Light Pong – Aaqib Usman

[00:00:00] Stoy Hall: So today really we wanna highlight you, your business, your story, how you got to where you’re at. Mm-hmm. , and then how us, our listeners or whoever can help take that to the next level, right? Sure. Uh, cuz we’re all here to build each other up as much as we can. And so we wanted to highlight you. We chose you of one of the.

[00:00:29] I, I think there’s eight that we chose total, uh, to highlight and to really put out there to the world and. Get you to step up. So why don’t we just start with your 

[00:00:39] Aaqib Usman: story? Sure, sure, sure. So my name is Ave. I’m the founder of Flight Pong. Um, I am a serial entrepreneur, and this is my second company. Prior to this, I had a different company called Midwest Immersive, and it was a virtual reality augmented reality company.

[00:00:54] And we just basically get hired by big corporations like Adidas, Nike, Verizon, progressive, and a lot of big brand names to help them on the innovation side of things. So, I had started this as a VR AR company and we slowly evolved into doing other. Innovative things such as working with 3D projection mapping.

[00:01:16] Then we got into l e d lighting control and one thing led to another and I got really interested in l e D technology and that’s, uh, part of the light pong founding story because light pongs entire l e d base. But prior to that I’d been in startups and I’d started, um, another. Uh, I’d been an early employee in another company that was in the live streaming space before live streaming.

[00:01:41] Was li what it is right now. And the funny thing about that is that company eventually pivoted because our core business model had already been imitated by Facebook and so on and so forth. But many years later, uh, I noticed that some of the marketing campaigns that I had designed for this live streaming company started to be used by Facebook as theirs.

[00:02:02] And I’m like, I’m, I came up with that . . Wait a minute. Yeah. Okay. So nothing that I can verify or point fingers at. Right. But I’m pretty sure that they saw our stuff and created something similar. . 

[00:02:15] Stoy Hall: I mean, that’s what Facebook does, so it absolutely tracks exactly. Exactly. So that led you to, to lip pong now, huh?

[00:02:23] Aaqib Usman: Yes, yes, yes. I started lip pong about a year ago. Uh, I would say about 13 months ago at this point. And we’ve had a lot of success with it. I mean, we’ve seen almost 50 million views across social media, which is kind of a big deal. Um, we raised $150,000 on Kickstarter, which puts us in the top two. All Kickstarters of all time, and we’ve been featured in a lot of amazing publications like Mashable, Yahoo Finance, um, Gizmodo, et cetera.

[00:02:56] Stoy Hall: Absolutely. So tell us about Light 

[00:02:58] Aaqib Usman: Palm. Sure. Light Palm, um, is a completely crazy new way to play video games. And I say that because it’s the type of product that has never existed before and a lot of people need to see it in order to understand what it is. But to describe it a little bit, it’s um, L e d lights inside of a tube with controllers on either end, and it’s floppy, it’s goofy, it’s fun.

[00:03:22] And we say that it’s a really, really fun new game system that allows you to play games at parties and events. And you can pretty much take life pong with you anywhere you go, you know? Right. Um, and also the type of thing that you don’t need a screen to enjoy. Yes, there is a companion app, a companion app.

[00:03:42] Purely there to control it in, assist the device, but on a playability perspective, for most people, for the most part, you are largely going to be off your screen, and that’s what makes it really, really exciting as 

[00:03:54] Stoy Hall: well. What made you come up with the concept of taking screens away? 

[00:03:59] Aaqib Usman: Right. I mean, the, the idea.

[00:04:03] It’s not that. The idea of taking screens away, that fascinated me. That was a byproduct. It was the ability to create something completely new and different that people hadn’t seen before that fascinated me and made me want to take this journey. Right? I think that for the most part, we see versions of other things.

[00:04:24] in our world, or 16 versions of the same thing. You know, social media, for example, has evolved again and again and again from the time of, uh, MySpace and Ster and High Five. Mm-hmm. And it was an iteration, uh, of previous things that had existed in the case of Lighton. To me, it was something that was brand new and hadn’t existed before.

[00:04:46] Yes, I mean, we’ve seen LEDs, we’ve seen games, but in this package and in this presentation, it was one of a time and that’s what fascinated me about the entire concept, and that’s what keeps me going on a daily basis. Ultimately, I think that as human beings, it’s our. Prerogative to, to do something unique and leave our marker in the world, which is why we wake up every day and do what we do.

[00:05:12] And this was the most unique way for me to do that. 

