The Handy

The Handy
Type	Private
Industry	Consumer electronics; Sex toys;
Founded	2017; 7 years ago
Founder	Jens Petter Wilhelmsen; Alexander Arish Bjorkmann; Nicolay Bang;
Headquarters	Oslo, Norway
Products	Sex toys
Parent	SweetTech AS
Website	www.thehandy.com

The Handy is an upscale automatic stroker designed and developed by SweetTech AS, a Norwegian company that has its headquarters in Oslo, Norway.^[1] The device is a masturbatory aid, and it officially entered the adult market in April 2019.^[2]

History

The prototype of the Handy masturbator was created in 2017 by a young cybernetics engineer, Alexander Bjorkmann. He used to make remote-controlled weapon systems for a living but decided to design and created the first Handy prototype after a challenge by his friends.^[3] Alexander noticed that many automatic masturbators available didn't live up to most of their claims, so he set to change that by making Handy.

Before creating the first Handy prototype, Alexander personally sold a re-branded masturbation machine called Sweetlips, confirming that it was a market for it. He met with co-founders Jens Petter Wilhelmsen and Nicolay Bang during the autumn of 2017 and SweetTech AS was established with the aim of making the best masturbator in the market. In 2018, the founding trio perfected the design, mechanics, electronics, and software of the product. Next, they legally secured their invention and IP and produced the first batch of masturbators which was the Series O. The Series O batch was taken to test groups who provided critical feedback, and the team used it to further improve and adjust the masturbator. In 2019, the first-ever commercial batch was ready with feedback from testers. In the same year, the company’s website thehandy.com was launched to provide customers with valuable information about the masturbator and to ensure an amazing customer experience. The company also sells The Handy’s accessories but it’s not yet available in retail stores. Besides product’s official website, the team at SweetTech also created a sister website, Handyfeeling.com. Here, users can sync their Handy to adult movies for increased pleasure. As of 2020, this new entrant has started to gain traction in the automatic masturbator market as product reviews increased and online sales hit the roof. This spike in sales encouraged the team at SweetTech to take their first official Handy survey.

The aim of the survey is to guide the company in what areas to focus on when creating updates to the Handy. In addition to enhancing the Handy masturbator, an improved Handyfeeling website design will be launched. The new site will feature better user experience, aesthetics, and UX functionalities.

Founders

The founding partners of the Handy masturbator are Jens Petter Wilhelmsen, Alexander Arish Bjørkmann and Nicolay Bang. This trio has combined experience in finance, marketing and product development. Jens Petter attended the Airforce Officers Candidate School in Norway and proceeded to Copenhagen Business School for his MSc in Finance and Accounting. He was a management consultant and corporate finance professional for five years and has invested in multiple projects and assets.

Alexander, on the other hand, was a student of Cybernetics Engineering at Oslo University. He trained as an automation technician and attended the Norwegian defense electro-optical weapons school. Before focusing full-time on Handy, he was once a technical officer in the Norwegian army. He later worked as an R&D engineer in a defense and aerospace organization. Nicolay Bang is an investor with a Physics Master’s degree from Oslo University. He spent several years in sales and marketing, product development, and emergency shutdown systems in the oil & gas sector. He also worked as a manager in a consulting agency before starting an SMS platform and service firm.

Product Design and Functionality

The Handy comes with a powerful motor with an extremely fast thrust speed. The brushless motor incorporated in the stroker significantly reduces the noise level of the masturbator compared to any other stroker available.

Additionally, the thrust speed, which is placed at 10 strokes per second (or 600 strokes/minute), makes the device the fastest automatic masturbator in the market. When it comes to product design, the SweetTech team intentionally avoided any sexual or erotic imagery for the final look of the Handy. At the early stages, before its entry to the market, the founders realized that vulgar designs on the stroker could be embarrassing to some users and helps to create a stigma against sex toys. Hence, the consensus was to stick to a simple but sleek look. Presently, the Handy masturbating machine is only available in one color, which is charcoal black. Subsequent models may see the device available in more colors. A complete Handy unit comprises the handle (which houses the motor), the sleeve, and the TrueGrip band. The band is what secures the sleeve to the handle, and the handle is what moves the sleeve up and down during masturbation.

Beyond the fast speed and noiseless capability of the Handy, the masturbator also has some interesting features like video synchronization, remote control, and IoT technology. To give the Handy IoT capability, the developers equipped the masturbator with a dual-core processor together with WIFI and Bluetooth functionality. Users can masturbate with the device offline and they can also connect it to online porn sites.

In a Q and A session on Reddit, most users state their love for the remote control function of the Handy. This function makes it possible for the device to be controlled by a partner from across the room or in another part of the globe.

To engage in a remote sex play with a partner, all a Handy user has to do is to share their secret code with their lover. With the secret code, the partner can use their smartphone to tease or control the movements of their partner.

The Handy can also be synced with porn movies online. At first, the only sex clips the device could sync with were clips on Handyfeeling.com. However, in 2020, the company partnered with Sexlikereal.

The newfound partnership allows all Handy users to sync with the thousands of high-quality virtual porn movies on the Sexlikereal website. More partnerships with content providers will follow. Presently, owners of Handy can engage in various types of virtual sex.

Retail

When Handy came to market, the company struck a deal with the retail giant, Orion Wholesale. The deal made Orion the sole retail seller of Handy masturbators in Europe and Russia. Orion was chosen because of its vast years of (over 30 years) experience in the sex toy business. Orion Shops has more than 150 shops in Germany alone. It also has retail stores throughout Scandinavia and Austria.

Another reason why Orion was selected as the exclusive wholesale partner of the Handy brand is due to the retailer’s reputation for strong quality control. This is very important to the SweetTech team as their aim is to produce and be recognized as a superior quality brand. Orion also has traits the young Handy brand is developing within their organization and with customers – which is a reputation for honesty and loyalty. Although having Orion as a retail partner wasn’t exactly easy for SweetTech as the retailer has a strict and rigid legal process. However, the strong retail success and image of Orion is something the Handy founders would like to be associated with. At present, the Handyfeeling website has a handful of sex movies that users can sync their devices with. Based on the recently concluded Handy survey result, which shows customer demands, the company had to develop stronger bands for the masturbator. The bands are available for sale, but the production of new cups is still underway because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to the closedown of several factories in China.

Timeline

2017 - Testing of the market opportunity with the re-branding and sale of Chinese Sweetlips, proving the demand in the market
2017 – The first prototype was made after feedback on too low quality of Sweetlips
2017 – Alexander decided to go ahead with the idea and create the Handy. He met with the co-founders to test the idea with a minimal viable product proto type (MVP).
2018 – The team went ahead with the MVP and SweetTech AS was established with the aim of making a superior quality automatic masturbator that can stand up to all its claims.
2018 – The design, mechanics, electronics, and software was enhanced. Next was the production of masturbators and branding. The team legally secured the invention and IP
2018 – Production of Series O. Test groups involved providing critical feedback leading to improvements and adjustments.
2019 – Commercial product ready with first feedback from testers