good afternoon nerds and welcome back to Barcelona we're here at Mobile World Congress all week live on the cube my name is Savannah Peterson and I am so excited for this next segment I'm a hardware nerd if you know anything about me at all and our next pair happens to have the hottest piece of haptic Hardware at Mobile World Congress Jeff and Michael thank you so much for being on the show thanks for having us well first of all hold up these cases in front of us so that everyone gets a chance t
o see what's going on here so a lot of talk about connectivity and Cloud at the show floor we are going to be talking about keyboards which is very very exciting I can only imagine what it's like for you you just announced this product in January sold out pretty much immediately started making more what's it like being here in Barcelona Jee I'm want to start with you it's been an absolute tsunami we launched clicks the brand the company all at the same time the response to the first keyboard for
iPhone has been just unbelievable you've got former keyboard phone users that have this latent love for buttons that are just so elated that there's a product for buttons I love that and now you've got this new generation of iPhone users that are experiencing their phone in a whole new way couldn't ask for anything more yeah yeah Michael yeah I so we call you Michael Fisher but you also go by Mr mobile I do indeed and every so often and every so often on YouTube a couple million people might kn
ow about that what made you get excited to make this product anybody who has watched that YouTube channel understands that I cover things that are unconventional and that are specialty and the more I did that the more I liked it and so when the opportunity came to contribute to a project that is the very definition of uh un unconventional and special uh I absolutely jumped at it so this is my ninth time in Barcelona as media uh is my first time as a co-founder as of a hardware outfit and uh I wo
uld not have wanted to come here with anything less iconic clastic than this that Mak sense it is extremely iconic and what's really interesting I learned just talking to you guys in the green room before the show the idea for this came together less than a year ago was last CES you started thinking about things team formed in April Jeff why is this team so uniquely poised to be able to deliver a piece of Hardware to Market essentially in less than nine months which is unheard of frankly well yo
u're right the product came together in less than a year but the the concept is like 15 years in the making if you look at the team we've got we lost our Blackberry well that and and you you point it out the the depth of the team is just unprecedented for a for a hardware Tech startup you've got people with uh consumer Tech experience like Michael combined with uh manufacturing experience uh like the team from FX technology uh we've got the industrial designer who built the original Blackberry k
eyboards as well as an adviser who spent 10 years with Apple iOS product marketing so when it comes to building a keyboard in the most iPhone way possible there isn't a better team to have done it I I think that's really compelling I mean I've done a lot of manufacturing and have a ton of supply chain experience nine months is usually about as fast as humanly possible you had an MVP in weeks it sounds like essentially which is yeah I mean it was CES 2023 when the idea was first floated it starte
d with some soapstone models to see you know would this feel right as as a mobile device in 2023 2024 and what was your initial impression when I got uh I got a prototype uh you know in the in the summer late spring summer sometime and I I my first impression when I saw the image was like you insane crazy bastards I love this and well you told me Michael when we were chatting the first thing you said is make make sure I'm the first person who gets the exclusive to review it can you imagine havin
g such a lack of foresight cuz I'm I'm I'm right here for you but what what almost immediately happened is that I was giving so much product feedback so many times per week when these calls with crackberry Kevin our our fellow co-founder and it's like yeah you know what this makes no sense I need to be involved in this directly and that happened very quickly and then I got the Prototype and we're typing away on this thing in Brooklyn walking around with this stretched iPhone with a very differen
t keyboard configuration back then different materials different everything and I'm doing doing the thing that I love most which is focusing on the tiny little details like hey that semicolon isn't really visible from off angle like do we have to can we change this key shape and is the inner key does it have to be that big and you know that's been the real fun for for me go ahead I remember one of the the real cut through insights that that fisher had at one point in the process we wanted to get
the balance right because when you when you add something I noticed the balance right away I'm glad you brought that up keep going when when you add something to to the to the chin of the phone like this you know some people think it's it's going to be topheavy and you know early on in the process fer said well you know what I think we need to add just a little bit of ballast in the bottom of clicks just so that it has that right uh balance point that it's not going to tip over and so that was
one of those things that we really obsessed over getting the weight right getting the click right you know the feedback the actuation pressure the travel the pre-travel all of those little things that go into perfecting the keyboard and that's really what the last 6 seven months of development was all about and even the detail I noticed right away when I put it in my hand soft touch on the side and hard on the back liquid silicone and polycarbonate yes it's a match made in heaven it and you just
