EPISODE 4: NutKase
[INTRODUCTION]
[00:00:19] KK: Hey, everybody. Welcome to Risky Business. I’m Kathy Kaehler, and –
[00:00:22] BL: I’m Bliss Landon.
[00:00:25] KK: Welcome to this episode. We are super excited we have another very, very exciting guest.
[00:00:30] BL: Yes, we do.
[00:00:31] KK: I can't believe how much this gentleman does!
[00:00:35] BL: I know.
[00:00:35] KK: It’s extraordinary.
[00:00:36] BL: A major entrepreneur! Yes. He is.
[00:00:38] KK: It’s two pages. That's crazy. How have you been?
[00:00:41] BL: I've been great. You've been traveling and I've missed you. You're back.
[00:00:44] KK: I know. I’m back. Back in time for estate sales.
[00:00:47] BL: Yes. Okay, we got to go to switch.
[00:00:48] KK: Which we have to go.
[00:00:49] BL: Yes, we need to go.
[00:00:51] KK: In fact, I was in Kentucky and the weather there was actually nicer than it is here.
[00:00:56] BL: Well, the picture you just showed me looks beautiful.
[00:00:58] KK: Gorgeous.
[00:00:58] BL: So nice.
[00:00:59] KK: Blue Sky. Everything blooming.
[00:01:01] BL: Very nice.
[00:01:02] KK: Lovely. Lovely.
[00:01:03] BL: All right. Well, I'm glad you had a good trip.
[00:01:04] KK: I did. I did. Well, we want to introduce our friend who is actually joining us on a Zoom call, all the way from Florida. Oliver Page is – he founded a first startup called NutKase. You guys are working with them. It's so cool, too, like you’re also an entrepreneur, Oliver, obviously an entrepreneur. I just think inspiring and empowering to hear stories of how someone started a company.
[00:01:39] BL: Absolutely.
[00:01:40] KK: Oliver started when he was 17. Oliver, Welcome to Risky Business. Thank you for joining us.
[00:01:47] OP: Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
[00:01:49] KK: Oliver and NutKase have become a partner of ours and we are packaging the insurance with the case and providing a total solution to school districts out there. Oliver, I guess, first of all, just tell us about you and how you got into this business. It's very interesting to see, I mean, why did you develop — start developing cases to protect devices?
[00:02:16] OP: Absolutely. I was born and raised in Italy. Both my parents are from the States and they're both entrepreneurs. They moved to Italy, when they were in their 30’s. Actually, they were there for just this — they went there for one year as a sabbatical year, fell in love with the place, and they've been there for the last 35 years.
I was born and raised there. Spent High School, Elementary School there. I was never that academic in school. I was a good student, but I wasn't that into academics. When I was a high school student, I was a huge Apple fan, I was a huge Apple nerd. I was able to convince my parents to have a family friendship over an iPad one, right when it came out to Rome. Italy is a great country, the food, the wine, the culture, but when it comes to, at least back then, product releases, new Apple products being brought to market, they were always six to nine months behind.
I ended up getting one of these iPads. I remember that, at the time that the iPad was shipped, the case that was supposed to go along with it got held up during that massive Icelandic volcanic eruption. [Inaudible 00:03:43].
[00:03:46] KK: No one could fly across because of the smoke.
[00:03:48] BL: I remember that.
[00:03:49] OP: Exactly. If all air travel was halted. Everything was grinded to a stop. I remember that the iPad case that I had asked these friends to send over was also never shipped. I was using a neoprene sleeves in school. I was probably the first kid in Italy to have one of these things. I was pretty excited about it.
I remember distinctly being at the coffee bar, because being in Rome, you have to have a coffee bar in school.
[00:04:22] BL: That’s so cool.
[00:04:26] OP: I was having an espresso in 11th grade. I remember a kid running into me and knocking the iPad out of my hand and a very traumatizing experience by some miracle it survived the fall.
[00:04:41] BL: Wow.
[00:04:41] OP: That was my high school inception, “Aha!” moment for “I need a case that keeps this slippery tablet attached to my hand.” That was the preliminary idea for a product. There was no NutKase back then, there was no brand, there was no company, there was no big idea outside of “How do I come up with some contraption that sticks this iPad and keeps it attached by the hand?”
[00:05:12] BL: Wow.
[00:05:14] OP: Designed a cocktail napkin - just in my bedroom, coming up with design ideas, sketching out concepts and low and behold, we came up with a nice idea. I came with a nice idea of an iPad case that would have these straw strap and some kind of an X that allows you to slip it on. I showed my parents, they were enthusiastic.
