Kristi Frank's idea for her startup came while dressed as a shark.
It was at a Halloween-themed music festival, and the University of Georgia graduate didn’t want to keep pulling her phone out of her bag. And sharks don’t have pockets, so that wasn’t an option, either.
“I attached my camera strap to the bottom of my phone and realized how useful it was,” Frank said. “I was in college for entrepreneurship, and they’re always telling you to solve a problem, so it felt like the perfect synergy for me to explore my love for fashion and functionality.”
Frank founded Clutch Creations in 2017 and created the Clutch Strap, which has strong, adhesive clips that stick to any phone case and attach to a strap so that a phone can be worn around a person's neck. After selling out of that product, Frank raised $21,143 in a Kickstarter campaign that ended Dec. 4 for the next model — the Cross-Body Clutch Strap.
The Cross-Body Clutch Strap will cost about $50, Frank said, which made it a good price-point for crowdfunding. She's aiming for business-to-business deals with music festival brands and for other companies to sell the product.
“We’ve seen good success in the response for people wanting the Cross-Body,” Frank said. “Once we get this money, we’ll pursue new business opportunities and see how we can scale the business.”
The straps are made from leather and the clips have industrial-strength adhesive, making it possible for people to swing their phones on the strap without it coming apart, Frank said.
It took Frank about three years to develop the product, which has three patents granted for the design. All manufacturing is done in Columbia. She bootstrapped most of the company and received two grants, $2,500 from UGA and $10,000 from Cobb County. She employs a couple interns and works with Taylor Cottrell as her marketing manager.
Frank said she received support and experience for her vision while going through the UGA Idea Accelerator and in the school's entrepreneurship program. She also did the Launchpad2x Core Flight Program, which focuses on helping female entrepreneurs, and currently works at Launchpad 2x as the director of marketing communications.
Frank marketed the first product for music-festival goers who may have the same no-pocket problem as she did. Now, she sees the target audience as young people on the go — such as for exercising or traveling — and has an ambassador program to promote the product.
After the Cross-Body Clutch Strap is developed, Frank wants to create a mini Clutch Strap in 2021, which would be akin to a wristlet but attach the same way as the other products.
“Our huge thing is functional fashion,” Frank said. “With COVID especially, it’s more sanitary. You’re not sticking your phone on the back of a toilet or in a grocery cart. It’s on your body, you pick it up and you drop it.”
Clutch Creations patents were incorrectly identified as pending instead of granted in a previous version of this story.
