Orbitkey’s Rex Kuo on Kickstarter beginnings, Melbourne life and taking his kids to Vegas

It takes a lot to leave a successful career for a startup and equally it takes a lot to make a startup successful. Together with his co-founder, Rex Kuo has done both of those things, taking Orbitkey from Kickstarter success story through to a global business, selling organisational products in over 40 countries. Here we chat to Rex about making it happen… 

I used to work as a pharmacist.

I started Orbitkey with a schoolfriend of mine. I was already working as a pharmacist full-time and Charles, my co-founder, was an industrial designer. I always dabbled in little side businesses and hustles, and we were chatting one day and Charles said: “Hey, I’ve been working on this prototype for ages…” At the time he was training for a half-marathon and had kind of like an OCD where he hated the sound of jangling keys. He had a stack of keys clamped together with standard screws that you can buy at the hardware shop and, yeah, it stopped the jingling, but his keys were permanently busted. I was like: “This is really cool, what about if we made it better?” I remember I didn’t like leaving my keys in the same pocket as my wallet because I didn’t want it to scratch.

We smashed our Kickstarter campaign.

After 9 months of tinkering we launched a campaign on Kickstarter. We set a goal of AU$10,000 because we thought it was a good amount of money that would give us enough to fund the first production if we put our money towards it as well. We hit that goal within the first 16hrs and it just kept going. There was one stage where we were joking, “How much would we have to raise for you to quit your job?” He said: “200,000 and I’ll quit my job”. We just laughed like, “Yeah, that’s never going to happen…” – and sure enough by the end of the campaign we raised AU$210,000 and Charles quit his job. I was lucky as I could gradually step down from mine.

We own 100% of Orbitkey ourselves

We’re not at the mercy of investors and trying to hit revenue targets, so we get to design things that we enjoy, or think are right. We currently have a Kickstarter campaign going for a modular desk organiser, and that just came about because Charles’ drawers were really messy all the time. He’s usually really organised but found that by the end of the week his drawers would be messy. We thought of a system whereby you can change the dividers, so there’s an exact slot for everything. We can do little things like that – designs that we think are needed.

One of the challenges we have is identifying who we want to make products for.

The Key Organiser was such a success, but it was applicable to everyone because we all have keys so lots of people could use it. So, it’s been difficult to identify the group of customers we want to support. We’ve identified modern professionals and creatives who work in front of a computer, who do hybrid work or commute. We want to position ourselves as a brand to help these people feel more organised and make our accessories fun for them.

Choosing my favourite product is like choosing my favourite child.

The Key Organiser is the one that started it all, so that will always be special. And we’ve had 13 years to refine it, so I don’t think anyone in the world knows as much about key organisation as us. But I really like our foldable 55L duffel that folds down into the size of an A5 book so it can go in a backpack. I just got back from a trip and found it amazing how much I used it: grocery shopping, swimming, packing stuff for the kids and at duty-free…

I try not to, but I end up travelling for work a lot.

During the early days of Orbitkey, before I had kids, I used to travel a lot. We’d go from one trade show to another. There was one period before Covid where we did 10 or so trade shows back to back: UK, Germany, France, all over the place. Since having my kids I’ve really tried to limit travel, but recently I have started to do more. When we do trade shows overseas, now that the kids are older I can bring them along. We recently did a show in Vegas – not the most kid-friendly place – but they came, and it was nice for them to see what Dad does!

We always try to get away for pleasure too.

We have friends of similar ages we like to travel with. I want to create memories for the kids, and for me too! The last place we visited was Singapore.

Smart lights are on my to-do list at home.

My house is on split levels, and somehow over time I’ve invested in three separate robot vacuums because I got sick of carrying a robot from one level to the next. I have got smart security and everything on timers, but Charles does a better job with home tech – all of his lights are connected, and everything is timed and controlled by his phone.

I feel lucky to live in Melbourne.

Melbourne isn’t too small – it’s a major city so there are lots of opportunities to set up a business and grow. At the same time, it’s so close to nature – it’s a luxury being able to go to local parks or drive a bit to go hiking on the weekends. I know that’s not always the case, having everything you need but being really close to nature as well. People in Melbourne are really laid-back, and I like the coffee culture here too.

Find out more about Oribitkey here.

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