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The Original Typewriter Keyboard
Built by hand in a California garage in 2014. Still built today by the same small family business.
Since 2014, we've shipped over 50,000+ units, across 50+ countries, millions raised through crowdfunding, with thousands of 5-star customers.
It started with one obession.
I wasn't trying to start a keyboard company. I just wanted a computer keyboard that looked as special as the work I did every day. Then I noticed, everything on my desk felt cheap, plastic, generic, forgettable. In 2014, this was a thing. everything was beige or bland. So I started building one myself.
Garage Days
I wasn't trying to start a keyboard company. I just wanted a computer keyboard that looked as special as the work I did every day. Then I noticed, everything on my desk felt cheap, plastic, generic, forgettable. In 2014, this was a thing. everything was beige or bland. So I started building one myself.
Unexpected Happened
I posted this image on Flickr (if you know, you know) of the the very first "typewriter keyboard" I literally built from scraps of old typewriter on top of a barebones pcb keyboard bed. People went wild. Some of these images/videos got millions of views within days. Then I got emails asking if they could buy one. I was like, I'm not selling. Then Kickstarter happened.
2014 Kickstarter
You can still find our original Kickstarter right here and watch my painfully amateur pitch video shot in the same garage. But the end of the campaign, we raised over $129k plus an additional hundreds of thousands in pre-orders. It was incredible! It was also one of the most challenging times in my life.
Wall Street Journal
My wife and I were driving to Los Angeles to visit family when we got word that the Wall Street Journal feature on the Qwerkywriter would be appearing that weekend. We stopped and bought like ten copies! Seeing something we'd built in our garage featured in the pages of the Wall Street Journal was completely surreal. The photo shown here is the one they published.
Patents
We knew the Qwerkywriter would be copied—and it has been. Some were bait-and-switch products, while others borrowed ideas and changed just enough to work around existing patents.
Rather than chasing every copycat, we keep innovating, protect our work where it makes sense, and focus on what matters most: building a keyboard we're proud of and supporting the customers who put their trust in us.
Links to our trademarks and patents.
Qwerkywriter Trademark Serial No. 86342170
PRESS
We were incredibly fortunate that when the Qwerkywriter launched in 2014, it was something people had never seen before. The response was overwhelming, with features in CNN, FOX, The Wall Street Journal, Macworld, and countless technology and design publications around the world.
I'll never take that kind of attention for granted. But headlines fade quickly. Great products endure. Our philosophy has always been simple: keep your head down, keep improving, and take care of your customers. Over time, those small, consistent improvements add up to something extraordinary.
Below are a few of the features that helped introduce the Qwerkywriter to the world.
Wall Street Journal
From typewriter to Qwerkywriter—The Wall Street Journal weighs in.
Fortune Magazine
Senior Fortune contributor Mark Sparrow reflects on a decade of Qwerkywriter.
9 to 5 Mac
9to5Mac’s Ben Lovejoy, a leading voice in macOS, reviews Qwerkywriter.
Macworld
Qwerkywriter is seriously built, but never takes itself too seriously.
KICKSTARTER
A decade later, Qwerkywriter returns to Kickstarter.
Brian Min
Founder and Head of Product
"Good ideas are common. Finishing them is rare."