I was in the process of applying to colleges and exploring that. They were obviously we want to encourage all of his entrepreneurial ideas and whatnot. If this, if he's really passionate about it we'll finance whatever the cost is to make a prototype. If it starts to evolve into an actual business, the deal, but if it doesn't, at least, it'll be a great story to put on his college application and you could talk about that in the process. My parents are very supportive and awesome parents, I'm very lucky. Whatever it was that thing was 300 bucks to source a prototype of this idea from some random supplier I found on Alibaba.
That was summer of 2011, I think. That was back in high school I got the product, I iterated. I started finding ways to improve it. I ultimately went door to door to different Apple stores in Rome and got pre orders for the product.
[00:06:50] KK: Amazing.
[00:06:50] BL: That’s awesome.
[00:06:51] OP: That was — because back then, the Apple store in Rome didn't even have the iPad yet. It was a very early stage concept. It was a bit of a novelty factor of a kid doing it. That is how NutKase really, at its earliest days really got started.
[00:07:11] KK: At that point, did you have the name NutKase?
[00:07:15] OP: No, not yet.
[00:07:15] KK: How did you develop that?
[00:07:18] OP: I think by the time we’ve received our first shipment of 500 cases, we had the NutKase name, Nutcase with a K, very important.
[00:07:30] BL: Right.
[00:07:33] KK: Let's talk about the K.
[00:07:34]OP: NutKase with K, because the Nutcase with c was already taken by a Helmet company. That is why this bag, I named it after myself. I'm a bit of a nutcase and not much more to the naming story other than [inaudible d00:07:51]. It was a catchy idea of a catchy name back then. So far it's stuck.
[00:07:57] KK: That's fantastic.
[00:07:59] OP: Yeah, so fast forwarding: Finished high school, the iPad 2 came out. I made a design for the iPad 2, and the big home run the, the biggest order we received was from my elementary school, who had just bought a bunch of iPads. I heard about an alumni making cases. That was when we caught wind of, “Wait a second! Maybe this isn't going to be the only school that's buying iPads? We can roll this out to other schools!”
It was very early stage and we never even this is one of our first big account was my school in Rome and in American International School called Ambrit. A really great school. That was the validation that also got me thinking about my first trip to China. Packing my bags going there, I remember, I think my first trip I went over there with my father, who was supporting me in the project and then after high school, actually, I took a gap year, I didn't want to go to school right away I wanted to work in the business.
I took a gap year, I went to China for about a year and explored the manufacturing scene, built some more prototypes, expanding my network, look behind got to really see behind the curtain what it's to be over there and work with the suppliers. It is a really eye opening experience. It was an eye opening experience for me doing it when I was 18.
[00:07:59] KK: I can't even imagine. Was your father in this type of entrepreneurial business or how did he jump in?
[00:09:40] OP: He was a real estate. Yeah, he was in real estate for most of his career. Then he Yeah, the story goes, after my gap year, I went to college, and in the in the crisis that took place, forget what happened, but my father essentially saw some of the success we were having with the business and essentially was, I'll join full time too, so he quit his job join me. -
Obviously in high school, he was supporting me as a more of a fatherly figure. When a couple years later, he joined full time and became a father-son team working on the business. At this point, I call it 2012 2013 timeframe, we really started identifying this niche, which were International School, so we really targeted the brands to be focused on selling protective accessories, protective cases for iPads, still probably 99% iPads back then to international schools around Europe, the Middle East, Scandinavia.
That was our market. It was a niche market. There was a lot of demand and most of these private international schools had budget. We also probably rolled out maybe our first [inaudible 00:10:57] case back then as well, because we were seeing some demand for those. Then, yeah, continuing to the journey in college for my first year I was doing an entrepreneurship degree at Lancaster University which, last I checked, was a top 10 Business School in the UK, it was a good school.
I didn't really want to go, my parents wanted me to go and met in the middle that an entrepreneurship degree was pushed to keep working on my business while I was in school. A year into it, less than a year into it, but in my first as a freshman there I was just obsessed with building the business. That's all I did. Didn't really have a college experience while I was there. Just focused on building the business. I got about 20 students to help me on campus, 20 enthusiastic students that wanted the experience, wanted to help out.
Made some really great friendships there. I’m still friends to this day with a lot of the folks from Lancaster. Story, the way it unfolded, was I ended up essentially getting accepted into a summer program called Draper University, which was a school for entrepreneurs. It isn't an actual accredited university. It's more of a boot camp format. This guy named Tim Draper, who's a big venture capitalist in the Bay Area. He's known for being the first investor in Skype and Tesla, Hotmail, SpaceX, Baidu, he's a huge Bitcoin investor —
[00:12:37] KK: Just a few small companies.
