Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to INA Insights, where prominent leaders and influencers shaping the industrial and industrial technology sector discuss topics that are critical for executives, boards and investors. INA Insights is brought to you by Aina AI, a firm focused on working with industrial companies to make them unrivaled segment of ONE leaders. To learn more about INA AI, please visit our website at www.ina.AI.
[00:00:40] Speaker B: Good morning. Welcome to our INA Insights podcast where today we will be focusing on a consumer tech company. So we have with us Calvin Chan. He is the CEO of USB Lidar Company. The USB lighter company launched in 2014 with a collection of electric lighters that charge easily through a USB port.
Over the past four years, Chain's products have been featured on the View, Good Morning America, and an Opera magazine.
Calvin started USB lighter companies to provide an environmentally friendly product that would eliminate our dependence on butane lighters, which cannot easily be recycled. So the USB lighter is a rechargeable lighter and when disposed, initiates biodegradation once the plastic material reaches the landfill.
So, Calvin, welcome to our podcast. We're excited to have you and are looking forward to talking about your journey as a founder and CEO.
So for those not familiar, could you explain what USB LiDAR company does?
[00:01:46] Speaker C: Sure. Hi, my name is Calvin Chan with the USB Lighter Company. We make electric lighters. Imagine a lighter with no butane, and instead of a fuel, we're using a battery. And instead of creating a flame, we're creating a spark of electricity.
[00:02:06] Speaker B: All right, thank you. And so USB Lighter Company is focused on revolutionizing the way consumers interact with fire for the benefit of our audience. Can you explain the difference between an electric lighter and a regular lighter?
[00:02:21] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. You know, when I first found the product, my.
The challenge that I wanted to overcome was getting people to try something new, try something different. The main difference, again, between a electric lighter and a butane disposable lighter is the we don't use butane. There's no butane involved. So you're essentially carrying around or in your hand, like a futuristic device that allows you to control electricity to ignite a candle, a gas appliance, a piece of paper, it can replace anything that a butane lighter or gas powered combustion does. Now, the benefit of this moving forward will be we won't be using that natural resource. There's not going to be chemical pollution in the air from the use of butane, propane or any sort of gas used again for combustion. This is specifically important for people who live in small areas, for example, like a leaky gas stove, pilot can cause tremendous air pollution and damage in someone's home living space. So if you think about how many people there are in the world and you think about how many people are using these lighters, I'm sure you've used this lighter. You probably have one at your house, which is great because it's, it's, it was a foundational technology that allowed for survival. But we're, we're sort of stuck in these patterns where we're, where we're, we're continuing to do and participate in the same routines that potentially are harming our environment without us even realizing it or understanding it.
So this added to the challenge that I wanted to overcome, which was how do you get people to change?
[00:04:23] Speaker B: Yeah, very fascinating. I think that's a really good point you're touching on. And is there anything further? I know you already talked a bit about sustainability. Is there any further you'd like to add on how USB lighter company provides a more sustainable solution to those traditional butane lighters that you mentioned?
[00:04:41] Speaker C: The biggest trigger word for me as a consumer is when something is disposable. When something is disposable and when it's in high volume, for example, like a plastic grocery bag, you can start to see the mounting effects on the environment and the communities around.
You start to see landfills just being over.
I don't want to say popular, but overfilled or close to capacity. You're starting to see microplastics everywhere in water and water we're drinking and the products we're touching. So we need to start thinking about sustainability in terms of rate of use. Right? Like how many disposable butane lighters will a consumer purchase on average over a year? Let's say it, like, let's say it's 10, and let's say it's 10 because that product is either faulty or breaks halfway through its cycle, or is misplaced, is stolen, is lost, which leads, you know, obviously into the capitalist culture and why the business is so successful for disposable products.
But my product will eliminate the need for continual repurchase. So there's a cost saving value and there's also an upgrade that you receive with technology where things can last longer and be replenished in terms of energy via battery. And there's a way for.
Well, I say the afterlife of these products. There is value to people. For example, the chips could potentially be harvested and used for something.
The plastic material abs, the metal, the zinc alloy. These things can be recycled and reused by somebody looking to Use non virgin materials.
Whereas a butane lighter, because of the feel inside, which is like a hazardous material, in order for that product to be recycled in any capacity, you either need to remove the fill chamber and then recycle the parts of the product that can be, or for example, like a standard click lighter, a handheld click lighter, you would actually have to open up the body, clean out the inside with, you know, regulated materials that can certify its ability to be recycled cleanly after.
