Outbound Lighting Behind the Brand Family Photo
Outbound Lighting

It's Not Business, It's Personal

Photos Deniz Merdano
Reading time

There are countless stories about company beginnings that leave you thinking cosmic inevitability was at play. As if it would be weird if the brand didn’t exist. The story of Outbound Lighting is not one of those stories.

The year is 2016. Matt Conte is a mechanical engineer working at Diode Dynamics, an aftermarket automotive lighting company and, maybe more importantly, a sponsor of his rally car. In the 100 Acre Wood Rally - an early season race in the Ozarks - Matt gets wide in a turn, the car ricochets off a hidden stump and sends teamCONTEracing into a tree at more than 60mph (97km/h). Thankfully for all of us, the GoPro was on, and we are left with a delightful viral moment* from the aftermath of that crash. We can all laugh about it now - including Lauren (especially Lauren) - because everyone walked away. 

*so viral in fact that the video clip made it to tosh.0

Matt learned several lessons that day. The first was that no matter how supportive and talented a co-driver she may be, it’s probably not the best idea to have both parents of your future child in the same race car*. Second, Matt realized that if he wanted to continue rally racing at a high level, he wouldn’t be able to do it while working for somebody else.

*Lauren remains supportive of her husband’s racing, but has hung up her co-driver helmet - for now.

Outbound Lighting Behind the Brand 12

Penny knows everything that goes on in this place.

The first thing you notice when you walk into Outbound’s HQ is Matt’s desk. On it, behind it, indeed all around it, are countless devices and gadgets in varied states of disassembly. Matt’s a product guy. A curious one. He buys busted headlight assemblies on eBay and pulls them apart. What works well? What's a miss? What can he learn from a modern Toyota headlight assembly that can be applied to one of Outbound’s products? What about the waterproof sealing on a Garmin InReach, a product users rely on in life-and-death situations? He points out a few clever things the Garmin people figured out about their seals and moulds, and makes a note of it for a future design.

This curiosity spills over into other parts of Matt’s life. One day he saw a buddy’s Facebook post about a lack of good MTB light options which eventually led to him going on a night ride. Something about riding bikes in the forest at night reminded him of getting sideways in a rally car during night stages. He had fun, but the lasting impression? Matt knew he could make better lights than the ones they used on the ride. Maybe this was the place to focus his entrepreneurial efforts, shake off the yoke of working for someone else and be able to keep racing rally cars.

Outbound Lighting’s first product launched on Kickstarter in November, 2017. Actually, two products: a Trail and Road edition light. The Kickstarter did all right, raising almost $30k, however Matt had already taken out a line of credit against their mortgage to pay for the tooling. “We bet the house,” he told me. “Those first lights were built in the living room of our apartment, right after we moved to Chicago so Lauren could start a good HR job she’d been offered. I would walk to the post office with our daughter, to send lights to the first buyers”. Outbound was a solo operation for the first year and a half, but it was off to the races.

Tom enters the picture

About a year later, Matt got an email out of the blue from Tom Place. “You’re doing something novel and great, but I’m a biker and can help with the electronic side of things,” he said. “I knew the optical design of that first light was good, based on knowing all the LED suppliers and designers out there,” Tom said. “It was a smart, well-designed product with room to improve in certain areas”.

An electrical engineer and serious mountain biker, Tom spent 8 years in R&D at Cree LED in North Carolina on an upward career path before deciding if he was going to be entrepreneurial, he needed to start sooner than later. His first move into the bike industry was at i9 where he was hired to develop their lighting department, however “feature creep” stalled the project and it was ultimately scrapped. He saw Matt’s Kickstarter, and decided to fire him a note. He knew Matt had developed a legitimate product with proper optical design.

Before Diode Dynamics, Matt worked at Boeing, on various projects for the F-15 fighter jet. Tom worked with high-level automotive OEMs at Cree, and later picked up some military contract work in LEDs but didn’t love the bureaucracy - nor the idea of working on tech for weapons. They both also got a taste of the benefits and disadvantages of working at small companies. Ultimately, both credit those varied experiences with helping them figure out how to run their own company in the future.