[00:12:40] BL: That's awesome.
[00:12:43] OP: He started this program. I got looped into attending his third class of students. I ended up starting another, I started a Tech Startup while I was there in the summer. I won this competition. He invested in my startup at the time called Floaty, which was another, which was essentially, software as a service. It was an idea for a software as a service that would be— it would help streamline and simplify the communication that I was having with my suppliers in China which was a big pain point for me with NutKase.
My father stepped in, took over NutKase while I was starting this other business in the Bay Area. He started running it as his own business with the help of my mother got involved as well. They were the mom and pop business. Weren't running it from Italy, but traveling all around the world, going to these different trade shows for international schools. I was in the Bay Area for about two years working on this business called Floaty.
That fizzled out in late 2014. Bay Area's great for several for— everyone knows Silicon Valley is where you want to go to start a business. Nowadays, that's changing a little bit. Nonetheless if you're not really— if you're not the next Facebook or the next Google attracting talent, competing with these tech companies for talent for a CTO, for your early team— Good engineer walks into Silicon Valley these days and picks up a job the next day for 200k base salary. If you're a startup you have to convince these people to work for free in your business.
Long story short, I didn't have the right tech team for Floaty. I came up with another idea for a tech startup called Scooterino, which is based on the sharing economy that was exploding in the United States. I came up with an idea for a ride sharing service, like Uber but on vespas and motorcycles and scooters. I mentioned earlier, I grew up in Italy. I was very familiar with some of the congestion and travel problems and transit issues that a densely populated city Rome, Rome experiences
[00:15:06] KK: How is that going?
[00:15:07] OP: When I moved back to Italy. I started that business. We got a grant from the European Space Agency, which our seed money and then we raised close to a million dollars in funding for that business. I was running that for three years and I had a really great experience.
Meanwhile, my father was still running Nutcase. Fast forward several years later, he's still running NutKase. Growing the business with, you know, was an awesome experience. We did 100,000 rides on less than a million dollar budget.
[00:15:40] KK: Wow.
[00:15:41] OP: Had really great experience running it. Recognized that there are some inherent challenges when you buy the — when you run a ride sharing business. The primary one being funding. It's no secret, Uber and Lyft still aren't profitable. They could raise however many billions of dollars trying to apply a similar model to the European market. We were first to market in Italy. It became clear after several years that without — to operate a business like this for the next decade, we would need 10’s and a 100 of millions of dollars, if not more.
I started getting back involved in, in the NutKase around 2017. My cousin, Leo who at the time was traveling around Asia, living in Australia was working on some projects over there. He got looped into the business through my father who is part of the year would go and work remotely from Thailand. Leo joined on as our later stage co-founder in the business. He and my dad teamed up, were running it. I got nuked back in because they needed support opening up the US market. In 2018 we moved to the United States. I moved to the United States and set up our team over here.
It's just been a roller coaster ride since then. One-to-one deployments or picking up COVID last year. We're really blessed to have been on the upside of the pandemic, in terms of the demand for our products that we're selling increased – unlike a lot of people [inaudible 00:15:41] businesses. It's no secret plenty of businesses suffered during the pandemic, we just the universe, we just got lucky.
We had a really big year last year. We hired a whole new team in the States. We're really yeah, we're picking up a lot of steam, a lot of momentum. There's some really big players in the space. With all the funding and attention going to schools these days, we're primed to have another rockstar year and the partnership that we have with you guys is awesome. I’m really excited. That's the story. Overview.
[00:18:13] BL: That’s a great story. Are you an only child?
[00:18:17] OP: No, I actually have I have a sister, who is also very entrepreneurial. She currently is actually, a big shout out, she’s just about to launch her podcast next week. It's, called Art Is and I don't even know what her website is. I think it's going to probably be Art Is or something like that. She did a double masters at Edinburgh University in art history and sculpture.
[00:18:49] BL: Nice.
[00:18:50] OP: Just finishing up her — Yeah, she finished her degree last year and she’s just about to launch her podcast, focused on young art students. Her target market for the podcast is going to be all of these art student or art student graduates from across the United States and in Europe who are entering a very challenging world from an arts perspectives.
[00:19:13] BL: Right.
[00:19:13] OP: From what I'm hearing, I'm really excited she’s launching a podcast very soon. She's an entrepreneur at heart, too.
