My name is Steven Fazio.
I'm 23 years old
and studying electrical engineering at Georgia Tech.
So I watched this YouTuber named Bruce Yeany,
on his series Homemade Science
there was this string launcher
that took this loop of string
and propelled it so fast
through the air that it would float.
At the end of 2020, I entered a circuit board
design hackathon through Georgia Tech.
We were tasked to design a circuit board
smaller than size of a credit card.
What if I could condense
that string launcher into something smaller
than a credit card that I could hold in my hand?
And that was a start of ZipString.
So I was working on this design from the hackathon
and building it into a better string launcher.
I put it on the internet and it got some traction
and they were asking me, where can I buy this?
But
I knew that it couldn't make a scalable business.
That was until I met my business partner Austin.
Stephen and I attend the same church
and our church leader connected us both
because we love engineering.
My father met Steven and we were all nerding out
all three of us together about this device.
And within 12 days later, we had a new prototype.
We all were talking about
how we couldn't share this anywhere on the internet
or with anyone because we knew we had
something just amazing.
So I made a little video in my closet
and I posted it on my Instagram and my TikTok.
I was not supposed to post that video.
This is the latest prototype of my string shooter.
It has motors, these rollers, and a guide for the string.
You press this button
and it stabilizes mid-air, oh, so stable.
And by nighttime it had over 20 million views on TikTok
Front page Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok
YouTube, it sent like a ripple through the internet.
I thought it was awesome.
Everybody wanted to buy it
and they didn't know where to get it.
We had to figure out how to launch the whole business.
You know, we got the Kickstarter running
and it's doing extremely well,
but we got to figure out how to make thousands
of these zip strings.
So we set up shop here in my parents' basement.
We got about six resin printers
and had those running constantly.
We had all the materials imported into here
the packaging, the motors, the batteries.
Had all of our friends and family come in
and pitch in and assemble thousands of zip strings
so we could deliver them to our Kickstarter backers.
As zip string was getting into the hands
of kids and adults across the world,
we got the opportunity to go
on a nationwide TV show called Shark Tank.
It ended up being a whole bidding war
between Robert Herjavec and Kevin O'Leary
and they were fighting over the deal
and it kept getting better and better.
And so we ended up getting both
of the sharks together on a pretty sweet deal.
You know what we learned
going through the trenches of manufacturing
helped us to innovate and build a better product,
which we now have today
which is what we call version four.
Where Tektronix comes into this
is in the product design.
A lot of engineering has gone into this.
How do you calculate the speed of a string
on different lengths and maybe the string
slipping off the wheels, you know?
And with that, we use the 2 Series oscilloscope
to measure all different parts
of zip string so we can design
and improve and make it into something amazing.
I love that the 2 Series has an enormous
capacitive touch screen.
Being able to kind of swipe
and play through the menus makes it really easy.
That is what's going to decrease my production cycle time.
The whole engineering design process is sped up
when we can get our data fast and accurate.
And with the 2 Series, we're able to collect all that data
on the different prototypes and ideas we have
and allow us to make great decisions
on what ideas stay and which need to go.
You can tell that they paid a lot of attention
to the end user,
having the same controls
between the 5 Series oscilloscopes
I use at Georgia Tech and the 2 Series here
makes it so much easier to transition between instruments.
We have some really exciting ideas
and products we're going to launch here soon
and I'm using the 2 Series to develop them.
We trust the accuracy and the measurements
that come from this oscilloscope.
One of the reasons ZipString has become so popular
and so viral around the world
is because of a phenomenon we call the smile of wonderment.
The first time they turn on that device
there is an expression captured on their face
and it lasts for just several seconds
of pure raw wonderment.
If we weren't able to design a circuit board
that could be mass produced by the tens of thousands
this experience would not exist.
Tektronix played a crucial role
in designing that circuit board.