Flic Takes the Next Step

Catching up with a Highway1 alum after Demo Day

Jon Sung
Jon Sung
Aug 22, 2017 · 3 min read

Life comes at you fast. So does business, and not always from an angle you’d expect. When Flic launched their Bluetooth-integrated one-touch button for everything, they got an unanticipated flood of interest from B2B channels. “A lot of companies were interested in printing their logos on them,” recalls Flic co-founder Amir Sharifat, which wasn’t really possible with the way Flic had debossed their logo into the device’s silicone surface.

Flic co-founder Amir Sharifat

But the request got them thinking: what if they made it less complicated? The standard Flic was almost endlessly configurable and had a finicky manufacturing process. Would a single-use button that could have a logo printed on its surface be worthwhile? “It was much simpler to produce and assemble,” says Sharifat, “and we were able to sell them at a lower price to businesses who were interested.” The Flic Single was born, and proved itself such a winner that the manufacturing model’s already been refined. Launched originally for larger B2B partners with an MOQ of 10K, the logo-friendly Flic Single can be ordered with a custom image in volumes of 50 at a time — soon to become as low as one (1) at a time — and business is picking up.

“We’re sending them to our supplier for printing twice a week now,” Sharifat notes. Instead of stress balls or pens or even USB sticks, Flic Singles are poised to become the hot new swag item at big conferences.

There have, of course, been challenges. Sharifat cautions current and former Highway1 startups not to view that first retail deal as an end in and of itself: “Don’t celebrate the fact of getting into retail — celebrate when you start selling through.” Small companies, he says, also have to contend with the ever-present chicken-and-egg problem of cost vs. volume. “When you’re putting something into production, you need volume to bring costs down, but at the same time you need the costs to be low in order to get volume. For big companies it’s easy, but for little ones it’s a neverending problem.”

Flic’s next move is to refine the product line for users who might be feeling slightly underserved. “Like any other product, you have people that love it and constantly use it, and then there are the people that love the idea but don’t like how it’s actually being executed.” To work its magic, the Flic connects to your phone over Bluetooth, which can be a problem if your phone’s Bluetooth is less than stellar. “It makes the Flic seem not to work so well — nobody thinks their phone has a problem, so it must be with the Flic.”

Enter the Flic Hub, a standalone device for home and office that frees users from their phones. “We wanted to build something users could connect their Flics to that would work perfectly, so they’d never have to worry about it,” Sharifat explains. “We’re trying to convert that second category into fully satisfied customers.” At over 8x the Flic Hub’s original crowdfunding goal and counting, Flic may be on their way to doing just that.

Highway1

News, thoughts, and lessons on hardware entrepreneurship from Silicon Valley’s premier hardware startup accelerator

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Jon Sung

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Jon Sung

Earth's last, best hope

Highway1

Highway1

News, thoughts, and lessons on hardware entrepreneurship from Silicon Valley’s premier hardware startup accelerator

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