[00:19:22] BL: I asked you that question because I have a brother. I don't think we've shared this information before Oliver but my dad is my business partner.
[00:19:31] OP: Really?
[00:19:32] BL: I started when I was 22 years old. This insurance business and then my brother has also been in the space too. Doing a little bit different, but in the transportation insurance industry, and my dad is a half-owner with him. The only thing my dad regretted was not having more children so he could have more businesses. Not that he didn't have some others on his own, but he could have had even more. Anyway, we share the same background, which is pretty cool.
[00:20:07] KK: Family affair.
[00:20:07] BL: Yeah, but it’s nice to have the support of your family or a relative to get you started, share their knowledge. That’s something that you just can't buy. It's something that is just a great experience and has been really fun. Yeah.
[00:20:25] KK: Yeah. Oliver with NutKase and all these kids this year of COVID being at home and studying at home and having these additional devices. What would you say to a parent who doesn't know about your company? Or kids or school doesn't know about your company and the value of it in terms of just reducing risk for damage and breakage? What would you say?
[00:20:54] OP: Yeah, if we're talking to schools directly and K12 districts I feel now is all this money is being spent on technology. It is part of the fabric of learning these days. We're not going back. Unfortunately in Italy, I'm pretty sure, I hear there's still some blackboards in classrooms but Italy is —
[00:21:26] KK: I like that.
[00:21:27] OP: A little challenged I think with the technology deployments unfortunately. In fact, although we had headquarters in Italy, 98% of our business takes place outside of Italy, which is a shame. I think to schools it's really about protecting their investment. We're spending all this money and giving students devices. Keeping their investments secure is our number one priority and your number one priority, pretty sure.
[00:22:04] BL: Yes, well that's why we wanted to partner up is to reduce the breakage the claims.
[00:22:11] KK: How do you test that? How do you how do you test your like a NutKase. How is that tested for different types of, I guess?
[00:22:17] OP: We just have little company off site recently here in Miami where, and I can send the video along, where we launched one of our iPads out of our third floor balcony with one of our cases. Survived the drop!
[00:22:37] BL: Wow. That's impressive!
[00:22:39] OP: Yeah, the case protected the iPads. No, I mean, look, when it comes to testing the product, I think there's no better test than getting IT meters in school districts with samples of the product to beat up, test, chuck arounds, throw them, drop them, do whatever they want to do to them. I think one of the things that really does make us stand out is our products we have great volume pricing, we're designed for K12 districts.
We know we have competitive pricing. I do feel, from the conversations we've had over the years, that if someone with a close eye for detail examines our cases and looks at the stitching, the fabrics, we're using the reinforced plastic, the protection, and compares it to some of the others out there, we really do invest in a quality product. It does — everything's designed in Italy. We make them in China. We know we're paying more for our products than a lot of our competitors are and we're proud of it. We know that the cases are designed to last an entire educational lifecycle of a student, whether a student gets a device in 9th grade and graduates in 12th grade. Our cases are made to last an entire period.
[00:24:01] BL: That's good to know, that's good to know.
[00:24:03] OP: We offer a 10 year warranty. If something ever were to happen to one of the cases, we'll replace the case. That's vital. I think having that peace of mind as an IT director, knowing that with your great service that you guys are providing fast turnarounds on repairs, fast turnarounds on replacement cases, it's critical because you just can't get slowed down at scale yet.
[00:24:30] BL: Exactly.
[00:24:31] OP: Thousands of students. It's just speed I think. The quality of our service and speed of our service is definitely a competitive edge in the market. At the end of the day, the quality of the product speaks for itself and in a lineup we win.
[00:24:53] KK: That’s NutKase.
[00:24:54] BL: Number one. That's great. We’re very excited about this because it's very important for the school districts to take care of their devices because what at the end of the life of the device they're going to want to purchase new ones and they want to get top dollar for the devices they have which are sold for parts or whatever. There's companies that buy those used devices, but you want them in as good working order as possible, in good shape, you can get good money to put towards your next purchase of whatever the next greatest and latest device is.
It’s just make sense to have a case. We're really hoping that really takes off with it partnering with you with the cases because it's a better experience for our customers all the way around. You keep them happier. It's less repairs, its less problems, it's less everything in it and but more experience for the schools, the parents, it's a better experience. You're just providing a complete service.
[00:26:03] KK: As you were saying, Oliver, it's an investment on your protection of your device.
[00:26:08] BL: Exactly.
[00:26:09] OP: Absolutely.