And that process is just, it's impossible, that's an impossible process for anybody to undertake because the cost to do that is too high. So what you're left with is like a really reliable product, a product that we've been using forever, but it's only home after you're done with it is the ocean or the earth or, you know, and I don't think that's, I think if we continue to participate in that sort of behavior, maybe it doesn't affect us immediately, but if we get to a stage in life maybe 50 years from now for some of us, maybe longer for more of us, we're going to see potentially an environment that we don't recognize and that we don't particularly enjoy.
And thinking back, we, we're going to be like, oh man, we shouldn't have used so many plastic bags or we shouldn't have bought so many stupid lighters. You know, like, we're gonna, I think in reflection we're gonna, we're gonna understand that we were in control of, of what, what the result of the environment that we're living in.
[00:08:37] Speaker B: Absolutely. And so thinking back, your company was founded in 2014.
How has your overall vision and strategy evolved since then?
[00:08:49] Speaker C: Man, I think, I think when I was in my 30s, I had a, I had a perspective of life that had the experience of a 30 year old. I think I was, I fell victim to the mindset of getting work over with, you know, like gonna put in my, gonna put in my six years, seven years, I'm gonna build this company, I'm gonna position it for sale and then I'm gonna get to like enjoy my 40s, you know, whatever that meant, whatever that means.
I would say now the vision is the same. My desire to. What excites me is when I see someone using my product or someone emails me, texts me, calls me, hey, so and so or I, or this, and they're like, oh, you know, this is so much easier. It's, it's, it's. I'm never going to buy those other ones again. And it's also a great. Like, everybody I give it to loves it. Like, it's followed by so much joy and like happiness that that's. I mean, I don't want to get rid of that. That's the. I could do. I could have.
I could do that for the rest of my life. But I would say the strategy, man. I don't know that anybody had a strategy for, for obviously the pandemic. But I will say what I've learned is our.
Probably like the. On a business level, on a personal level, on a. On a. Trying to innovate. I'm trying to monetize. On your innovation.
The.
How do I put this? It's like such a. So I was, I was. I'm 40 right now. So my dad was able to explain to me like when the recessions hit, like when I was growing up, but they didn't have a concept for it. He was just, he would say things like, hey, you know, like, we're not going to have like money to do this moving forward because, you know, the economy's doing this. He would, he would just like frame things like, very basically and it would give me an understanding like, oh, okay, we're, you know, this is why we're not having Christmas or you know, whatever. Whatever it would, it would end up being.
But just sort of like, listen, you're not missing out on anything. This is just what's happening. So this is how we're positioning our finances to accommodate that.
I would say the strategy now post Covid. And especially like specifically what's happening with the economy right now, which is. It's kind of a. It's kind of a dark place right now. I mean, in terms of my business, my business people, other founders that I know, I would say that the last like nine months has not. Have been challenging for most sectors. So the strategy now, I think is for me at least is to refine and like sort of hunker down for more of a.
I mean it's always a long term. But I would say that it's. It's going to continue to be like a dog fight and really checking in with your core values and your core benefits and taking the opportunity to like evolve and refresh in a time where a lot of people can't do that. Like, it's a tr. Like the strategy has evolved to be more.
I'll put it this way. I feel like how I felt in 2014 now in 2024, just the mindset of where I've had to go back to. And, you know, it's. It's been really fascinating, actually. It's been. It's been supremely fascinating to see the cycle of the business revolve in a way and where I am on the revolution of it and then being able to apply experience in the history of just running the company for the last 10 years, I feel, I mean, there's. You always feel all the things I think as a founder in, in terms of like, whether it's the sleepless nights or it's like the constant, like the.
For me, like if the, I don't know, brain doesn't shut off unless it gets through what it needs to get through. So, yeah, the strategy is just, I think if you are expanding, maybe stop that, pull back, find your baseline again and find like, really like whatever your plans for innovation were, pull those back and do much more. Like, I don't know, I guess the easiest way. Have the price conversation on your innovation, like, more.
Because I think moving forward, the challenges are going to still be there, but the, the customers are also there as well. So just really about focusing on how to best serve the customer base, that is your loyal customer base, and putting them really, for me, like, putting them really first and foremost because they've always been my best advocates and supporters.