For over a year they communicated over messenger and emails while collaborating on their first project together: the Hangover helmet light. “Hangover launched successfully, but a thousand units needed a single resistor replaced” Tom told me. “I flew to Chicago to swap them all out, one at a time. Matt picked me up at the airport and it was the first time we had actually met - we hadn’t even spoken on the phone before.” They worked away in an uninsulated, corrugated metal space without overhead lighting, adding an ironic touch to Outbound’s modest beginnings.

Having collaborated successfully on the Hangover, it was just a matter of time before they partnered. The Covid sales boom moved things along, and all of a sudden Tom and Matt were collaborating on their first product from the beginning: the Evo. This was a good test of their complementary skillsets: Tom knows LEDs and electronics, and his riding experience shapes the design brief; Matt’s mechanical and optical engineering background ties together the components into an efficient, functional package. 

“You can’t test a product enough,” according to Tom. “You have to give a product to your dumbest, most ham-fisted friends, and hope they find all the problems so that your customers won’t.” The new partners were about to learn an important lesson: the Evo hit the market to great acclaim, but the bar mounts were breaking. They knew they’d have to replace them, but they also knew they’d better design a better one ASAP. This kind of issue is problematic for any brand, but it can be fatal for a young one. Outbound replaced all broken mounts immediately, then proactively sent updated mounts to every customer that broke one as well as anyone else that asked, even if theirs was still intact. It was expensive, but widespread appreciation for how they dealt with the problem paid off. Early on, Tom realized that he and Matt were on the same page regarding customer service - and that approach has come to define Outbound as much as their product quality.

Outbound Lighting Behind the Brand 79

Obligatory.

Outbound Lighting Behind the Brand 82

Matt learned how to apply software intended for designing automotive lighting to biking applications.

Outbound Lighting Behind the Brand 84

Together, Tom and Matt have worked well to continue innovating and refining. When he was still at Diode, Matt sought permission to use LucidShape (specialty lighting design software) after hours to design Outbound’s first products. He adapted his knowledge of it to the unique needs of bike lighting. “The automotive industry has massive amounts of research on all kinds of lighting”, Matt says, “the key is to adapt the stuff that matters into designing and making better lights for the specific needs of biking”. A forward facing light has to put light on the ground that is evenly spread with enough power, span, and spill. Mountain bike and road bike lights are vastly different, though, both from each other and from automotive lights. For a mountain bike light, you need to consider the rider’s eye, helmet, and bar heights, and how those work together to perceive light from multiple sources to help a rider’s brain interpret the trail’s contours. A road bike light needs a cut off line, like automotive lights, so it won’t blind drivers moving in the other direction.

Matt might spend weeks running simulations of different beam pattern concepts for a given design. He knows what he’s after based on a design he and Tom will confirm beforehand, but then it takes time as well as trial and error to get it just right. And that’s just for the beam pattern and lens design. Then they need to figure out the relationship between the LEDs, battery, output, power, housing, and more, before coming to a final design to go to prototyping, to dial in the assembly process. Matt says that while he can do a good job of figuring out how to design a light, Tom’s riding greatly accelerates the product innovation process.

Outbound Lighting Behind the Brand 105

Matt and Lauren with Penny, the office pooch.

Outbound Lighting Behind the Brand 103

Tom

Outbound Lighting Behind the Brand 100

Andy

Outbound Lighting Behind the Brand 95

Grzegorz

Outbound Lighting Behind the Brand 99

Jason

The Team

Their partnership has accelerated growth and product development at Outbound, but Tom and Matt are both quick to emphasize how important the staff have been to Outbound’s success. 

Starting with Lauren, Matt’s wife and former co-driver. After several successful years as an HR exec in F&B, she left to help Outbound take a step forward, heading up HR, supply chain, shipping, inventory, forecasting...You’d think as the only female currently on staff that she’d also be the one ‘keeping the guys in control’ but, having spent a few days in the Outbound office, I distinctly recall Lauren’s laugh the most, bouncing off the walls and setting a lighthearted, fun tone. When we arrived on a Sunday, Lauren was doing some prep in anticipation of all the orders that would need to be shipped out the next day (Outbound had launched the new Portal light only days before our arrival). On warehouse shelving nearby sat several pallets of lights, boxed and ready for Black Friday which was a few weeks out. Lauren was already bracing for impact - between the launch of the Portal and Black Friday, her next month was going to be hectic. She seemed to relish the prospect.

