Tech founder launched a landline-style phone and sold $120K of them in 3 days

Cat Goetze may be a technology founder, but she is embarking on a multi-year journey to reduce her dependence on devices.

Goetze, who passed by two years ago CatGPT on social mediaHe wanted to replace his smartphone with something lower-tech.

“I was just sitting around [thinking] “It would be so sweet if we still had landline phones and you could just dial the cord and talk to your friends,” she tells CNBC Make It. “That strikes me as nostalgic and stylish.”

When she researched the issue, she didn’t realize that getting a landline for her apartment would require getting a new number and paying for the phone line. So this 20-something kid created his own version out of a phone he was saving: “I literally just hacked into a landline phone and made it Bluetooth compatible.”

The pink clamshell handset quickly became the most talked about feature in her apartment. Whenever someone broke into his building’s security system, Goetze let them in through his landline. It can also make outgoing calls from the set.

After two years with him, Goetze introduced the phone He rolled it out to his online audience in July 2025 to see if anyone else thought it was a good idea.

Within hours, hundreds of people commented on the video saying they needed the device. He set up an online store to collect pre-orders, thinking that 15 to 20 people would place real orders and build the devices in their own homes.

Goetze’s project Physical PhonesIt surpassed $120,000 in sales in its first three days, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. The business had sold more than 3,000 units and generated $280,000 in sales as of the end of October.

“It really felt like we caught lightning in a bottle,” says Goetze.

Physical Phones currently has five phone styles ranging from $90 to $110. Goetze partners with an electronics manufacturer will produce the phones and the first batches will be sent to customers starting in December.

Physical Phones connect to both iPhone and Android devices via Bluetooth and will ring when the smartphone receives a phone call or audio or video call from platforms such as WhatsApp, FaceTime, Instagram and Snapchat; The audio of the call is then routed to the Physical Phone.

Users can make outgoing calls by dialing a phone number or pressing the asterisk

Julia Harris Goetze credits the success of his work with

He points out that the Covid-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the way people use their phones today. As people are stuck at home and away from people, they have turned to apps like TikTok to fill the time and feel connected. Now that some consumers are becoming skeptical about tech companies getting their attention and Navigating AI

Goetze says people are trying to correct AI-generated content online.

“Our attention span is shortening. We feel more anxious. We are less present and unable to enjoy our lives. We have a complete epidemic of loneliness,” he says. People are now “starting to put their foot down and realize: ‘You know what, I don’t actually want this, and I’m going to move on and choose a different future.’

But Goetze stops short of “demonizing” technology, explaining: “It’s the thing that brings us sustainable forms of energy, vaccines, a bunch of really good things for the world, but also, okay, how do we live in harmony with it?” Black Friday sale: Want to improve your AI skills and be more productive?Take 25% off our most popular course of the year, How to Use Artificial Intelligence to Be More Successful at Work.

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