How the Co-Founder of Nomad Built a Premium Brand in a Sea of Cheap Tech Accessories

Liam:

Noah, incredibly excited to have you on today’s episode. So many people know Nomad, and I’m excited to dive into the story today. It’s been, what, 14 or 15 years? I think it would be so fulfilling to see so many people using your products today from something that started from the ground up. Why don’t you share with everyone the story of Nomad?

Noah:

Thanks for having me, Liam. It’s wild that it’s been 14 years since we launched on Kickstarter. It started with a little idea. I was actually living in Madrid, Spain at the time. We all had BlackBerries, and we’d go out and they’d die. If you’re familiar with Spanish nightlife, it goes very late, so very often we’d have dead phones quite early. When someone’s phone would die, they’d be like, oh, I’m tired, I’m going to go home. This was at a time when the phone was transitioning from the dumb phone to the smartphone — people called BlackBerries “crackberries,” they were so glued to them. And the capability was really growing. So I was noticing a lack of really good portable charging solutions. In Europe the battery bricks are really big and bulge out of your pocket, and I thought, man, there’s got to be a better way. I started looking into it and didn’t see anything out there. Necessity is the mother of invention. So I took this idea for a hyperminimalist cable and talked with different people, and got feedback from someone working on mobile devices saying — shape it like a credit card, like the way a SIM card is. Back in the United States, I had a really fortunate encounter with a friend of my sister’s who became my business partner, Brian. We still work together 14 years later. We’ve worked together, we’ve lived together, and we’ve been through a lot together.

Liam:

So the first product was a battery bank that was slimmer and smaller?

Noah:

The first product was called ChargeCard — it’s a USB cable the size and shape of a credit card. The idea is that USB ports are becoming ubiquitous, they’re everywhere, so you can always find one and have a way to charge up. We still make a similar product today called the Charge Key — this is a special edition I did for my wedding actually. You can plug in and charge your AirPods from your iPhone, or one device from another or from the wall. After the Charge Key, the products started to just flow. It was like — is this going to be a one-hit wonder or a band that’s producing albums? And we started making music.

Liam:

A key part of the story is that you didn’t set out to build the brand that Nomad is today. You started with building incredible products, and the brand has been the outcome.

Noah:

It’s always been about product first with us. If you want to start some lively debates around the office, start talking product. I was having this conversation a week or two ago — what is a brand? Sometimes people think it’s a photo shoot or a certain campaign. But a brand is something you earn over time, every day, through every interaction with every customer, through getting deep into the materials, visiting the supply chain, going to the tannery in Chicago. The foundation has always been product, material, purpose. What’s the purpose of this product? What do we enable with our customers? The brand has been what we’ve enabled through the products we create.

Liam:

How do you ingrain that culture into the team?

Noah:

Revenue is important — we’ve had things to navigate with COVID, with tariffs. But you can have the revenue conversation when you’re sparked and excited about what you’re doing to begin with. It helps answer the why. I went on a walk with one of our product managers last week, talking about a product we’ll be launching later this year, and I really wanted him to understand the why behind it. Because when you’re working on something that’s genuinely cool and interesting, you do better work and you put more into it. Life is a precious thing. We spend a good deal of our time with work. If we can care about what we’re doing — get into the meat of it — it just makes everything more interesting.

Liam:

How have you managed to stay close to the product over the years with so many other things pulling your attention?

Noah:

There was a time I used to write a Post-it note to spend five minutes a day thinking of a new product idea. But one of the Post-it notes I have above my desk is ABT — Always Be Testing. Through extended use testing, you learn so much about your product. Any issues, any opportunities for subtle improvement. There’s that old Microsoft saying — eat your own dog food. If you use your product endlessly, you learn things no engineering test can tell you. The real test is the test of life. You’re yanking a cable out of the seat back of an airplane — does it hold up to that? So extended use testing is invaluable.

Liam:

Back in 2012, you used Kickstarter to get off the ground. How did that impact the business?

Noah:

I’m a huge fan of Kickstarter. For us it was truly a Kickstarter — not a marketing engine. We were living it, eating it, breathing it. We used those funds to build the tooling, take the product forward, and get the cart just in front of the horse so we had to chase it. Brian and I actually built a trailer and hit the road, convinced we needed to personally talk to about 50 people a day to hit our $50,000 minimum goal. Day two or three of the road trip, we’d already hit our goal. We were simultaneously doing real digital marketing — sending stuff out to press, sending samples — and we quickly learned it’s about the actual marketing rather than brute force. We were driving through Santa Fe and realized, I think we need to turn around and go back to California and get on with this.