like the excuse to say that don't youa really does real recognize real on that one but the design you you bring up an important point the design was so important to us because we didn't want to create something that felt like a third- party aftermarket accessory we wanted to build something that felt like a natural extension of iPhone like it was a a device that it was solid and that's one of the things that people observe when they first pick it up they go this doesn't feel like an accessory t
his doesn't feel like an afterthought it feels natural and it doesn't feel janky I think a lot of aftermarket third party stuff I mean you and I have both touched a million consumer products that were single-use plastic for all intents and purposes absolutely and this it really does feel rich it feels nice it does feel like an extension of the device I think that's so important and I love that I when I saw the the images the photos when all the Press came out back in January I was expecting it t
o be top heavy everyone does I was very much expecting that you put it in people's hands and they grab it and the first thing they do is is is grab it like they grab a regular iPhone and when you ask them 10 seconds in how does it feel they realize they oh oh I expected this from the photos I expected this to not feel great but I'm just holding it like I normally do like yeah it's amazing how that works out when you go through you know I don't know 100 iterations of design exactly and it's not j
ust a keyboard we were playing with it it's got all the Apple shortcuts that you're used to already which is pretty cool it's one one step further than just the literal I'm going to hold this up we are going to have a demo uh on our website with a with a closeup we'll we'll show you how this haptic feedback works but this is Ty is this your dog that's my dog Ty yeah three-legged dog from uh from Thailand hence the name oh wow gosh you guys are just a story that keeps writing itself I this I I wi
sh you will you'll be able to see when we zoom in but it really is incredible I'll try and type a little bit for you here it really is incredible if I can spell which I don't know that I can oh I'm not typing perfect that said then then I don't have to be able to spell but the the haptic feedback is so nice I I mean I was an OG Blackberry girl like I told you I've seen a lot of micr fluidic products that were trying to do what you're doing here without being just literal haptic buttons yeah you
crushed it well there's so much you don't consider like when you're when you're designing it there like activation pressure you mentioned je it's like the difference between 130 G and 150 g it's like you you don't think about these things until you have to and then you realize you get another variation back and you're like oh that's no that's too s we got to go back we got right what's that thumb roll off like and all this kind of stuff that you know again the it's a real privilege to be able to
focus on these tiny little details so that when you put it in people's hands they actually are they don't they're not even surprised because they just expect it to feel that way and then it does and I think that's one of the things is the best yeah yeah it fits that makes the click team so unique is that we're able to build a product quickly as a result of the deep experience like you know we have uh the people who've made the best keyboards in the world so they can guide us on how much actuati
on force is needed so that it feels right but doesn't make your thumbs tired and when we set out to build this we didn't want to build a time machine we didn't want to try to recreate Blackberry or turn your iPhone into a Blackberry it was this healthy tension between how do you build something that people who love and appreciate keyboards from the past will gravitate towards but also create it in a way that it's going to feel natural for iPhone users native iPhone users that have never seen or
touched buttons in their lives that's right it there's a lot of factors there and I mean Michael you are the ultimate power user you like well thank you yeah thanks for noticing no now but I can imagine I mean I'll speak for myself and rather than project on you I would have been a little obsessive about it to trying to figure that out and to have folks already on the team I love that you call him crackberry Kevin who have had decades of keyboard experience yes it's not a simple one try thing ho
w many iterations did it take you even with that amount of expertise in house to get to what we see today I was doing a lot of shooting you can talk to the total number probably but I know I myself went through I think five iterations carrying around in Brooklyn filming using in different conditions and stuff like that that was probably probably getting a new one every three and a half weeks or so for a while there but I think the total number is about 100 I think between July and and launch in
January I think we figured we made about 100 different product decisions whether it was the layout of the keypad so that was something that we actually debated a lot should the the keypad be laid out more like an iPhone virtual keypad that iPhone users would be accustomed to with numbers across the top or should it be laid out more dial pad style Alla previous keyboard phones and that was one of those things that we discussed and debated extensively we prototyped different models like what would
feel the most intive for a phone in 2024 and yet we were able to move very quickly which is which is very rare to be able to move that quick uh and yet have that many iteration Cycles in such a short period of time that's a good example of of of us kind of having the right team for this because for me somebody coming from the Blackberry like I wanted that numeric keypad because I an old guy who wanted a palm Trio again and then it when it was explained to me that hey maybe the smarter idea is t
