St. Louis native Akeem Shannon is leaving his mark in the technology field with his invention of the “Flipstik” which is a cell phone accessory that allows the phone to stick to any object. After losing his scholarship after one year at Howard University, Akeem didn’t want his parents to feel like he let them down and that they wasted their life savings on his schooling.
Akeem started working for the cell phone company Sprint. After becoming their top salesman, He got recruited to work for Verizon on their business side. He went on to work for Square helping people with their business and marketing.
His life changed when he received a 3 AM phone call from his uncle who is an electrical engineer at NASA. The uncle had a discussion with Akeem about a reusable adhesive that NASA developed in the 1970s. Shannon realized how effective the adhesive would be when attaching it to a cell phone on a wall.
Akeem made a prototype of the adhesive and taught himself how to do a patent and trademark and launched his Kickstarter campaign. He sought to raise $1,865, but surpassed that goal, earning over $15,000 in presales.
Akeem would go on to present Flipstik on the popular hit television show Shark Tank. Shannon has received endorsements from P. Diddy, and Snoop Dogg, and has received a 50,000 grant from Arch Grants. After expanding its footprint into retail stores and raising new funding, Akeem is seeking to expand a line of new products this year.
The expansion comes from $1.15 million pre-seed funding raising capital from a few investors including Build-A-Bear Workshop founder and former CEO Maxine Clark. Akeem is putting St. Louis on the map with his invention and showing people that you can do anything that you put your mind to.
