About Us
Our mission at Plugfones® is to provide innovative hearing protection + a superior listening experience. We strive to continually optimize our products and foster meaningful relationships with our customers.
Plugfones, founded by Shaun Knudsen in 2008, is the story of a product truly born of necessity. Prior to even thinking about an earplug-earbud hybrid, Shaun was a real estate investor and realtor. After years of running a successful business, he suddenly found himself facing bankruptcy during the height of the U.S. financial crisis of 2008. Realizing that he couldn’t use his professional knowledge to get him out of his precarious financial situation, Shaun put his boots on and went to work at the only job he could find – pushing sheets in a glass factory. No stranger to hard work, Shaun was grateful just to be gainfully employed – but the sheer monotony of feeding sheet after sheet of glass into large industrial burners was quickly driving him crazy. What it led him to invent, however, changed his life forever. Required to have proper ear protection while at work, Shaun yearned to listen to music or books on tape while he was on the floor. An exhaustive search yielded plenty of earplugs that provided hearing protection but no music, and just as many earphones that provided music but no hearing protection. Seeing an unmet market need, Shaun began making his own line of earbuds that were tucked inside the jacket of an earplug. It was the perfect solution! Now, almost 10 years later, Plugfones features a complete line of high-quality, high-fidelity earplug-earbud hybrid products to make the day go by faster.
Shaun Knudsen
President & Founder
Jon Gray
Director of Sales - Western United States
Cassey Farnsworth
Director of Sales - Eastern United States
With over 18 years of safety and industrial experience, Cassey has helped a variety of Fortune 500 companies develop, optimize, and act on their PPE programs. He has a proven track record of dramatically reducing reportable injuries for his clients and helping them retain safety professionals by embodying a safety-first attitude. When he’s not using Plugfones to help companies meet noise reduction standards, Cassey uses the Volume Limiting models to listen to sports talk radio while doing yard work.
Dan Hill
Vice President of Operations & Product Development
Dan has 21 years of experience with manufacturing and operations for consumer electronics, specifically audio and video technology. Having primarily worked with startups and small businesses throughout his career, Dan has become a specialist in developing processes and taking ideas from concept to market. He’s fluent in Chinese and diplomacy, which comes in handy when he travels internationally—as does a pair of Plugfones, which allow him to listen to audio books while making the long hours of airplane noise more bearable.
Krista Knudsen
Customer Relations Manager
Working as a Cosmetologist for 15 years and Plugfones for 10 years Krista understands the importance of customer service and feels it’s a vital part of the company. When not answering questions and helping customers out she is enjoying her 4 kids, shopping, the pool and the gym. Krista wears her Plugfones to tune out the kids while tackling piles of laundry.
Shelley Prestwich
Shipping & Fulfillment Manager
Shelley makes everything ship-worthy for Plugfones and you won’t find a tighter run warehouse anywhere this side of O.C.D.! You want it shipped? You got it out the door today! Shelley wears Plugfones on the job and they help her get ‘dialed in’ and stay focused.
