Last month, I caught up with Janty president and founder Ludo Timmermans during my trip to the Philippines. Recently, the company has been making waves with the MiD One — a potentially gaming-changing vaping device with the most advanced features I’ve seen. While Janty’s future is definitely exciting, I was more interested in helping vapers learn about its past. Janty is one of the most influential and copied e-cig companies in the world, but I don’t think it gets enough credit for its contributions.
When most vapers hear “eGo,” they think Joyetech. When they hear “RY4,” they think of Dekang as the originator. The original eGo e-cigarette and RY4 e-liquid are Janty creations (though some longtime vapers dispute the latter claim). These are huge contributions to vaping. The eGo is the most-copied e-cig in the world; it was one of the first devices to offer a significantly better experience than cig-alike products. RY4 juice is one of the most popular flavors ever made; the vast majority of e-liquid vendors have their own version and many offer multiple takes of this juice.
If you’ve been reading my videogame and comic-book articles then you know that I favor creators. In gaming, I care far more about developers than publishers. In comics, I care much more about writers and artists than DC or Marvel. With that in mind, it bugs me that many vapers don’t know that Janty created the eGo and RY4. These are extremely significant inventions that have improved and influenced the vaping industry. I hate to sound like a kiss-ass, but Janty should be recognized and lauded for these two notable contributions.
It was fun spending time with Ludo, learning about Janty’s history, and hearing tales of the early day’s of the vaping business. In the interview above, he talks about the origins of Janty, the creation of the eGo, and the creation of Ry4. He’s an interesting guy with a different approach to vaping. I admire and appreciate that he has an artistic view to vaping. It’s one of the reasons his company has become an innovator, but it’s also one of the reasons why the Janty brand isn’t as recognized as it should be. He’s always looking forward, looking for the next exciting thing. Unfortunately, that approach also caused the company to neglect things like copyrights and trademarks. That said, he has acknowledged his early mistakes and isn’t fretting about the past.
Spending time with Ludo off-camera was fantastic as well. He shared a lot of off-the-record story’s about the early days of the vaping industry (totally Wild West) and his career before Janty. I was surprised to learn that we had several things in common — playing music, working in video, and being in IMDB (his page and my page). His artistic background (and slight craziness) is one of the reasons Janty is bold enough to offer a product like the MiD One and the even bolder products the company has planned for the future. It wasn’t a surprise to learn that Ludo is an Apple fan — the products and the company. I believe that the vaping business needs more people like Ludo and more company’s like Janty. As the legendary Steve Jobs once said in a famous Apple commercial:
Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo.
Janty has a long, long way to go (especially on the business side) before people view it as the Apple of vaping, but I believe that it’s in a good position to do so. Unlike many of its competitors, I believe it has the attitude, inventiveness, and craziness to do something “insanely great.” I have no idea if Janty will get there, but I’ll be rooting for it on the sidelines.
