JRUMZ founder Lana Joseph built an audiologist-led audio brand

JRUMZ launched in 2022 as the first audio brand founded by a Black woman audiologist, according to MadameNoire. Founder and CEO Dr. Lana Joseph built the brand from a clinician’s perspective and also leads High Level Speech & Hearing Center. Her high-performance headphones are designed to look good and protect hearing.

JRUMZ has since entered Walmart and Amazon, extending its reach beyond the 2022 launch. Joseph told MadameNoire she is watching the brand take off a few short years after the debut, and she said casual listeners and working musicians have responded to it.

MadameNoire’s account disclosed no revenue, unit sales, valuation, funding or retailer terms, leaving distribution reach as the clearest documented measure of growth.

What shaped Joseph’s approach to hearing?

Joseph’s route into audiology began with a speech and hearing disorder that went unaddressed for much of her childhood in Louisiana. MadameNoire described the experience as the driving force behind her career and reported that it made her a target for bullies.

She described that period directly:

“Before I became an audiologist, I was a little girl navigating hearing loss and speech disorder. Unfortunately, I was bullied and teased, and that went on for eight years. That was a really difficult time for me.”

Her mother eventually got the attention of a school nurse, who helped Joseph enter speech therapy. Three months of treatment brought what she called a complete recovery, and she received care at age 12. Joseph said earlier access might have changed her childhood and spared her much of the bullying and teasing tied to her speech impediment.

She added:

“Maybe I wouldn’t have been bullied, maybe I wouldn’t have been teased so much for my speech impediment. I understand how getting support early can change a child’s experience, because it’s something I struggled with, and it eventually became the foundation for how I help other people.”

That personal history supplies the rationale behind Joseph’s professional focus, though MadameNoire did not describe a direct research process for the headphones. It also did not disclose whether she tested them on clinic patients or sought formal recommendations from audiologists. The account presents her as the brand’s clinical founder rather than documenting product-development milestones.

How does JRUMZ position its headphones?

JRUMZ entered consumer audio with high-performance headphones aimed at music, podcasts and other listening, according to the source. The source says the brand is changing how people listen, but it provides no adoption figures for that assertion. Its stated product proposition joins appearance with hearing protection, a combination Joseph framed through her audiology experience.

The source does not name a headphone model, explain how the products perform or state whether protection levels vary by model. It also gives no test results, launch price or comparison with competing headphones. Those omissions limit any assessment of how JRUMZ differs technically from other high-performance audio products.

Joseph’s dual role gives the company a defined founder story: she runs High Level Speech & Hearing Center and built an audio brand around protection for hearing. The source says casual listeners and working musicians have responded to the headphones, but it does not break out sales by customer type or identify any professional endorsement.

Can retail expansion produce durable growth?

The interview identifies no expansion milestone beyond JRUMZ’s entries into Walmart and Amazon. Both followed the 2022 launch, and the company now sells through two named retail platforms without disclosing the commercial terms attached to either arrangement. Distribution has advanced further than the evidence available on profitability.

Joseph said the brand has drawn both casual listeners and working musicians. The company’s next test is whether retailer visibility can translate into repeat demand while preserving the hearing-protection proposition at its core.

The next evidence to watch is whether Walmart and Amazon distribution produces repeat purchases, measurable sales and a sustained hearing-protection position. The source offers no forecast, target revenue or expansion timetable, leaving those disclosures to define whether the 2022 launch becomes a durable retail business.