[00:05:17] Stoy Hall: Absolutely. Where, what stage are you guys in? We are, 

[00:05:21] Aaqib Usman: um, It’s a difficult question to answer cuz there’s multiple. 

[00:05:24] Stoy Hall: An always is to this always is 

[00:05:26] Aaqib Usman: right. Um, if there’s investors listening, then we are in the precede stage. If there’s consumers listening, then we are in the stage where we’re going from, uh, prototype to mass production and we intend to be in the market This coming.

[00:05:43] I hope it’s good timing. Yeah, , good timing. Now we are at the phase where we’re, you know, when we first build like power and what you might have seen on social media and what we re, what everybody sees on social media right now as we speak. Our prototypes that we built last October now since we built, so last October or last September, even before the Kickstarter.

[00:06:06] Now in the electronic space, once you go from. Prototype to mass production. And in our case, we built these prototypes using off the shelf components to go to mass production. We had to take at least five to sec six steps back and redesign everything from scratch. But now using custom components, something that can be produced on a factory line, and that is a significant step and a challenging step because it’s very iterative.

[00:06:36] There’s a. People involved. There’s mechanical engineers, there’s electronic engineers, there’s a factory, there is, uh, design and just usability. So it’s a very, very interesting process of fine tuning and changing and, and trying to come up with that design that works for everybody. 

[00:06:56] Stoy Hall: Absolutely. And when once you guys go to mass, Kind of what’s your overall goal with Light Pal?

[00:07:03] Obviously it’s, it’s gonna be a step, it always is. You’re senior entrepreneur. So what, um, where do you have this vision? Where, where do you see it going? Well, 

[00:07:11] Aaqib Usman: you know, we are playing in the retro and arcade games market, and there’s other players in this market too. Like, we don’t have any direct competition, but the customer consumers are gonna be making decisions.

[00:07:25] Um, On other products and against our product in certain cases, right? So those types of products are, you know, retro. And arcade games such as Arcade One Up, which is a really, really cool arcade game system that you can buy for your home. And it has all the classic arcade games like Pong and Mortal Combat and Mario even.

[00:07:48] And I, I love those guys. Those guys are great, but Consumer is gonna be selecting, but we know us and them, right? D other sort of competitor here is card games in this case. So you think about Cards Against Humanity, you think about, um, Another big card game that I can’t recall off the top of my head right now.

[00:08:07] Uh, . 

[00:08:08] Stoy Hall: Let’s go with Uno, because Uno, my kids are learning how to play Uno, so we’re gonna go with 

[00:08:11] Aaqib Usman: Uno. Exactly. And Uno is actually having good resurgence right now. Mm-hmm. or even board games, you’re thinking Scrabble, kaan, those types of games. So it’s considerations in that space. But ultimately we wanna be a big player in this space.

[00:08:25] That market is worth about 20 billion right now, and it’s projected to be worth about, uh, 40 billion in the next five to seven. So we want to play in that market and we want to keep our name in that market. And right now, in 2022, our first run from the manufacturer is gonna be approximately 3000 products, 3000 units.

[00:08:48] But we wanna be able to do 15,000 next year, you know, 30,000 of following, and just be a consistent staple in the gaming market that people are like, oh yeah, you. Lighton, everybody knows what that is, and we wanna turn Lighton into a household name that everybody knows and speaks about, just like you do about Cards Against Humanity, Kaan, and all these other names.

[00:09:09] Stoy Hall: What do you see the, the market like who’s the initial market to get light pong? Is it us who are in our thirties and our nostalgia and that’s what we want to do? Mm-hmm. , or is it, you know, us, you know, 15, 20 years ago in college playing, drinking. 

[00:09:24] Aaqib Usman: Yeah, interesting question. Um, 

[00:09:26] Stoy Hall: or kids? Or kids? Kids. I guess there’s 

[00:09:28] Aaqib Usman: children, there’s, there is children out there, but you know, I don’t, he found that, uh, you know, there isn’t really no age demographic that doesn’t enjoy like pong, but the people that tend to buy like pong are people, like you guys, you know, wean the ages of 25 to 44.

[00:09:49] Equally male and female, um, largely consider themselves casual Gamers might have played video games when they were younger. Would probably think that video games have become too complex of late and just don’t bother with it, or are avid video gamers and just want this as a way to connect with people who aren’t video gamers, but still would have fun with it.

[00:10:13] And. We see that the second largest audience is actually under a team. So it is kids who see this as a fun way to get into gaming, but that is about 30% of our audience so far. So I, I almost see like seeing it and seeing different videos and stuff. From my standpoint, just having a newborn is like developmental things.