o emulate the virtual keyboard as closely as possible because we're making an iPhone product and I was like I don't like that you're right but you're right well but that just goes to show that how collaborative Your Design decision-making process was in in delivering this product to Market I it it truly is quite the dream team of people to make a keyboard for for iPhone this is a fantastic product how do you become a company what's next from day one we never wanted to just build a gadget we want
ed to build a business and so when we look ahead there's a number of different vectors that we're we're looking to build on distribution is a big one right now we're focused on direct to Consumer but uh in the wake of CES we've been uh inundated with interest from all of the the Retail Partners you could imagine the carrier channels um they're they're all clamoring to to get their hands on clicks because it's just such a natural add-on for an iPhone um so that that's certainly one path we're goi
ng down we've got a really robust product uh road map for a additional models we're going to support uh we're already working on you know what clicks for iPhone 16 will look like new color families new features new capabilities lots of innovation and then if you think about you know what we've done with clicks we've built an engine for launching specialized uh consumer Tech products to Market and so you could imagine using this blueprint using this engine to find new specialized smart Tech acces
sories and smart Tech opportunities and and create more devices and products in the future yeah absolutely and I think I think there's a really interesting sweet spot when you combine industry Titans and legends like are on your team with creators like Michael who have who have really touched thousands of products in the space exactly no I mean that's the nice thing is that I can kind of be an internal an internal reviewer yeah and I think I enjoy doing that a lot more than I than even the you k
now element of adding visibility to the product cuz once we launched it was like my that role was was was over for me I was just like well the product can can speak for itself now and thankfully it spoke very well but like yeah having touched almost every high-end phone for the last 12 years is the real benefit to bringing a a Creator like me and early and to Jeff's point I think that's adaptable to almost any kind of business you want to make absolutely space and what was so great about having
Michael on the team is that we knew exactly how it was going to be reviewed we knew the positives people were going to compliment we knew the things that people might have critiques about because we had our own in-house Tech reviewer and you know with people like uh crackberry Kevin and his experience with mobile Nations and and the the media publishing side of the business you know we knew exactly how we were going to launch this product even before the product was finished that part I do belie
ve I do believe you would have had the right publicity plan in place to get get attention has there been any reactions that have surprised you or is everyone just smitten no well not everyone is not spitting so I think I actually well what I'll say is from a ratio standpoint yeah I am a little pessimistic I'm a little cynical I did not expect as much positivity because I know what you know I know what it is to come to a product and be like what are you doing you're ridiculous stop it and I expec
ted a lot more of that and really we have not gotten it as much of that as as I thought so I think that's what surprised me on the whole yeah I mean I think a lot of people they look at it and and the first thought they have is is BlackBerry reborn and then they take another 30 seconds with it they go this is a lot more than just a keyboard so people who might have been closed-minded initially realize oh this is about you know more screen real estate for my apps and content you know keyboard sho
rtcuts this is a whole new proposition Beyond just a typing device so I think that's been that's been a bit of a surprise and then I think the other really touching thing is the response from the accessibility Community we have had a tremendous outpouring of support if you look at the comments on uh Michael's launch video people saying you know I have a visual impairment or I have um some kind of a Mobility Challenge and and this device is going to help me use my phone uh in in in in a better wa
y than I ever thought possible and that is really touching that's really nice and and matters we're trying to think about how can we continue to uh support that accessibility Community as we as we build out our product road map yeah I think technology is only a benefit to humanity if it's inclusive and if the same group of people who have succeeded in Tech continue to continue in Tech forever then it's it's not going to the landscape won't change and we won't have new entrepreneurship I mean tha
t and haptic feedback matters we get haptic feedback from so many things tactility absolutely yeah what's interesting is that you know I I find that I'm frankly a little bit slower on a physical keyboard these days because we've all gotten used to the the virtual run right but when I'm writing something I care about when I'm writing I I've got onto the journaling thing before there was an app for it yeah I'm a trend setter analog as well that's right yeah yeah and when I'm typing a journal entry
that I that I genuinely care about and that I want to be intentional about and and record some important stuff I do prefer this and I miss it when I don't have it which is not a new feeling for me exactly yeah so it's just it's lovely to have it back for those things for those things that I actually you know want to dedicate some mind space to yeah I think that's great I'm sure folks watching are seeing that this is iPhone right now are we going to be supporting a cross model and I was I was go
