Stanford grad tech founder behind viral landline-style phones to help reduce screen time

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - A 29-year-old content creator and entrepreneur is bringing back nostalgia with a high-tech twist, offering an opportunity to unplug from what can be a draining digital world, while still staying connected.

Stanford graduate Catherine Goetze is behind Physical Phones, a Los Angeles-based company that sells retro landline-inspired phones that are built with Bluetooth capabilities. 

The device is described as: "Vintage design. Modern tech." And the company invites its users to, "Set your phone down and pick up something that sparks joy. Talk, laugh, twirl the cord... all the warmth of yesterday, reimagined for the modern world."

The idea behind the product is that it’s a fun way, Goetze says, to feed a growing desire to retreat from a space where social media, artificial intelligence, and technology rule, without having to ignore the digital existence altogether.

What they're saying:

"The product does a good job of kind of toeing that middle line of saying, like, how can we use modern technology to create an experience leveraging something like Bluetooth in sort of this, very tactile, retro, vintage format that feels inherently human and nostalgic in a very analog way?" Goetze shared with KTVU in an interview on Tuesday.

It allows users to walk away from their mobile phone, with its easy internet and social media access, and just focus on the conversation at hand.

"If you're holding a literal vintage handset, there's nothing to be distracted by. You are 100% locked in on that conversation with that person," Goetze said, adding that it may even bring you closer to that person on the other line.

Physical Phones features

Dig deeper:

The product comes in different styles and colors, from vintage rotary phones, to old school handsets, and a retro wall phone.

They’re battery operated and use USB charging. 

All you need is your smartphone so it can sync up with a Physical Phone, through Bluetooth.

Once the devices find each other, you click Physical Phones from the Bluetooth menu, and the two phones pair up.   

Physical Phones are not tethered to any jacks, so they don't need to be plugged into anything, except for when being charged. 

The product is the only known all-in-one landline with Bluetooth capabilities and is also unique in that it works without requiring both parties on the line to have a Physical Phone, according to the company.

The phones come at two prices: $90 and $110, and can be ordered through the website. 

Voice-activation feature

Another aspect that makes these phones modern is that while users can manually dial phone numbers, they can also take advantage of a feature that allows voice-activated calls. By hitting the star key, the voice activation is triggered allowing the caller to pull from the smartphone contacts directly. So no need to memorize phone numbers.

The company also prides itself on the devices' high audio quality, which Goetze said was designed in a way that the person on the other line won't even be able to tell you're using a Physical Phone. 

There is also no caller ID function.

Goetze said during testing of the product, it was interesting to see how people responded to answering a call without knowing where it was coming from. 

"We've noticed this very nerve-wracking thing where people feel super uncomfortable not knowing who they're picking up. And one of the most common questions we get is like, 'Well, what if it's a spam call?’ It's like, well, what did you do back in the day if it was a spam? You hung up," Goetze shared, adding, "And it's so interesting, relearning it all. "

The backstory:

Originally from Illinois, the Physical Phones founder graduated from Stanford in 2018 with a degree in Science, Technology, and Society. 

On the company’s website, she said she’s "obsessed with how tech can amplify our humanity, rather than replace it."

The product she designed sought to do just that: use technology with a balanced approach to make people more connected, all while having fun. 

Backlash to AI

As she created this product, Goetze acknowledged we are seeing a huge cultural shift being brought on by the fast-moving advancements in artifical intelligence. And this shift is leading to a palpable movement against digital distractions and a desire to return to an analog past. 

"Technology is going through a phase right now where it's being highly demonized for good reason. I don't actually necessarily think that it's the wrong take in many ways," she said, adding, "All of the negatives are so visible, and they feel so visceral and real in our lives right now."

SEE ALSO: Bay Area Harvard grad student launched new ‘Appstinence’ movement to quit social media

‘Two sides of the same coin’

Big picture view:

But she emphasized that technology has also made critical advancements that can’t be ignored and serve as a valuable and necessary tool in this modern world.   

