Flipstik is now available at more than 150 AT&T stores as well as the AT&T website.
“This is the first product in AT&T stores from a minority owned business,” CEO Akeem Shannon told bizblip. “This is particularly meaningful to me because when I was younger I worked at an AT&T store.”
The St. Louis startup makes a consumer product that uses a proprietary adhesive (licensed from NASA) that lets people stick their smart phones to practically any surface — serving as a kickstand, selfie stick and wall mount.
Akeem Shannon (on right, pictured with video guru James Thomas)
Shannon achieved a fair amount of media coverage when he pitched Flipstik to Shark Tank. He mentions that appearance on social media a lot, but remains tight lipped about whether or not he took the offered deal.
Flipstik was founded in 2017 and has picked up at least $150,000 in grant funding, plus a handful of pitch competition prizes. From the 2020 cohort at Arch Grants the startup landed $50,000, then got another $50,000 in follow-on funding this year. Shannon is also a graduate of the UMSL Accelerate-DEI Accelerator — where he also picked up a $50,000 equity-free grant.
“I am not surprised that Akeem is now doing so well getting into retailers like AT&T, and a few months ago Target,” Accelerate-DEI executive director Dan Lauer told bizblip. “He is one of the most coachable founders I’ve met, able to prioritize well all the many things that have to happen to scale a business.”
Full disclosure: Akeem Shannon was one of the judges for the Pitches Get Stitches pitch competition put on by bizblip parent company News Lab Inc. He did so freely, with no compensation or promise of future favor.
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