Over the years for burning man, festivals and campouts, I’ve spent a huge amount of time and resources experimenting with battery-powered solutions for lighting, camp-charging, and bike/small vehicle power. 

I’m here to share some tips and tricks that I’ve learned. Whether you’re planning to power an art installation, a bike, a festy wagon, or all your camp’s charging and lighting needs, I hope these tips can help you take your projects to the next level!

YES we made the inc. 5000! Yet somehow I feel like an impostor.

Flowtoys, with an 86% growth rate from 2012-2014, ranked 3626 in the Inc’s 2015 list of fastest-growing private companies in America. We are 168th in our industry, 523rd the State, 118th in our Metro Area. Really though, what do any of these stats mean?

Podpoi are known to be extremely durable. During beta-testing, we tried repeatedly to destroy them and found it quite difficult. A roomful of beefy boys took about 45 minutes of repeated smashing before it finally stopped working. We were quite excited and wanted to release a durability video shortly after the product launch. But it was not to be. Systemic issues arose that would have made the release of a durability video untimely. Although podpoi were designed to be extremely durable, a significant percentage have suffered various manufacturing defects that make them appear much less in the early batches.

This year I undertook a personal challenge to present poi as an activity that brings joy.

Why? Because it is true, and because there is power to that truth. Power in personal evolution, to bring people together, create new social and neural connections, power to heal and grow, and to bring pure and simple *joy*.

Flowtoys Special Event: 31 March 2015, Emeryville, CA
(Crowd murmurings and then applause as Sean appears on stage)

Sean von Stade:  Hey thanks for being here. 
(Loud applause)

It’s great to see y’all today.

Sean: A quick update. We’ve sold our 500,000,000th podpoi last week. Half a billion podpoi. That’s a lot of poi. 

We beat Google, Exxon-Mobil, and Wal-Mart.

When you think about it, these other companies have complicated ways of making money – selling ad space, drilling oil, distributing cheap goods that are bound for landfill.

We do something really simple:  We create delightful products that do something amazing.