"It's easy to forget that, you know, science and technology is also what brings us renewable energy and cures to diseases and in many ways can be leveraged to make our lives much better. And so that's kind of the underlying ethos behind Physical Phones," the founder explained.

She said it’s technology that’s also helped her grow her businesses at an accelerated speed and get the word out about her product.  

"We could not have done any of this without AI. Like, we use AI in every single facet of this business," she said. "We basically speed ran the entire company building process within four months, that usually takes companies one to two years. And, you know, we used technology to do it, not to mention to save a ton of costs and all sorts of other things. So, it's very strange. It's like two sides of the same coin that feel very juxtaposed but are in fact deeply related." 

It was in 2023, that she built her first prototype, and it was done with the help of AI. 

"I hacked a Bluetooth antenna into a pink landline phone simply because taking calls while twirling my finger a curly cord made me smile," the Physical Phones founder shared on the company website.

Early wave of interest 

The content creator widely known as @askcatgpt on social media, posted video of her landline phone two years after building that prototype, and placed her product on sale for pre-order.

The response was overwhelming. Within 72 hours, the company received 1,000 orders, which allowed Physical Phones to leverage its pre-order revenues to launch the company into early success.

The company officially launched in July and has since sold some 5,500 phones. 

"The whole reason that this project even was able to exist without any funding, without having to take out a business loan, without having to dip into my personal life savings, is because of the support of the community," Goetze said. "And because it started with a content creator who just happens to also be the entrepreneur, this whole thing was able to be funded by the pre-order revenue that we got from our earliest wave of supporters."

Her own nostalgia about the landline 

Goetze said she falls somewhere between being a millennial and a Gen Zer, so she created her product dipping into her own memories and the nostalgia of having a landline at home when she was growing up.

"I think the fact that I am right on that razor edge is like, kind of why I'm the perfect person to make this product," she shared. "I very much remember, you know, having my crush call the phone at home and having my mom pick up and like, ‘Mom, no, it's for me, get off the phone!’"

She said this straddling between two eras gives her a perspective of a time before cell phones’ domination and a time after.

"I also had the transition where Instagram came out while I was still in high school. So in many ways it's like I've kind of had both experiences, and I'm very grateful for that because I feel like I still had a childhood," Goetze offered.

Gen Alpha, Gen Z interest 

She noted, what has been intriguing about this experience so far is that many of those driving the interest in Physical Phones are from younger generations that didn’t get to experience a world without cell phones. 

 "One of our biggest cohorts of customers is Gen Alpha and Gen Z, who never grew up with a landline. And they're the ones who are begging their parents for this for Christmas. And that's so fascinating to me how people can be nostalgic for something they never even lived through," Goetze reflected.

She said her product is feeding into this growing appetite from people who are seeking ways to turn off digital distractions, even for a phone call or other once very simple activities. 

‘Analog Renaissance'

"There's this craving for, you know, I'm calling it the ‘Analog Renaissance,’ but it's the desire to like go out, touch grass, reconnect with our communities and people, which is only good things," she said. "I think the fact that we are participating in the ‘Analog Renaissance,’ but doing it from the perspective of not of shaming people or guilting people about their tech usage or using fear-mongering tactics and instead making it really fun is another part of the reason why it's caught on… Ours feels more like an invitation."

She noted that beyond the phone itself as a tool to communicate, the product is created to give off a fun and whimsical experience, and it may offer a chance to rethink our relationship with phones and perhaps rethink other aspects of how we spend our time. 

"Inspires and opens up this curiosity about like, well, what else could I do that would maybe be one step away from my phone, that would also feel whimsical? Like, what are the hobbies that I used to enjoy that had nothing to do with scrolling on a screen?" Goetze proposed, adding, "And it's just a little tiny reminder that I think plants that seed in a lot of people's brains for, you know, all the other things that they might be missing in their life."

This story was reported from Oakland, Calif. 

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