[00:14:44] Speaker B: You talked a little bit about what it was like in 2014, so now switch gears and focus on your journey to date. Tell us a bit more about your background and why you started the company back in 2014.
[00:14:59] Speaker C: My background. My background is I was grouping. I was born in Pasadena, California. I grew up in South Orange County, Laguna Niguel.
I was, I enjoyed.
Life was great until like high school for me.
I don't know what it was in high school that shifted and. But I, I became a.
I mean, pretty much like a juvenile delinquent.
Didn't really have plans to go to college or like further education. I don't know. I. I was, I was always very good at business and I saw business as a very selfish practice in my. What? You know, when I was 13, I. My concept of business was like, wait, you have to consent. You have to convince somebody to pay you for something.
And the transaction of that I didn't quite understand and I framed in a very negative way. So when I struggled in like high school, whether it was like, I don't know, I think I was just very. Like I said, I was a juvenile delinquent. I was just very. I didn't believe in what the teachers were telling me because I didn't view them I don't know. I had a perspective issue. I don't know. So long story short, I had no plans to do. I had never. If you had asked me, what would you be doing as your life's work? I wouldn't say making electric lighters and trying to sell them in a retail and direct to consumer environment.
But, you know, I just, I didn't know what I wanted to do. I didn't, I didn't really have like a positive like, like outset from my, my life. So I just sort of like, you know, graduate through high school, went to junior college, and then something sort of happened in junior, I think, you know, I had, I met my like first, like really good mentor, Charlie Myers, in a communication arts class that I took for as in like an elective. And I think through that experience I like got really into film and like, I was making films. I was like in all the film classes in Saddleback. And my mentor Charlie, he's like, hey, you know, you should probably like get out of here. And you know, have you ever heard of this school? Art Center, College of Design, Pasadena.
And I had no idea what this place was. It was like, okay, like we're gonna go up there, you know, like this weekend or whatever. So he took me up there also with my friend, my buddy Sean.
And it was like a, like kind of an eye opening experience. It was like, I don't know if you're familiar with the Art center, but you go, it's in Pasadena. It's up in the hills above the Rose Bowl. Beautiful. There's like deer like running across the road. You get into campus and it's like just this big black box that's like the size of a two story football field. And it's just like surrounded like you're in the forest essentially.
I was like, damn, this is cool. And you go in and it's really small. And I met with an admissions person who he didn't tell me at the time, but ended up was his sister. His sister worked at student admissions at that time.
And then like, next thing you know, like I'm implying, and then I get in and then I'm. I'm early. Like I put. I'm on a list for like, if people drop out, then you get in. And then I was in the school and I was like moved up in Pasadena and I was doing film stuff, but just really a production. I was like very focused on. I don't know, I had.
I looked at the business as like, well, everybody's like trying to be A director. Everybody's trying to be a Sigma talker. Everybody's trying to be like, what do people not want to do? And I'll focus on that. And like, no one really wanted to produce or like, be in charge of like, anything like that. So I just started learning about all the facets of it. Fast forward. I graduate and have a fashion line with my then girlfriend and a friend from back home. We're doing really well. We have financing.
Two and a half years later, we lose financing.
That's like, I'm like 24 or something like that. And then I wander for forever. So get to 2014. I'm actually in the ramen business. Me and a friend have a ramen shop in Hollywood.
Top of library in Hollywood.
It was called Ecoman. And when we took it over and rebranded, it's called Shinya.
And then life's super weird. My. My grandfather had a restaurant. My. My grandfather, well, my great, great grandfather. My grandfather had like the first Chinese restaurant, pasadena, like the 30s.
So my family has always been in restaurants. And like, there was this big conflict, like when I was getting into the ramen business and my family was like, are you sure you want to get into the restaurant business? It's like, very difficult. It's really hard. But I had a partner. We had a plan.
Then one day I get a call from our manager that my partner had fell out of an airplane.
And he was very Japanese. So this is how he explains. He's like, oh, Bernard fell out of an airplane? And I said, you mean he was like skydiving? He said, yes, but they said like, the chute didn't open.
And I said, okay. So.
So I. So this was like the end of my ramen business. My friend survived. He. He basically, he was jumping alone. Second jump of the day in Santa Barbara. Wind caught him, spun him, took him in a bridge, took him to the ground.
Miraculously, he survives.
