James Griffith, Lucy Hutchinson and James Day: Mous

James Griffith, 29, Lucy Hutchinson, 29 and James Day, 26
Company: Mous
Website: www.mous.co

A lot of companies say their products are durable, but UK start-up Mous has gone the extra mile to prove it – several miles in fact.

Mous partnered with Sutton High School for Girls to do an epic 36-kilometer drop from outside the stratosphere to prove the durability of their cases. It’s all part of a smart brand and marketing strategy which channels the anarchic energy of the YouTuber generation and helped the company crowdfund over £2m in year one alone.

The Mous story began with disaster: their design for an iPhone case capable of retracting wired headphones was rendered obsolete when Apple produced wireless headphones.

Many fledgling businesses might have folded, but Griffith, Hutchinson, and Day and their band of intrepid 20-somethings kept going.

They went to China and watched local factory workers, staying in dingy hotel rooms as they honed the art of manufacturing. After testing out various types of materials, they created a range of beautiful phone cases lined with their very own high impact material AiroShock, with real material back plates and a built in magnetic mounting system.

The team decided to fund the commercial roll-out through crowdfunding, and raised awareness by battle-testing their product in a variety of situations. Their party piece, if you’ve not seen it on YouTube, involves going into the Apple Store on launch day, buying a brand-new phone and inviting a fellow shopper to hurl it to the ground.

The videos have gone viral on social media and generated huge interest; pre-orders for Mous’ very first case totalled $2.4m. The team has since unveiled a number of product options, from wood to sea shell, and received a steady stream of glowing reviews from the likes of Forbes, GQ and Mashable.

Just two years on from launch, Mous already ships to 100 countries and have just launched a range of magnetic case add-ons including wallets and mounts.

With Apple expected to launch three new iPhones between now and the end of 2018, the company is eagerly expecting a raft of new product opportunities – and looking forward to dropping the new devices in an even more creative fashion!