Totem exists to bring people together in the real world.

Totem was born from a simple pain: finding your loved ones when they go missing.

From music festivals, to family outings, to emergency situations, the Totem Compass is quickly becoming an essential tool for modern life in a fractured, unreliable network landscape.

Since our founding in January 2024, Totem has scaled rapidly through one core engine: organic network effects. The product thrives in real-world environments where people can see it, talk about it, and share it with others.

Our revenue model blends hardware sales with growing app-based ARR, with future potential in licensing and enterprise applications. We’ve been lean in our spend, creative in our GTM, and intentional in our cultural foundation. And we’ve done it all while building in public, with full transparency and respect for the people who’ve helped us get here.

The Totem Compass, our viral debut product, is an ultra-precise wearable device that helps you find your loved ones when they go missing—no cell service or internet connection required.

With 5-10X better accuracy than an iPhone and real-time location updates sent directly to your device, the Totem Compass is designed to keep you safe and connected when it matters most.

The Totem Compass is powered by the Unity Mesh Network™, our proprietary offline peer-to-peer mesh network. Unlike cellular networks, which get overburdened and congested in a crowd, the Totem Compass actually performs better when more devices are nearby.

Totem’s technology currently has 2 provisional patents, and is patent-pending for 1 non-provisional utility patent.

If there’s one force that defines the Totem story, it’s organic network effects.

For Totem, organic network effects are the result of deliberate product design. The Totem Compass was built with visibility in mind. From the way it lights up in a crowd to the way it's worn on the chest, everything about it is designed to spark curiosity and start conversations**.**

We have not only directly experienced the explosive impact of network effects, but we have learned to engineer them.

In November 2023, two months before Totem officially incorporated, we were accepted into SXSW’s Startup Village, a collection within the Creative Industries Expo of what SXSW dubs:

“the best and brightest upcoming startups across all industries.”

On February 16th, we posted a simple Instagram Reel showing an early prototype. It hit 8 million views in 12 hours. Our email list jumped from 12 subscribers to 15,000+ subscribers. Our website crashed due to traffic overload. That one video generated over $2.5M in pre-sale revenue—before SXSW even began. This was the company’s first real taste of true virality—something we would soon learn to engineer over and over again.

Since launch, Totem has:

1. Grown our team from 2 co-founders to a team of 15
2. Shipped 50,000+ units to customers in 75+ countries
3. Grown a community of 600K+ followers
4. Hit 600M+ views and 10M+ shares across platforms
5. Earned 550 organic media mentions
6. Maintained an average email open rate of 43% with 40K+ subscribers

This has been almost entirely organic. We’ve spent next to nothing in paid advertising, and we have a 100% in-house marketing team. Instead, we built a product that solves a clear problem in the physical world, and that people are proud to wear and share.

Totem has earned 550 organic media mentions since incorporating, a testament to the power of organic network effects. Our growth has been driven by curiosity, community, and a product that has sparked global conversation.

When something resonates, it spreads like wildfire. Totem continues to prove just how far an idea can travel when it’s passed from person to person.

At SXSW 2025, the Totem Compass returned—and made waves again as “SXSW’s most Viral Product for the Second Straight Year”.

Our live demos and light shows hit 1.8 million views in under 48 hours on TikTok. Yet, something had changed.

For the first time, families flocked around our booth, drawn in by kids running free while parents watched with relief. Children of all ages were dazzled by the Totem Compass, and parents saw exactly what they were missing. With 71% of parents believing that widespread use of smartphones may be more harmful than helpful for children, the Totem Compass became the clear solution.

This shift marked a turning point. We saw firsthand that the Totem Compass meets a real, human need. Beyond festivals, it’s now helping families at zoos, parks, and family vacations.

As screen-time concerns rise, families aren’t looking for more features in new technology—they’re looking for fewer compromises. The Totem Compass offers a simpler, safer way to stay connected, without pulling you out of the moment.

Totem began in the music festival space—but the need it solves is universal.

Every single human being has had the experience of getting lost, or realizing that one of their loved ones is missing. Every single human being has experienced the pitfalls of centralized networks. Every single human being has fallen prey to today’s attention economy.

We’re expanding Totem’s market to meet that need across the board.

The Totem Compass has already proven its potential beyond music festivals: at resorts, theme parks, campsites, and family gatherings. These aren’t edge cases—they point to a much larger opportunity.

Based on U.S. data and first-world population estimates, our two primary markets are substantial:

Families alone make up about 30% of the U.S. population — a massive and often underserved segment in wearables. If just 4.1% convert to premium (the industry standard), we estimate each user generates $2.50/year in ARR through app subscriptions — unlocking significant long-term recurring revenue across both markets.

Forward-looking projections cannot be guaranteed.

This shift to a broader audience is already happening. Our first two product reviewers are both parents of young children. At SXSW 2025, parents became our loudest advocates. Children instinctively understand how to use the Compass.

