Asad Hamir, Co-Founder At Nolii: Reimagining SmartPhone Accessories

Nolii is a design-led technology brand, that re-imagines how technology accessories solve the tech frustrations that we all experience through ingeniously smart design that elevates your everyday. Our award-winning Accessory Collection brings together beautiful design with functionality – think Lego for tech.

Modular design, injected with colour, allowing you to customise and build your own ecosystem. A system that you can take forward with phone upgrades, built in features such as integrated cables so that ultimately you need less – its technology working better together!

The launch collection of modular products is built around a patented Couple Lock feature. This unique design gives you complete flexibility to effortlessly connect your Nolii case securely to a range of lifestyle accessories including Wallet, Battery with integrated Lightning Cable and Fitness Band. Our home and office range launches with a Tangle-free Loop Cable, that conveniently connects to a weighted based and a Duo plug offering double the charge.
 
 
Nolii launches line of smartphone accessories
 

How did you come up with the idea for the company?

 

Nolii was born out of our personal frustrations with mobile tech which seemed to introduce their own complications and needs. All these daily annoyances one day turned into an ‘Einstein’ moment for us, spurred on by a ‘bag’ of cables, plugs and dongles (see above my tech bag!) that I would take everywhere. It felt cluttered, complex and not as intelligent as the tech I would plug it into. This made us wonder where was the brand that was beautifully designed but also highly functional, allowing me to be more streamlined? Asking these questions is what started us on the Nolii Journey.

Both Amar and I worked in the industry for a number of years, running tech businesses which sold products from all the major brands, which gave us some insight into what customers needed and more importantly, potential gaps. So the early stages of our business were explorative – we conducted extensive research to understand deeply how we use our technology at home and on-the-go, across a cross-section of different users of all ages. A process that is the bedrock of our product development and how Nolii really began to take shape. We were able to see how disconnected our technologies were and what we needed were accessories that support our tech, to be just as efficient and agile.

In addition, my experience in Fashion really gave me an appreciation for material, colour, manufacturing, detailing and inspiration from brands in the fashion industry, all of which helped us in the Nolii design process.

We developed prototypes that were launched at London Design Festival in 2017, where we showcased our vision for tech accessories. To wide acclaim – modular, multi-functional products that were intelligently designed. Objects of beauty. Since then, Nolii has transitioned from concept to brand through investing time and money into different aspects of the business and we are thrilled to finally have launched in September.
 

 

What advice would you give to other aspiring entrepreneurs?

 
Having had my share of successes and failures over the years, I would say my biggest advice would be to stay lean and keep things simple. Launching a business is the start of the marathon. The ideas and building phase is always the exciting bit, but it’s when you put your product out to market that’s where the real work starts. It’s important to try and de-risk as much as possible – try and keep lean on inventory and build as much presale activity beforehand. Once you get out there, it’s important to stay nimble and be change course where necessary.
 

What can we hope to see from Nolii in the future?

 
The next few months will see the launch of two new products that seamlessly complement the first collection. That includes the launch of our Couple case for the iPhone 12 which opens up our modular ecosystem of accessories to users of this model. We’re really excited about the universal compatibility feature of the Couple Case system – which for existing Nolii customers who upgrade their phones will find that all the Couple accessories they own remain fully compatible. This speaks to an important design principle of Nolii, around more conscious consumption of technology by extending the useful life of products.

Future designs will focus on exploring new ways to improve and elevate other aspects of our lives extending on the Couple family with accessories. The patented Couple Lock feature of the Couple Case is one of the slimmest and fastest locks on the market, secure enough for a runner on-the-go, and a design which lends itself to a number of on-the-go needs.