[00:10:37] So it’s developing a ton of hand eye coordination for young kids and understanding that, and I almost. In some sort of educational platform, it’d be awesome to see. Okay. Yeah, we evolved light pong now as a game, a fun way to develop this hand-eye coordination, develop, you know, understanding your rights and lefts, different stuff like that.

[00:10:56] Like I think it’d be huge in a very, very young generation as well. Now granted the nostalgia, like you talked about, , I mean that nosal, that plays a big factor in, and I like that. I, I’m a big fan of that, but I think there’s just such a big market and there’s so many ways that it can be portrayed. I, I mean, I think it’s awesome.

[00:11:14] Yeah, I think you hit it on the head, Ryan. In fact, there’s a lot of educational plays that I actually haven’t mentioned just yet. So firstly, you know, even in terms of what you were talking about beyond the hand eye coordination education, there’s also therapeutic use cases. So we’ve had people reach out to us and say, oh, we wanna use this for autism therapy, we wanna use this for PTSD therapy.

[00:11:34] So there’s certainly educational, therapeutic aspects of it there. Right. But even beyond that, we have created Light Pound to be an open platform. Which means that if you are learning how to code, then you can use light pong to learn how to code. And unlike creating a game for the iPhone or for the PlayStation five, or any other platform, right now, creating games on light pong is gonna be much, much easier and simpler.

[00:12:01] So what Roblox has been able to do and create a platform for people to just continue to create their own content within it. We are also gonna be doing that, um, on the education side. So we’re gonna be putting out a ton of content on how to create games, and it’s gonna be largely marketed toward its developers who don’t know how to code and they’re learning how to code for the first time using.

[00:12:23] Our interface. So we’re very excited about that and we see it as having essentially a long tail and a short tail. Like we think that the short tail is gonna be people who see this as a drinking game, as a party game, as a fun family game, you know? But we see that in the long tail. What happens in the gaming market is what keeps things alive for a very long time is its community and its ability to mod and try different things, and that’s what keeps it fresh, right?

[00:12:49] When someone else creates. A version of something that you have already tried a hundred times and that drives your curiosity to try it and share it and continue to come back to it as evolutions happen. So that’s what we feel like is gonna keep the product alive for much longer than us just creating a closed source version of it and controlling what can and cannot be done with it.

[00:13:16] So, A gift from nerds to party game nerds. to party nerds. Is that your tagline? I love a gift from nerds to party nerds. That’s 

[00:13:30] Stoy Hall: awesome. That’s 

[00:13:31] Aaqib Usman: awesome. So I’m just curious about continuous as a nerd of connecting with people at parties without conversation. Yeah, right. I dunno how to talk to this girl. You wanna play a game?

[00:13:43] Stoy Hall: Do I 

[00:13:44] Aaqib Usman: play a game? . I love it though. I mean that build. Community builds competition. It builds like a little banter back and forth. Like it kind of bridges that. The light sort of bridges that between people, right. You don’t need to talk, you just need the light. Right, exactly. , I love it. Interesting point, right?

[00:14:00] There’s this interesting conversation that I had last week while I was at a pitch event in North Carolina and someone was discussing with me. It’s light is such an integral part of our lives and how we take it for granted. And yes, we are communicating through light very passively, but not actively like, like po And if you think about traffic lights, like they’re constantly communicating to you.

[00:14:25] Mm-hmm. how, what you need to do, or if you think about the lights on your modem or on your computer, like I’m sure you look around you, there’s multiple lights that are communicating with you at this point. They’re very passive. And what we’re doing with is just taking a passive medium of communication and turning it into something that’s active.

[00:14:46] And then you ask the question of like, okay, well how far can you actually take this thing? And then I respond by saying, well, how far can you take text on a page? You know, you could take it pretty far and it’s just up to the creativity of the creator to see how far you can take it. And some of the things that we’re very excited about at Light Palm is really like how deep the stories that you can tell are.

[00:15:09] Like, can we create a. Game that is like a tower defense game, or can we create a Super Mario type game in there? Or can we create a car racing game? And can we get you to emotionally connect with these lights enough to wanna defend your tower or or to win the princess? So right now, we’ve only showcased the tip of the iceberg with these really simple games.

[00:15:34] But what we are very excited about exploring are these more complex story based games that really allow you to play for not just two minutes, but for two to three days so that you can continue and continue and, and keep playing. That’s what we’re very excited about. 