He's alive today. He's. But, you know, I'm. I'm a big believer in like, intuition and like the universe. And like, clearly some sort of message was to be received, not only from my friend Bernard, but for me as well. So I had like. I mean, this was like three. Three years of my life of just like, you know, 18 hour days, seven days a week, just like trying to build this thing, and then it's over. So then, truth be told, I was like, okay, I need to be surrounded by creativity and I need to be surrounded by, like, inspiration, like, just positive vibes.
So I rented this warehouse space on La Brea in Los Angeles. And I was like. I was really. Honestly, I was going to start hosting poker games, and just. Because at that time, I knew a lot of people who like to play. I like to play.
There was sort of nowhere to, like, play. And I was like, hey, not a bad way to make a living.
That gallery space I took over was right next door to a tobacco shop owned by a man named Funky.
As a good business owner, you always get to know your neighbors because you know that's who you're living next to.
My first interaction with Funky was so aggressive that it could have went, like, one of two ways really easily. I basically came in to be like, there was a back alley spot, alleyway, and I was looking to load in things from the back, but in order to get to my entrance, I had to pass through his. And he had a lot of stuff back.
So I went in and I was like, hey, I'm Calvin for next door. I have this, like, little gallery space. There's the back. I was wondering if I could just, like, use it to, like, get in. But I was wondering if you could, like, open the gate and, you know, maybe move your car so I could just get some stuff in. And it was just like, straight up, like, no.
And I was like, but, like, I'm renting out the place next door, and, like, that's the only place I can get through. Do you think, like, we could, like, you know, compromise in any way? He's just like, no. And then he just. He was just like.
He just was just like. I don't know. It was. It was very. I must have caught him. Like, it's a bad. In a bad mood or something. Or like, I don't know what happened, but.
So basically I pull back that. Listen, I'm sorry. You seem to be, like, really upset. I. I'm just trying to be your friendly neighbor. I'm not sure what I said, if I offended you or anything, but if we could start over. You know, I'm just like. I'm just trying to get some stuff in, and I'm wondering, like, if you could help me out. My name's. You know, I introduced myself again, and then he softened. He was like, oh, okay, you're next door. And he started asking me all the questions. Cut to. We become really good friends.
And one of the times I'm walking into his place to let him know I'm having an event because he had two parking spots in front of his shop, and those are very important to his business. So he's make sure no one parks in there. It's like, I'll make sure no one parks in your spot. So every time I would have an event, I would go in and I would. I would say, like, hey, we're having an event. These are the hours. If anybody parks in your spot, let me know, take a picture of their car, send it to me, and I'll get them to move, you know, just because I know how valuable it was to him. One of these days, I came in and he said, hey, Kel, you've seen these electric lighters?
Or what do you say? You know, he's like, you've seen these USB lighters? And I was like, you must be like, what do you mean? Like, rechargeable? He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. You can, like, plug them in your computer. You can plug them into the wall. He's like, come back here. Come back here. So he's like, his shop. Like, you would lift up the door, and then you would, like, go under the counter, and then you would go through all the wall of tobacco and cigarette products, and then you would go in the back.
He's like, yo, check this out. And it was very similar to the. My Slim Pocket handheld lighter that I. That I saw now.
And, you know, I.
I, you know, I smoked all my life.
I'm like, the guy, if you meet me, was just like, you go into his house and like, there was never a lighter. There was always, like, a piece of glass that you heat up on the stove or, like, a magnifying glass or, like, I would just if. If I could get away from, like, using a lighter or mattress to light whatever I was trying to light, I would do that.
So when I saw this product, for me, as someone who had, like, high value in my, like, coolness, I was like, sort of. I had like a. Aha. Moment. That's all you could call it. Cut to. It just happened to be the time where the Alibaba platform, Alibaba Express platform was, like, sort of really more commercially accessible and, like, easier to use. That allowed for me to, you know, basically reach out and cold call, like, 35 trading companies that I found on Alibaba that were selling this product. I was able to find out that this was the first year that China had released the mold for the product. So it was, like, very new to market. And when I did a research into the competition in the space, it was. It was only people trying to sell to smokers, cigarette smokers. I saw it as a product for people who Love candles because I saw the market as homes. Like, wow, if I could create a product that could get into a million people's homes, I could be rich, you know. And at that time I was in a position where I could just dedicate my effort to it. So I filtered it down the trading companies I was working at based on essentially like best communication.
Got some sample cases in and very quickly I started selling them in a, in a retail, in a hotel resale space.
