Interview with Lorenzo Filiberto Ferraris, Co-Founder and CEO of Ferraris Group Sagl

Lifestyle - Interview

by Mehmet Kaplan

Nowadays, smartphones are an integral part of our daily lives. No need to explain the advantages they provide. But sometimes their charge is running out in the middle of the day and they leave us in halfway. Of course, we do not prefer to carry bulky charging cable balls with us. Lorenzo Filiberto Ferraris and Carlo Edoardo Ferraris, who noticed this situation, developed a smart solution and designed the charging cable in a format that could be attached to the key chain that we carry all day long. And because of its design, they called it Rolling Square. With the inCharge charging cables they developed, they simplify the users' lives and offer a different marketing alternative to the companies that want to increase their brand awareness. I talked with Lorenzo Filiberto Ferraris, Co-Founder and CEO of Ferraris Group Sagl, about inCharge.

Lorenzo, before talking about inCharge, could you tell us about your background and design & tech experiences?

I have got my degree in Robotic Engineering at Politecnico of Milan, ranked top engineering university in Italy. I have then started working for 2-3 years in a multinational robotics company in Italy. While I was working as an engineer, I started exploring some ideas, together with my younger brother Carlo, who was just 17 years old when we started working together on our first project: inCharge.

inCharge

How did you come up with the idea of keyring cable? What inspired you?

This is kind of funny, since it came up in a really random way. I had this iPhone cable which was broken, and while I was fixing it, I decided to make it shorter.

So, I ended up with an inch-long cable, which I then started carrying around in my pocket every day. I thought it was actually a pretty convenient gadget to have. So, together with my brother, we started working on a way to make it even more portable, and easy to attach to and detach from your keyring. We then launched inCharge on Indiegogo, a crowdfunding platform, and raised approximately half a million dollars, thanks for the support of more than 30.000 backers.

Left to Right - Lorenzo Marias Bonelli (Sales Manager), Carlo Edoardo Ferraris (COO and Co-founder), Lorenzo Filiberto Ferraris (CEO and Co-founder), Ambrogio Tacconi (Industrial designer)

Could you tell us about Ferraris Group Sagl?

We are a young and passionate team, based in Chiasso, Switzerland. Carlo Edoardo Ferraris (22 yo) is the COO, he graduated from Bocconi in Business and Management, Lorenzo Maria Bonelli (25 yo), Sales Manager and Business Developer, graduated from Politecnico of Milan with a degree in Computer Engineering, and Ambrogio Tacconi (25 yo), Industrial Designer and Product Developer, graduated from IED in Industrial Design. Right now we are four, but we are currently looking to expand the team.

Ferraris Group Sagl is our company name, while "Rolling Square" is our brand, that collects all our products.

A square does not naturally roll, due to its shape. But if you smoothen the square corners, it becomes a circle. So, for us, Rolling Square is a solved problem. It is the philosophy of our team and the foundation of our product design process. We aim at creating actually useful products, meant to make everyday life a little bit easier.

inCharge

You have three different inCharge models for different purposes in your collection. Could you tell us about the features and differences of Classic, for Business, and Universal models?

inCharge Classic line is made by inCharge for iPhone, inCharge MicroUSB and inCharge Type-C, which are the three kinds of connectors on the market of smartphones and mobile accessories today.

inCharge Universal line is made by inCharge Dual (iPhone + MicroUSB) and inCharge All in One (iPhone + MicroUSB + Type-C), which integrate all the connectors into a single, handy gadget.

inCharge for Business gives the opportunity to companies who are looking for a unique giveaway, to place their brand on our products and make a nice and useful gift for their customers or employees.

inCharge

What are the advantages of using inCharge keyring cables in daily life?

USB ports nowadays are everywhere, just think that in the world, there are more USB ports than human beings! So, most of the time when you need a quick charge, all you need is the right cable. Carrying your full-size cable around is hard because it's bulky. There are already solutions such as power cases and power banks, but they are either not portable enough or easy to forget. inCharge fits on your keyring and thanks to its super-compact size, you will almost forget it's there, until you need it. inCharge is a real life-saver, and with the All in One model, you can now charge every portable device you own: your smartphone, wireless earbuds, portable speakers, power banks, e-cigs and much more.

inCharge

inCharge for Business and Universal are also customizable with customer's company logos. Could you tell us about this process and its advantages for brands?

The purpose of a promotional product is to make your company's brand stick into people’s mind. Today, it’s very hard for a brand to stand out by using traditional giveaways such as pens and pen drives.

inCharge is the perfect giveaway gift, not only because it's affordable, but also because it's innovative and useful, so the final users will be much more likely to actually carry it around with them every day and actually use it, contributing to expand the company’s brand. inCharge comes in beautiful colors and packagings, completely customizable with any company logo and any color combination.

inCharge

Social media platform are a new showcase for innovative brands. What do you think about the power of social media on buyers' decisions?

I believe social media are a great way to keep in touch with our customers, to communicate the news without being too invasive with tools such as email newsletters. Social media also allows a company to be fully transparent. Everything is there and publicly accessible.

How can our readers follow the inCharge?

We are on Facebook as Rolling Square (https://www.facebook.com/RollingSquare.design), but also on Instagram as Rolling Square (@rollingsqua.re) and InCharge for Business (@incharge.biz). We also periodically send a newsletter for new products, you can receive it by signing up on our website (www.rollingsqua.re).

inCharge

Where can our readers buy inCharge keyring cables?

All our models are on sale on our website www.rollingsqua.re, while for inCharge for Business, you can send us an enquiry via email at info@ferrarisgroup.ch.

What is next for you?

Right now we have just completed a campaign on Indiegogo for our new product: "HYPHEN" (https://igg.me/at/hyphen) the most complete wireless earbuds, premium quality at an affordable price.

We have raised almost 1 Million dollars in pre-sales and are looking to deliver to our backers within next month. We are already working on new products, which we will be launching soon.

Ferraris Group Sagl Team

Anything you would like to add that I haven’t asked?

Yes. I would like to encourage everyone who is reading this interview to be curious in life, always experiment and be open to new ideas. If you have something in mind, don't be thrown off by anything or anyone, and always believe in yourself. Even a small and simple idea can be innovative, and it's always worth it to give it a try.

Thank you Lorenzo for your time.

For more information, please click here to visit the website of Ferraris Group Sagl

Friday, March 22, 2019.

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