[00:26:10] KK: We have really reached almost the end of our show. I can't believe we've talked so much already.
[00:26:20] BL: I know. I know. It's so interesting, Oliver. How things got started with you and we’ll continue to watch you grow the NutKase and then see what other entrepreneurial things you get yourself into. You have to come back and share with us.
[00:26:37] KK: Are you missing the Italian cuisine in Florida?
[00:26:41] OP: I am. I’m definitely, I am. Thankfully I learned a few recipes.
[00:26:48] BL: Okay, you're going to have to share that with me, Oliver.
[00:26:50] KK: She wants to know.
[00:26:51] BL: What do you make? Tell me what you make.
[00:26:53] OP: I go to a s a Italian pasta. An Italian pasta with a sausage [inaudible 00:26:53]
That's my go to.
[00:27:06] BL: So what’s the secret ingredients for your red sauce? What would you say?
[00:27:09] OP: I can’t say. The secret ingredient.-
[00:27:11] BL: Come on, Oliver.
[00:27:12] OP: They would go viral immediately so. Garlic, onion sausage, unsweetened tomato. I feel like in the States every sugar is in everything these days you got to try and get some sort of unsweetened canned tomatoes.
[00:27:29] BL: Yeah, you don't use fresh tomatoes? No fresh tomatoes. You use the canned?
[00:27:34] OP: Yeah, I use canned tomatoes for this type of dish but you can have fresh tomatoes for different dishes. Yeah.
[00:27:39] BL: Wow. Yes. Well.
[00:27:43] OP: Although my favorite new kitchen accessories is air fryer. Almost, that's been –
[00:27:46] KK: Oh, yes.
[00:27:47] OP: [Inaudible 00:27:48].
[00:27:48] KK: I don't have one, but I hear they’re healthy.
[00:27:49] BL: Are they fantastic? Oh, I made some coconut shrimp in my air fryer.
[00:27:55] KK: You did?
[00:27:55] OP: It was really good. Yeah. Really good.
[00:27:59] KK: Amazing.
[00:28:00] BL: Well, if you come back to California, we'll take you to one of our favorite Italian places and see what you think. We'll see how it measures at.
[00:28:10] KK: Yeah, come on over.
[00:28:13] BL: Best website. Oh, I was going to say, what's the website? NutKase? With a K .com?
[00:28:18] OP: NutKase.com. I feel like, if you're someone who's this – if you're listening to this, and you're looking at potentially trying to protect devices, whether it's iPad or Chromebooks, I really think that the best thing to do is to request a free sample and let the money talk for its – We'd like to put money where our mouth is, and send you a free sample, even up to two to three samples and try them out. Try it out for yourself; one of our sleeves, one of our rugged iPad cases, or one of our – working always on tromba cases.
[00:28:55] BL: Awesome. Amazing. They can also contact us and we'll hook them up with –
[00:29:01] KK: Perfect.
[00:29:01] BL: - in that case. No problem.
[00:29:03] KK: Thank you, Oliver.
[00:29:04] BL: Thank you, Oliver.
[00:29:04] OP: Awesome. Thank you guys. Really appreciate it.
[00:29:06] BL: Thank you so much.
[00:29:08] KK: Have a good night.
[00:29:09] OP: Bye-bye.
[00:29:10] KK: Bye-bye. So interesting.
[00:29:12] BL: Isn't it?
[00:29:13] KK: How is he? I mean, how can he do all that stuff? It's incredible.
[00:29:16] BL: I don't think he sleeps. He must not sleep. He must never sleep. There's no way. He’s too busy.
[00:29:22] KK: Very, very, very young. Inspiring.
[00:29:27] BL: That’s what’s fun about business in general, is just the people you meet and how inspiring they can be with the things they’ve done and what they’re doing. It’s really fun.
[00:29:38] KK: Well, and I like it that it's exactly what we're talking about, about how we need to inform people, educate people about kids and their educational devices that they're using, and what a great partnership that you guys have created.
[00:29:56] BL: Oh, yeah. You can see, he's a great guy, a nice guy, hard worker, and it’s been great. So far, so good.
[00:30:05] KK: More information, if you would like on NutKase, remember it’s nutkase.com. School device coverage. If you want to get more information about that, or our show Risky Business, you can email us. We're riskybusiness@coveragequeens.com. I think that's it.
[00:30:28] BL: We’ll have a new episode for you come up.
[00:30:31] KK: Thank you so much.
[00:30:33] BL: Bye-bye.
[00:30:33] KK: Bye-bye.
[END]