A lot of that was luck. Like I had personal connections to like very high profile, like popular stores. So was able to get it into the store union and Ron Robinson very quickly. Through that I was able to get agency showroom representation very quickly. Through that I was able to participate in trade shows, gift and accessory trade shows very quickly was able to have my product seen by, you know, Adam Glassman from Oprah Magazine, which was my first piece of press from Oprah Magazine. First selection to be showcased on the View.
Adam's picks in 2017 or 18. So again this, the, the following of the intermission and what the universe was telling me was just like this is the thing that you're going to be doing. So you know, I was a serial entrepreneur before that, you know, failing constantly.
Sometimes my own doing, sometimes, you know, your friend falling out of an airplane and he's the only signer on all the accounts. So you know, you can't pay for anything. You're trying to get power of attorney, trying to deal with his sister, his family, learning, learning a tremendous amount of real life skills in terms of what potentially happen when you're running a business. And from there it's just been a master class in business. Like okay, trying to expand, trying to expand through a pandemic. Oh, that's interesting. 2022 is, was so successful and then 2023 it was like, whoa.
Oh man, that's new too. Oh, I thought, oh, we're. Yeah, that's right. It's just like the fifth year into the pandemic. It's not, we think this is over but we're. It just took three years to get like desensitized to the long, the long lasting effects of what it does to supply chain. What it does to when you, you know, you over hired, you're trying, you know, you, you're trying to just constantly adapt on your feet to all these things which I, which was for me was, was essentially very new because I had, you know, it's just like right as I got into my rhythm, another disruption Covid and then there's like, you know, two years into Covid, the delays, the, okay, you kind of got a footing again, then it's, you know, it's war. It's, it's, it's the global economy, it's consumer confidence, it's election year. It's, it's fascinating. It's. There's so much, there's so much more than just trying to sell lighters to people who like candles.
[00:30:23] Speaker B: Very fascinating journey. And I think I certainly learned a lot from that and a lot about kind of your journey through the different stages of entrepreneurship and curious. What are some things you would have done differently if you could start USB lighter company all over again?
[00:30:40] Speaker C: I don't know that I would have done anything differently, but I would have.
I was thinking in like, oh, like I'll have something that I'm proud of in like 10 years from now. Realistically, it's like 40 years. You know, like, that's, I guess the only thing that a sense of mindset.
But I don't know how you get that at such a young age when it's something you never expected to do and you're just like going based off the energy and the natural success of it. Like, you buy something, you show it to people, you have 100 of that thing, they want to buy 200 of it. It's like, you start that way. But I think that, you know, like, again, like, how, how, how can you prepare for a president who's going to raise, you know, tariffs and duties with the country you produce out of that's going to increase the bottom line by like 20, 20 to 30%, you know, so it's, it's more like I would say, like, if it, I think the question for me is like, what would I, what would I tell people or what would I say to people or, you know, the younger generation or whatever. I would just say like, make sure, you know, you have to always be fluid, but make sure like, you're listening, make sure you're utilizing all the resources that are free to you. Podcasts, free books, online, like diversifying your knowledge base so that you feel confident answering all of like the tough questions, which is really like, they're either like price related or like, why do you want to do this in such like either a saturated market or a market that someone's agency value. But I would say, I would say that things take a lot longer than you think.
But it's because over the time you develop a greater passion and a greater drive for what you, your, your how to achieve that goal.
So naturally it doesn't, it doesn't matter how long it takes at the end of the day, as long as you just get what you personally want out of it, then for everybody that's different. But I think having the clearest picture of that in the beginning allows the best use of judgment on all the decisions you'll have to make throughout the process.
[00:33:25] Speaker B: Yep. Makes a lot of sense. And as a 10 year CEO, founder and IT sounds like even more extensive history before that. Is there, is there any other advice you'd have to other entrepreneurs looking to start their own consumer goods company?
[00:33:42] Speaker C: Yeah. If you can't sell it yourself door to door, then don't make it.
And don't think there. It's, it's gotten beyond dog eat dog. It's, it's like, you know, it's, it's beast eat beast.
So just be aware, be aware. But if you're, if you really believe the benefits and values of your product and there's a core like again for me it's like I get a kickoff of like changing the way people think about something and if my, if my kids could know me as the dad who like got people to like use a different form of lighter or do something differently, then that's my achievement, that's my goal.
So I guess like before you create something that could potentially become disposable, that could potentially. Because you always have to consider the effects of what you're putting out there. Which is a large part of the reason why I tried to.