nna say normally I'm like right on that yeah look I you're talking about Android yeah yeah um I mean I I I've carried every phone and I've Loved most of every phone I don't just carry the iPhone obviously carry a lot of Androids it is my personal mission to make certain that we uh eventually do support Android phones but you know it's there's a lot of challenges to that ecosystem every there's a lot of shapes and sizes there's a lot of who do you Target first who do you work with all this kind o
f stuff um but it is absolutely something we have always intended to to do we just can't you know we have to be very intentional about how we build and how we launch and focusing on the iPhone was an obvious first step for us given what we wanted to make and how we wanted Bey on the focus group of one here right when when we when we uh launched it to the world you know folks can can buy clicks for iPhone today on the website uh but we also put a form it's like are you not using your iPhone what
model do you have and we've had a tremendous outpouring of interest from the Android Community um you know there's there's thousands and thousands of of Android users who are like make this for Android and so you know I think it's it's further validating Michael's Instinct yeah he's he's paying them all uh but you know it's it's when we can figure out how to do it at the same level of care and quality you can you can better believe we're we're going to take a closer look at it yeah yeah do peopl
e stop you in the street in Brooklyn when you're walking around testing them yeah yeah you can't like I have to put it away if I want to get things done because I will just have conversations with strangers but here's the question they ask what what do you think they ask oh yeah it what is that or is that a Blackberry almost no they ask what phone is that yeah and then and then I say I say it's an iPhone right it's the iPhone you know it's your iPhone yeah right and and they go wait what and you
go it's well it's it's everything you love about your iPhone all the apps all the content the big screen with the benefit of buttons like does it get any better than that you're not giving anything up that was the problem when when the keyboard phones went away uh if you wanted to stick with a keyboard phone you had to give up everything you had to give up your ecosystem you had to give up your content you had to give up um it's true yeah and and so now you're able to get all of that and more a
nd that's one of the things I I quite enjoy about carrying this is because I get to surprise them with that then they're they're delighted when they realize they can use their iPhone with it because when I'm carrying other unconventional phones around Brooklyn as I do for the Mr mobile gig yeah of course uh everyone whether it's a foldable or something wild everyone's always spends a whole minute going oh wow is that the new razor I want I had the old one I love it so much it's so cool I could d
o so much with it beat beat of course I'd never give up my iPhone so with this I can just be like yeah you don't have to it's there it is your iPhone it's just wearing a module that Mak both world I mean and you're bringing together yeah the touch that we missed from the past too it's all it's all really interesting touch type together at last maybe should be a tagline yeah it is it's on our website I think and it'sa you must be in marketing or something yeah uh so what is your advice you're you
're a small team relatively lean you moved quite quickly what is your advice to other creators Michael who might be curious about product development and Entrepreneurship surround yourself with people who are better at it than you are and that's good advice that scales to to to kind of to anything but like also if somebody gives you the opportunity to do something special in that field and solicits your input in a way that that allows you to come on board as a as someone who can make a differenc
e take it assum assuming you are working with the with with people that you trust and appreciate take the opportunity don't think about it too much because they don't come along very often and I'm very very pleased that I learned how to say yes more promptly than I had in the past so that's what I've got I love that what about you Jeff what how are you going to attract the next creators to clicks to make the next product within the company portfolio they're probably watching right now so this is
your chance I think it's it's being okay with not trying to be everything to everybody right like we recognize this isn't a one in a 100 device probably not a one in 500 device but if we could create a product that A specialized group of people would love even at a scale of one in a thousand iPhone users we've got a you know multi million business and so I think for the Creator group it's really f focusing on building an incredible product in the image of your customer and not doing things just
because you can but being very intentional and deliberate about making the hard product decisions to cater to that specialized group of people that you know are going to absolutely love it yeah I can find your super fans that's it and I think you both did a fantastic job your whole team did a fantastic job of that was such an explosive launch in January you are you are shipping right now you can you can buy these right now super impressive Michael Jeff thank you so much for joining me here on t
he show and thank all of you for tuning in to the cubes live coverage here in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress my name is Savannah Peterson you're watching the cube the leader in Enterprise [Music] Tech
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