[00:15:50] Stoy Hall: Absolutely. What are you guys looking for?

[00:15:53] Um, obviously you just had a pitch competition, so that’s part of it, but what’s your ask? What do you need help with to really get to a point where you want to be with it? You know, 

[00:16:01] Aaqib Usman: right now we are actively fundraising, so we are raising. An angel investor round for our precede stage hardware company. And you know, with any startup, your, your, your constant battle is your, uh, bank account, , you know, so always.

[00:16:22] For us, any introductions to someone who might consider, uh, investing or even providing feedback and has connections to investors might be great. Uh, and I feel like this is a cliche thing to say, but I feel like we’ve truly figured out every aspect of this problem except for the funding part of it. And we are constantly fundraising at.

[00:16:44] Uh, from investors and we keep getting good checks in. So it’s not that we are, uh, like going to be going down anytime soon, but we do need the additional funds to continue raising and continue building as we go, at least all the way up to October. Absolutely. Do you, do you have an amount within that fundraising goal that you’re kind of looking to hit, or, you know, this amount will get us to, you know, our mass production of 15,000 next year, however that might be.

[00:17:10] Do you have that? Yeah, standard. We’re, we’re actively raising, so we, we, we to date, have raised about $550,000 and we’re raising another 300 right now. So we are looking to do that from professional angels, um, friends and family, and, uh, anybody in the community who might be interested in participating.

[00:17:36] Okay. Do you and I, I see, you know, kind of on your guys’ Kickstarter site here in the project site. Are you still, um, doing the same reward chart, the pledge, the amount, um, and just those kind of included perks along with those? Well, not exactly. Cuz the investors that we’re looking to raise money from at this point are angel investors.

[00:18:03] Who are writing bigger checks. Yeah, so, uh, we may consider the perks if we were to go to a equity crowd funding route, which is something that I’ve been considering. Um, but the best way. Would be through, and I mean, not necessarily the best way, but equity power funding is something that I’m thinking about.

[00:18:25] And we may include those PERS as well, where we just open it up the community and say, anybody who wants to invest go to our Refunder or our start engine page and just invest. But it’s not a decision that I’ve committed to as of this conversation. 

[00:18:36] Stoy Hall: Yep. That’s fair. Yeah. That’s fair. 

[00:18:39] Aaqib Usman: But if everybody is listening and would like to reach out to me, uh, the best way to connect would be, you know, on Twitter, I’m, its achi, which is I T S A A Q I B, or LinkedIn.

[00:18:50] You can just look up light pong and you’ll find me. My name is a very complex one, so. Uh, absolutely. And we’ll, we’ll plug you as much as possible. We’ll, with this podcast episode, we’ll, we’ll plug all your socials, websites, anything that you need, um, we’ll have the marketing team reach out and ask you. And then once we get this cut up, we’ll, you know, what’s this release date?

[00:19:09] So then you can, you know, blast it on all your socials and everything like that as well. Yeah. And we’re gonna do the exact same thing. 

[00:19:15] Stoy Hall: Absolutely. Cool. In terms of the podcast, cuz we’ll follow up, um, and tell you more about ourselves, but we always like to do the podcast first, so that way, you know, we don’t entice people to say certain things.

[00:19:27] Um, what are some final things that you wanted to say? Any, anything important or last messages that you want audience to know about Light palm? 

[00:19:35] Aaqib Usman: If anybody’s listened to us, please follow us on social media. That’s a fantastic currency for us in the digital age. So a follow a, like a share, that goes a long way.

[00:19:45] And if you are listening, then shoot us a DM and we will a hundred percent respond back to you. We respond back to every dm, every comment, everything. That’s not. Against and insulting of us . I was 

[00:19:59] Stoy Hall: gonna say everything. No, there’s 

[00:20:01] Aaqib Usman: gotta be really nice. Yeah. We love social media 

[00:20:07] Stoy Hall: that way, . Uh, that’s fair. Well, we appreciate your time, um, and everything that you’re doing.

[00:20:13] Look forward for the journey and we’ll make sure to blast everything and, and let you know. Okay? Perfect. 

[00:20:18] Aaqib Usman: Perfect, perfect. I appreciate the time. Thanks for host having me on this podcast. 

[00:20:23] Stoy Hall: Yeah, no problem. Have a great day. 

[00:20:25] Aaqib Usman: Take care, folks. Nice to meet you all. Take care. Bye-bye now. You as well.

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