My goal is to create a sustainable electronics company, whatever that means to you. But to me it means with anything I can within the manufacturing process, within the construction of my company, to be sustainable, to use sustainable practices to try to create the best product I can that lasts the longest, that will over its lifetime have the least amount of impact on the environment in which I choose to live in.
And I think moving forward, if you're, if you're, I think before the, the notion of the, for example, the digital retailer where you're just going to put something on Amazon and you're going to do this and you know you're just going to move to something at high volume because it's something people want in like a seasonal sort of cast iron pan was like this huge thing for a long time it would knock off Lake Crusade Dutch ovens. But the customer is becoming more sophisticated. The customer, the segments are becoming more targeted on, on who they want to support, how they want to support them and eventually, you know, the cost on Everything is going to go up. So it's really going to be, well, do you want to buy five of these cheap things over the year? Do you want to buy one of these things that are, you know, double the price, but you're going to buy one of them for the whole year, maybe even the next two years, maybe even the next three years. If you learn that, like, this is something that if you take care of it will last as long as, like a TV remote control or a flashlight in your drawer. You know, it's like all these things that we're conditioned to take care of and treat gently. But with certain products, we're just taught or we're programmed to just throw them away.
Maybe not even in a trash can. Maybe we don't even care for throwing it on the street because it's, you know, it's just something we don't think about because it's so small. It's such a small thing. Like, how could it possibly add up to anything significant where, as with the industry, I'm competing against, you know, there's, there's close to a billion disposable lighters produced globally a year.
And that's because there's more than that being consumed and purchased, because there's more than that in population that needs the product. So if you're going to create something, it needs to be something that takes into consideration the environment because I think moving forward, that's going to be important to the customer.
[00:37:31] Speaker B: Yep, definitely agree and kind of given all of those challenges, how do you approach marketing for a completely novel solution in the lighter industry?
[00:37:42] Speaker C: Trial and error. I think it's hard to market if you're relying on agencies.
Granted, I don't have the ad spend power. I'm not that big of a company, so I can't demand attention from the top agencies that could potentially position my brand over the next 5, 3, 5, 10 years to accomplish this, this placement in the market. But as someone just starting out, I feel I'm still new. I think seeing what works. I think for me, my email marketing, my subscribers, the people who believe in my company are again, like I said, my biggest focus. They're my most powerful salespeople. The amount of my customers who purchase me year every year for the gifts for all of their people and community in their lives.
But I think it's also understanding that change takes time. What I'm trying to market is a ch. A different way of doing something, going from gas to electricity. And as we're seeing with electric vehicles, we're starting to see it more and more, but for the most part, you know, it's.
It's. It's still an uphill conversation for a lot of people. Even. Even for me. I have a family. I have a small son. Even if we have two cars, we need to have one that's gas, even if we did have the other one that's electric. Because if anything happens to our son, we need to know that, like, there's. There's somewhat of a guarantee, you know, if. That we can't be relying on like a battery power engine or the mechanics of that over the reliability of something that's been so tried, true and tested. So the fact that the reason why I love my product is that there's still. I just did a photo shoot on Monday. The film and video woman had never seen the product, and she's a young, hip, much cooler than me, individual living in Los Angeles. And she was like, you know what it's like. And she, she described everything, the. All the reasons why I do the product. You know, I had this, like, I was using like, these matches, but, like this candle I really want to finish. It's really low, and I can't get to it without burning myself. And then I was like, I don't want to buy like, one of those, like, you know, ugly butane lighters because it's just kind of like they don't really work or they say my thing. So, you know, and so I, obviously, I gave her something. But so when, when you have that, for me, it gives me motivation to keep going. So I guess continuing to hone in on that energy, that experience, and that's. That's how I market. That's my, that's my solution. You, you know, capturing that more and more as much as I can.
I've done an okay job, I think, so far, and I'm looking forward over the next, you know, five to 10 years to getting that really, really, really dialed, like a, like a Barry man jingle, you know, so that's. I'm excited. I'm excited to see how the landscape changes.
I mean, we'll see what happens with TikTok. You know, like, there's. It's.
It's very interesting, very fascinating. Well, what's happening right now? So, like I said in the beginning, for me, I think this, this, the strategy now is pull back, get. Get back to like, you know, stacking. Stacking bread again, as they say. Watch what the markets, you know, just. Just watch. Like, I have a luxury for me. I can sort of I own everything. I don't have to answer to anybody demanding anything. And I can just be patient. I can, I can continue to serve my community, build, build when it makes sense and it's opportune.
