Daniel Haarburger is a junior at the Institute of Design at Stanford University, and he already has one successful Kickstarter campaign under his belt. Now his second is fully funded.
The WINGStand was his first project, and it is both insanely simple and extremely useful. (Great design 101!) The small plastic clips were available for preorder on Kickstarter for $20. They were made in the USA and made from recycled materials. The clips mated a traditional Mac keyboard to an iPhone or iPad, turning either device into something invoking the functionality of a laptop. 1,500 people funded the project, driving the funding total to over $58,000 on an original goal of $9,500. The products shipped and backers largely gave rave reviews.
The WINGStand is now available on Haarburger’s e-commerce store.
His second project idea came from a fortunate run in with a police officer on his bike. He explains…
…Haarburger was pulled over for biking after sunset with a faulty bike light. Instead of a ticket, the police officer gave him an interesting piece of advice: if you’re in a bind, use your smartphone as a bike light.
Haarburger… began on a solution for making smartphones and their many capabilities more bike friendly. Existing phone mounts are large, immobile, complicated and lack the security needed while riding. Couple all of that with a variety of ever-changing form factors in smartphones, and it was clear a better approach was needed.
His solution is the Handleband, a simple, single-piece silicone band that wraps around itself to secure your smartphone to your bicycle. When mounted, it’s smaller than a deck of cards, but stretches to accommodate phones of all sizes and case configurations. By itself, the Handleband can be removed or repositioned in a matter of seconds. Add two zip ties, and it becomes a permanent solution.
The Handleband is another relatively simple piece made of silicone and aluminum, but the problem it solves is big enough to garner $25 from over 500 people and counting. Backers can be more confident that Haarburger will deliver based on his past success.
He also says that cycling accessory companies are interesting in carrying the device after the Kickstarter project ends, so we may even be seeing Handlebands in the local bike shop soon.
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