To better understand this growing segment, we surveyed and interviewed parents in our customer base. They told us that they see the Totem Compass as an essential tool for keeping your children safe, while allowing them the independence they crave at a young age.

We’re listening. Our team has already begun identifying core product changes to support family use in Generation 2. From wrist-friendly design to indoor positioning, we’re building toward a future where fear of losing what you love most in the world is as unfamiliar as dial-up internet to today’s teenager.

Our core revenue driver is the Totem Compass. We’ve built a healthy margin on the hardware itself, supported by a growing ecosystem of accessories and add-ons.

Later this year, we will introduce a consumer subscription layer to the Totem Compass App, designed to unlock deeper functionality and added features for users who want more control over their Totem Compass experience.

In 2026, we will unlock an entirely new revenue channel as we expand into on-site device rentals at major festivals, theme parks, and other entertainment destinations.

Each revenue stream builds on the last, designed to scale sustainably while reinforcing the core product.

Totem is already shipping globally, and our next step is to scale our network of distributors: retail, resort and theme park placements, plus expanded international warehousing and fulfillment.

We’ve seen strong inbound interest from partners looking to enhance real-world connection and safety across family-friendly venues.

Our long-term distribution strategy centers on one clear goal: meeting people where presence matters most. Festivals, resorts, and shared spaces are where some of life’s best memories are made. Totem was built to support those moments—not compete with them.

Totem has been successful because we are not simply a handful of people working out of an office in Tennessee. Totem is a global movement with tens of thousands of people spanning every major continent.

Since the beginning of Totem—even before the company was founded—we have been building in public. Before we even had a working prototype, we began sharing weekly updates through our legendary weekly newsletter, Totem Tuesday.

We work hard to foster a genuine, personal connection with our community. To date, we have sunk over 1,000 hours of time into these weekly updates.

We have detailed every High and every Low openly with our community for 85 weeks straight. Never missed one!

Our Community guides our company roadmap. We recruited our robust Beta Testing Program directly from our own community: customers, followers, investors, and creators who wanted to get involved in what we are building.

Internally, our most active Slack Channel is #customer-feedback. We share over 50+ messages from customers every single week for team discussion.

Since shipping in October 2024, we’ve released 15 software updates, 95% of which were based directly on user feedback.

Responsiveness builds trust, but transparency keeps it. This community is, by far, our greatest and most valuable asset.

Everything we do at Totem comes from a human-first perspective.

Every morning, our team begins the day with a moment of shared breath and focus. We do this because it reflects what we believe: the most meaningful work stems from the relationships we build, the trust we earn, and the care we put into every interaction.

Design isn’t a department at Totem: it’s a philosophy. Every single member of the Totem team, whether they write code, manage our supply chain, or lead partnerships, self-identifies as a designer.

We care deeply about how people interact with things—not just what those things do for them. We care about how things look and feel, because beauty is not simply a “nice-to-have”. It is an essential part of the human experience. How could life be worth living without an element of beauty?

At Totem, it is our utmost responsibility to do things that make life worth living. It is our responsibility to do things that make the world a more beautiful place. It is our responsibility to spark joy in as many people as we can, as often as we can.

Carter Fowler, co-founder & CEO

Background: GTM Strategist / Experience: GTM Mentor at multiple startup accelerators, Founder of Oranges & Apples Brand Strategy, CentralSauce / Credentials: over $6M in capital raised, Keynote Speaker at UTC College of Entrepreneurship, Author of the Charismatism Framework™, journalism archived in the Library of Congress

Chase Lemonds, co-founder & CTO

Background: Chemical & Hardware Engineering / Experience: Lead R&D Engineer for ScrubDaddy manufacturer, Electrical/Mechanical Engineering for consumer electronics

The broader wearables market is undergoing rapid consolidation. Companies like Garmin, Samsung/Harman, Amazon and Oura have histories of acquiring complementary hardware and platforms. These firms may see Totem’s mesh networking, off‑grid operation and community focus as a strategic addition to their portfolios.

In the location‑based entertainment sector, developers are buying ride‑system suppliers, while investors seek stakes in LBE chains. Our combination of guest‑tracking hardware and analytics positions us as a partner for theme parks, resorts and festivals. Partial acquisitions—such as minority stakes or licensing deals—could allow LBE operators to deploy our technology while sharing in its growth.

Forward-looking projections cannot be guaranteed.

Historically, hardware-driven companies like Fitbit and Peloton hit the public markets with valuations over $4 billion. Their early success confirmed strong demand for tangible, real-world technology.

Totem may move toward a similar arc. Early traction—35K+ units shipped, rapid organic network effects, and technology that bridges offline gaps—offers a strong foundation for public confidence.

If we maintain transparency, steady growth, and customer-first innovation, Totem could follow other purposeful hardware wearables into the public markets. Investors value products that people wear, care about, and share—in real life, not just online.

Forward-looking projections cannot be guaranteed.