From a viral Kindle strap to reinventing how you hold an iPad

From a viral Kindle strap to reinventing how you hold an iPad

By the Founder - Spotlighting founder-led brands · 11 June 2026

June 11, 2026

The Australian husband & wife team behind a viral Kindle strap and a Shark Tank deal are back with a genuinely original iPad case, two days left on Kickstarter and a useful lesson about where you choose to sell.

Lou Rice and Ben Stainlay founded Strapsicle after Lou accidentally dropped her Kindle on their newborn. Ben made a silicone strap so it would not happen again and that homemade fix became a viral Kindle accessory. The brand went on to appear on Shark Tank Australia and now claims more than 300,000 customers, including many managing arthritis, carpal tunnel and Parkinson's. Now they have taken the same thinking to a bigger, harder device and launched their new iPad case on Kickstarter.

The case is designed around your hands as much as the device. A silicone XO strap holds the iPad in place so you are not gripping it, which means you can read in bed, watch on the couch or sketch on the commute without your fingers and wrist aching afterwards. The cover folds to several angles for whatever you are doing, the Apple Pencil has its own holder so it stops disappearing down the side of the couch and you can swap the straps when you want a different colour. It fits the iPad (A16) and iPad mini 6 and 7 (A17) and stays genuinely light. Because the strap and cover come off and replace on their own, a worn part does not mean buying a whole new case.

The lesson worth your attention

The key point for founders is where they choose to sell their product. Strapsicle launched on Kickstarter rather than through their own site, betting that the platform would help them reach a new audience beyond their existing Kindle community. The campaign quickly met its funding goal but then stalled, as the expected boost from Kickstarter's own channels did not materialise. The team has been open that the platform's unfamiliar language and a clunky mobile checkout confused first-time backers and that there was a real internal debate about whether to launch somewhere their customers already knew the brand. The lesson for anyone considering crowdfunding is that a new platform means educating buyers on both the product and the platform at once and that friction can cost sales. Credit to them for working through it in public.

Where the campaign stands

AU$23,300 from 272 backers, with two days left. It is all-or-nothing and closes on Saturday 13 June. The base goal is cleared, and a stretch goal unlocks an extra aqua and black colourway. Early backer pricing runs up to 40% off on the multi-pack, with free shipping to the US and Australia and a $10 cap elsewhere. The product should be in your hands around October.

We are backing Strapsicle because it is exactly what this newsletter exists to champion. It is a real product solving an unglamorous problem, built by founders who created demand before assuming it, who sweated 29 prototypes to get the details right, and who are willing to narrate the hard parts while those parts are still hard.

If you read, draw or watch on an iPad mini or iPad (A16) and finish long sessions with a sore hand, it is well worth a look while the early pricing lasts.

Back Strapsicle on Kickstarter →