Liam:

Those are the stories people forget about when they just see where you are today.

Noah:

We probably should share them more. I remember driving the car, Brian in the back on his computer, tethered. We got kind of drunk with it all, in a good way — deeply into this thing. Early on you don’t know exactly which way you’re going. It’s like an exploration. Okay, there’s land, let’s go that way. Oh, there’s more. Getting deeply into it helped us navigate forward.

Liam:

Tech accessories are in many ways a race to the bottom — cheap stores selling cheap iPhone cases. But you’ve taken a very different approach. Why did you choose to go premium?

Noah:

There is a lot of junk out there. It can be a race to the bottom when it’s just one person copying another with cheaper materials. For us, we’re always asking — what is the best material, the best design, how can we add something more? And back to the importance of the phone — this is a $1,000 or $1,500 device. How can we protect it in the best way possible? These are everyday carry devices. You and I change our shoes, our pants, our shirts most days. But your iPhone case or your keychain — you’re using the same one every single day. The amortization of use is highly spread over a long time. If you’re going to take these things with you on your life journey, which is a precious thing, you should really choose thoughtful ones with good materials and good details. I always think — imagine you were from another planet and they were outfitting you to go explore Earth. These would be serious decisions. You wouldn’t say, on this special life journey, just throw me an $8 Amazon case made of questionable materials.

Liam:

How do you convince someone to buy a premium product when so much of it is the touch and feel, and you’re mostly selling online?

Noah:

Through content — you can read about it, go as deep as you want, watch videos, read third parties. We are in stores as well, but we’re a lot online. And I think people get to know us, they test us once, and then they buy again knowing what they’re getting. Word of mouth matters too. You go to a dinner and put your phone on the table — these everyday carry devices are broadcast. If you’re buying a $1,500 phone, why wouldn’t you put a nice case on it?

Liam:

How do you decide what not to build?

Noah:

Through lively debates. We use the word “nomady” in the office and in Slack — is it nomad enough, or too nomad? We also think in terms of product champions. We don’t want to build something everyone just vaguely signs off on. Who is the champion behind this product? I’ve been the champion for products. My co-founder Brian is the champion of products. Product managers, the support team — they can champion feedback they’re hearing from customers. Anyone at the company can be a champion. There have been champions from the finance team. Almost everyone at the company has a mark somewhere in the Nomad product sphere over time. Sometimes it’s more obvious — Apple’s coming out with AirPods, we have to be there. The Apple Watch was a really interesting one. We do really well with Apple Watch bands. Your Apple Watch from one person to the next is basically the same — the only way to express your style is through the band.

Liam:

How do you know when a product is ready?

Noah:

Brian is often the stage gate guy on readiness. To be honest we’ve had times where we launched right on time, times where I thought we were too late, and times where we were too early. If you don’t launch, you might have a V2 ready before the V1 ever came out. There is something to be said for moving quickly, but not too quickly. In our earlier days we were very, very fast.

Liam:

What’s the product you’re most proud of launching?

Noah:

We launched the first portable battery charger for Apple Watch, basically when Apple Watch launched. I remember staying up late one night drinking cheap red wine with Brian, talking about the history of the phone, how it’s not done evolving, how it’s coming to the wrist — the future is finally here. When Apple Watch launched, there were all these articles like “10 reasons why Apple Watch will fail.” We loved it, because our stuff was just flying off the shelves. We had this hyper-portable battery, the first of its kind. It only lived for a couple of years as a product, but it was incredible. We had people who were really angry when we were delayed a little bit — there was a whole Reddit thread. But when you see that anger, it’s really just passion. I genuinely appreciated those customers.

Liam:

Was being product-led always intentional?

Noah:

It was never intentional — it was just organic. That’s where we stemmed from originally, and it’s where we get excited. I remember early on debating with Brian on the Charge Key — I was all about having it slightly open so you could hook it on and off. Brian convinced me closed was better. And when you really think through it, we purposely don’t want you to be able to easily take it off because we want it with you when you need it. If it clips off, it’s like those pens where you lose the clip. Those deep passionate conversations are where a lot of good things come from.

Liam:

There’s still an element of traditional marketing — you have to win the awareness game. People won’t buy it if they don’t know about it.

