The archive · Product Ideas · Product decision · 2024–2026
modue: modular 'bricks' for your own control deck fund in 10 minutes on Kickstarter
Three Polish students turn the insight that every computer workflow is different into magnetic snap-together control modules.
modue
What it had to solve
Engineering students at Warsaw University of Technology could not control audio and background apps from one place while gaming; user research later showed everyone controls their computer differently.
How it works
While gaming, electrical engineering student Jakub Popowski and his friends kept failing to control everything on screen at once — audio, voice apps, shortcuts — because 'the mouse and keyboard weren't enough'. His first idea was a motorised-slider audio mixer, but conversations with potential users showed a bigger truth: everyone uses a computer differently.
That turned the project into modue, a set of magnetic snap-together modules — One Touch with a configurable touchscreen, Slide with a motorised slider, Spin with three clickable knobs, and Click with four mechanical buttons — that users arrange into a personal control deck. The team designed it in Autodesk Fusion, built two-sided connectivity so modules work on either side of the desk, and shipped an SDK so developers could write their own plugins and integrations.
Kickstarter validated the idea fast: a €40,000 goal was reached within ten minutes, mid-campaign pledges passed 1.2 million zloty, and modue became the biggest Polish 'Technology' campaign on the platform within a day, closing around $400,000 from about 1,000 backers before the team turned to mass production.
Why it lands
- The founding insight — that no two computer workflows are alike — means a single fixed keypad can never fit everyone, while modular bricks can.
- Magnetic connectors and two-sided mounting make reconfiguring physical, instant and intuitive, with no tools or electronics knowledge required.
- An SDK turns users into co-developers: community members already wrote plugins, including streaming Pokémon card tournaments, which the team never imagined.
- A tiny, credible Kickstarter goal (€40,000) let demand be proven in minutes, which then snowballed into one of Poland's biggest crowdfunding campaigns.
What it did
The first goal fell in 10 minutes; mid-campaign pledges already passed 1.2 million zloty (~€275,000), making modue Poland's biggest 'Technology' Kickstarter within a day, and the campaign closed around $400,000 from about 1,000 backers.
What you can take
When every user's workflow differs, selling modular 'bricks' plus an SDK beats selling one fixed gadget — let the customer assemble the interface that matches how they work.
Since then
modue grew from a COVID-era student project into a Warsaw company after 2023 venture funding, rode 50 million social views into its Kickstarter campaign, and was preparing for mass production by mid-2026. Backers stayed part of the process — voting on hardware decisions such as the front panel of a fifth module — and the founders continued positioning the device as physical, tangible control over increasingly virtual digital work.
Sources
- Shortcuts at Your Fingertips: modue Designs Modular Control Deck with Autodesk Fusion
- 1 200 000 złotych, 700 osób, 10 minut: polski startup modue z sukcesem na Kickstarterze
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