But yeah, just use this time to focus on myself, focus on the brand refresh, refresh where I can and realistically make it to the holidays, make it to pass the election and just see where things like big roll of a dice at the end of the year we'll see what numbers pop out Jan25 and then we'll spend, you know, January analyzing 24 to see how it, how it met or how it compared to what we, what we forecasted or what we thought and just do it all over again next that so looking forward.
[00:42:50] Speaker B: How does USB lighter company remain competitive and continue to innovate?
[00:42:56] Speaker C: Oh this. I mean I think I'm the only. You mentioned it briefly in the introduction. So I have three models of proprietary design lighters that I produce where I'm using an innovative additive to all of my ABS that well, for example on my Motley and my MJR models, the complete outer plastic shell is greenleaf certified for biodegradation in land. My LT model has been treated with innovative additive that's been certified by the standards for biodegradability and land and ocean. So Mooney Learning my innovations are create the best product in my category possible largest battery, longest power, best design, ease of use, sustainability, customer service. Then develop the product in a way where if it happens, I mean, my goal is to be able to provide recycling for my customers. So for example, once they buy a new one, I can include a return sample, I can take their product back and I can work with my hopeful recycling network to properly dispose of these products. But in the case that they should fall in a trash can, landfill or ocean, I want to make sure that the majority of my product is good for the planet earth, which it has an element of biodegradability to it. So moving forward, I believe the innovations to achieve this will be more possible. I think even throughout this year, the next three years, you're going to see a lot of the larger companies starting to adapt these technologies as well. So I think the fact that I'm already doing it now, that I've already gone through testing and certification is sort of already the direction I've been heading into. My all of my packaging is sustainable or biodegradable, including my plastic blister that the product comes in in the gift box. I'm always trying to innovate on ways where my shipping packaging can be as recyclable as. As sustainable as possible. I use soy inks on all my packaging. Moving forward, we'll. We'll switch up from ABS into like maybe materials like aluminum or things that now we're starting to remove the plastic component from it because we can create a more stable body in terms of. As an evolution of the product. So super excited to roll these new offerings out. The main one obviously switching everything over to C cable charging is. That's going to be the universal standard. Moving forward. Yeah. Excited to keep presenting my audience and my customer with beautifully designed, reliably useful products.
[00:45:53] Speaker B: Awesome. And just as closing thoughts, you know, sustainability is a very prominent topic in the United States. Are there opportunities or potential applications to extend these sustainable practices to other consumer goods outside of the lighters?
[00:46:11] Speaker C: For me personally or for like the industry in general?
[00:46:14] Speaker B: I'd say the industry in general, yeah.
[00:46:17] Speaker C: I mean, again, I think you're starting to see it.
I think, well, regulations are complicated because we really. It's all about the consumer safety. So there's limitations on what can actually be done. But the industry across the board, we can start to use less virgin materials. So anytime we can use recycled materials, anytime any part of our component build can be made of recycled components are material.
These are huge benefits. I think sustainability really comes in and the pricing of products to the.
How you're monetizing, how you're setting as a company, how we're setting goals to monetize on our innovation and our products and making sure that again, we're having all these discussions early within the process of coming out with new products so that we're not creating a bunch of waste. I think that's a responsibility of designers and consumer good practice moving forward. I mean, yeah, obviously everybody just wants.
Just wants the money, but that I think the X factor is the customer.
We don't know who the customer is going to evolve into, but I do believe that the customer is going to evolve into maybe one that sees so much junk and waste around them that there's no other option but to be focused on what you purchase.
And I think that if you're able to, I don't know, I think you'll have. I just think it's a cooler way to have a company.
[00:48:20] Speaker B: Yeah. Really appreciate your insights on that aspect and I appreciate you having me here today and sharing your own personal journey, how your company has evolved. Given all of the challenges from COVID and supply chain issues to where you're at today with marketing strategies and innovation and hope you have a great rest of your day.
[00:48:42] Speaker C: Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate your time. I hope this was helpful.
[00:48:52] Speaker A: Thanks for listening to INA Insights. Please visit INA AI for more podcasts, publications and events on developments shaping the industrial and industrial technology sector.
[00:49:06] Speaker C: SA.
