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SANDY — Rob Urry wanted to be a ski bum after retirement, and Dick Burnett dreamed of long days on the golf course, but that didn't work out for either of them.
After spending decades in corporate jobs, the friends came together at the end of their careers to try something new — launching an outdoors startup. In February, their Zyntony Ra "light strap" quickly surpassed its fundraising goal on Kickstarter.
"It has been really cool for us because it's a completely different kind of an angle than a corporate world," said Urry, who serves as Zyntony's CEO and president. "Typically, you had one or two bosses at your job. We've got close to 1,500 backers right now, so we've got like 1,500 bosses."
The idea for Ra, a flexible LED light strip, came to Urry after he retired from his executive position with the Harman Music Group. While spending time four-wheeling and participating in other outdoor activities with his wife, he went through "several dozen" different types of lights but couldn't find anything that satisfied his needs.
With his background in product design, Urry thought he could take advantage of new LED technology and make something better. The waterproof Ra light strip has an output of up to 800 lumens and was designed to attach to clothing items and other objects using rare earth magnets. It frees up hands and provides a broader range of light than headlamps and flashlights, according to Urry.
"If you want to go climbing or hiking ... and you want to do it in the pitch black, it's like putting a cone of daylight all around you for 20 or 30 feet," he said.
The Ra has drawn more than $162,500 on Kickstarter so far, surging past its original $15,000 goal. The campaign runs until March 19. Burnett said that after that, they plan to keep slowly growing the company and adding new products.
"A lot of the crowdfunding startups are with these young bucks," he said. "They're these young kids, all fun all vim and vigor, and we're the antithesis of that. We're the old, corporate, retired guys that have decided to be young again and go out and do this. A lot of guys our age, a lot of my counterparts, they just retire and go play golf. So we retired and got this hobby of starting up a business."
