.

Matt, the product designer, developed prototypes and built webpages. Ben, the lawyer, filed patents and wrote contracts. Alex, the physics teacher, negotiated with suppliers and developed financial projections. In a little over a year they had created, not just a business, but something they could show the world with a sense of pride.

The Product

The Henge Dock was conceived in early 2007 while Matt was hooking an old 12-inch G4 PowerBook up to a home theater system. Transitioning between desktop use with an external monitor and the home theater system to watch movies was always a pain. Cords would get tangled, connectors would fall behind the desk and the audio leads would constantly get plugged into the wrong ports. Swapping the computer between on-the-go, the desktop and home theater several times a day was tedious, very un-Apple. Then, when the thing was finally hooked up, it looked like some kind of sci-fi hell was happening in the living room, very un-designerly. There had to be a better way.

There wasn't. Matt sketched out some basic designs for a solution to the problem, it was a vertical docking station that allowed the user to connect all the ports at once. It would turn a laptop, into a desktop or media center PC, without all the hassle. The sketches sat for a while, unrealized, only to be dug out after a conversation with Ben at a party in late 2008.

Matt and Ben went to work designing a basic prototype as a side project. It wasn't until the first proof of concept arrived in March of 2009 that the excitement about the product really built. The prototype was ugly, but it worked... actually, it worked really well. They called Alex and decided to form a business around the concept. The company was named Henge Docks, after the circle of large vertical stones found at Stonehenge north of Salsibury, England. More importantly the domain name was available.

Over the next year they tested and refined the design into the form you see today. Using their diverse backgrounds they were able to accomplish nearly all of the development inhouse and bootstrapped the company through the early phases. Each generation of prototype brought them closer to production. They methodically arranged manufacturers, shippers and various supply chain elements until all of the boxes were checked. It has been a lot of work, but there is nothing quite like bringing an idea to life. To read the full run down, visit the Henge Docks Blog...