Noah:

Absolutely. We’re always trying to meet our customers where they are. We’ve been on Facebook since the early days and we’re really engaged with TikTok right now — we’re launching our TikTok shop. If you look at 10 or 15 years ago it was more Facebook, then Instagram, now TikTok. Being actively engaged with where people live is important. And it’s also a way to get feedback.

Liam:

What kind of content are you making?

Noah:

It depends on the platform. We’re newer to TikTok, and honestly we’re a little Instagram-first still — we need to update our thinking and embrace more of the content types that work natively there. I’m a millennial so sometimes I go into TikTok to check on our account and before I know it I’m watching some funny animal video. But we do want to be thoughtful. Our director of marketing wants everything to properly represent us. There’s a fine line between having fun and producing something loose versus polishing it. Premium product should match premium marketing throughout the experience. Though on TikTok there are moments where you can be a little looser, and that’s okay too.

Liam:

How do you think AI will help take Nomad to the next level?

Noah:

It’s going to impact in so many ways. Even from a product design standpoint — you and I could come up with a product concept right now and visualize it conceptually very quickly. That used to be much harder. From a marketing perspective it’s going to supercharge things. I think it’ll create more direct, individualized connections with customers. On the support side specifically — I’ve always thought of our support team as one of the key fundamentals of a brand. If you use our products for long enough, you’re going to have an issue one day. It’s part of the journey. The right AI tools can give customers a better experience for the basic queries, and then guide our human support team to the people who really need it. A lot of times someone just wants to return something as quickly as possible — if AI can remove the little steps that get slowed down by a human, that’s a positive. It lets the company use its resources more purposefully for the people who genuinely need that human connection.

Liam:

Do you think AI is making any immediate differences in the tech accessory market today?

Noah:

That’s partly why I’m out here in Las Vegas doing some marketing recon — trying to stay on top of this stuff. Over the past year and a half the discussion has been changing really fast, with different service providers emerging and different platforms embracing it. Personalization is big. The ability to manage your own website without needing an agency is interesting. We’re always watching.

Liam:

You’ve leaned on sustainability for a long time as well — it’s been a big part of closing the loop with customers.

Noah:

Sustainability is really important to us and part of our ethos. As a company that makes consumer goods, it’s always a challenge, but it’s something we think about. Whether it’s through our packaging, the materials we use, our suppliers, being carbon neutral, or initiatives like Blue Whales Blue Skies — where in key migration paths, boats are slowed down to reduce whale strikes. I love whales, I love wildlife, I love nature. If there are ways we can show that you can build in the modern economy in more harmony with nature, every detail throughout our process is an opportunity. Can we work on a material that’s slightly more biodegradable? Less plastic waste in the future? That keeps things interesting and it’s a big part of who we are.

Liam:

Next 12 months — what’s the number one thing for Nomad to crack?

Noah:

There are some rumors about a certain new device from a certain large company, so that’ll be interesting for us. We always have stuff cooking. But at this stage, really ensuring we have the systems and people in operations for the long haul. We’ve been around for 15 years and making sure what we build can continue to grow and continue to evolve.

Liam:

Thanks so much for coming on. I don’t think I’ve spoken to someone so obsessed with product. Most companies are just a revenue machine, and they don’t invest in building an amazing product or a product-led culture. The fact that it was organic — that’s what makes it rare.

Noah:

I appreciate it. Great questions. I enjoyed being here today. Thank you.

Noah & Liam get into:

Nomad’s early Kickstarter journey

Building a product-first culture that actually lasts

The Apple Watch launch and the moment customers were “really, really mad”

Why great brands are earned through product, not marketing

If you’re building in ecommerce, this is a masterclass in what it actually takes to win.

00:00 Intro

01:30 There’s a lot of junk in tech accessories

03:10 Why most brands race to the bottom

05:12 What actually makes a premium brand

08:00 Product vs marketing mindset

10:12 Staying close to the product as you scale

12:00 Building a product-first culture

13:34 The Kickstarter launch strategy

15:30 Early growth and product momentum

17:00 Avoiding the “one-hit wonder” trap

20:03 How Nomad decides what not to build

22:00 Managing product expansion and focus

24:02 Apple Watch launch skepticism

26:00 Turning demand into product success

28:00 Product vs awareness debate

32:00 Brand vs performance marketing

34:00 Lessons from building a premium brand

36:00 What most brands get wrong

37:30 Final thoughts