Outbound is still a small operation, with 8 employees (since our visit, they have hired two more engineers) so it would be obvious as well as cliché to call it a family vibe, but that’s also the best way to describe the feeling in the office. Andy Fleischer, Outbound’s first employee, is connected to the Contes in the most conventional way - his son goes to school with Matt and Lauren’s daughter. However, Andy’s background is as an actor, making him an unconventional choice to head up production. When Covid hit, and the SAG-AFTRA strike followed soon thereafter, work for lots of actors dried up. Andy’s not going back. “I love it here,” he told me. “It was not where I saw myself ending up, but I like the work, it’s a fun environment, and I’m well paid. There’s a lot to like.” The actor does not live far beneath the surface. Everywhere you look, there is evidence of an organizational sense of humour, but Andy is the one who dresses up and makes everyone laugh so hard they cry, whether it’s in unreasonably tight neon leotards or climbing inside a 12-foot-tall inflatable of Tom wearing Pit Vipers that Matt had made for an event as a surprise for his partner. Yeah, this is not a boring crew. I can only imagine the weird shit they get up to at 24-hour races.

One part of the reason Andy loves his job is that there’s a concerted effort at Outbound to ensure production is streamlined and friendly to the humans working there. Matt and Tom have both seen good and bad versions of production lines and they value smart growth. So, almost two years ago, they hired Grzegorz Bugaj, a mechanical engineer Matt met through rally racing. Greg’s role is to streamline tooling and production processes, not just for efficiency and accuracy, but also ergonomics and a human-friendly environment. Every unnecessary movement you can eliminate contributes to a better workplace.

Even small adjustments allow Andy or Lauren to go about their work without having to rush or develop repetitive motion injuries. Evidence of this mindset was available everywhere. When we were in the office, Greg was proud to show us a tool he’d developed to spot-weld battery packs. He was knocking off 50 at a time, at a rate 5x faster than before, with far less movement or work required by the operator. Shelves are placed at exactly the right height for racks of assemblies or components to slide on and off without the slightest need to lift or brace. Small details add up in a big way over time. Some of the dialed processes and workstations reminded me of the Chris King factory, where they’ve been nailing stuff like this for decades. Details like this don't make it into spec sheets, but they're crucial small elements that all add up to long term success.

The most recent hire (aforementioned engineers notwithstanding) is Jason Wilcox, who lives in Shelton, Washington, and handles customer service. He is incredibly dedicated and loves the change of pace from his bike shop background. He and Tom traveled to Chicago with sparse few personal effects, but went home with a box of lights that needed attention, whether they were small warranty repairs or refurbishments for the demo fleet. Each warranty represented a customer they could get back to night riding asap, and they relished the impact those repairs would mean to every customer. If you have an issue with an Outbound light, Jason will take pride in getting you squared away in record time.

The Cobots

This was a new term for me; a cobot is a ‘collaborative robot’. They are designed specifically to work with humans - not to replace them. Cobots have sensors to ensure safety so that if a human (or the Contes’ three-legged dog, Penny) gets too close, they stop what they’re doing. Cobots are a huge part of the future for Outbound and small to medium-sized producers like them. Matt is fascinated by the technology but stresses they want to use them to save time rather than to save on labour costs, which he considers an important part of their business. He wants everyone to be well-paid and to work hard but not uncomfortably so. Cobots allow for customization and flexibility without putting people out of work.

Domestic Assembly + Manufacturing

Outbound is doing everything they can to stay local, but the reasons are simple: it allows them to be faster and more flexible, and keep a closer eye on quality. A few early experiences with small errors from third party suppliers - innocent ones that would have been caught much earlier in-house at Outbound - make it easier to focus on. They buy their batteries and chipsets from external suppliers, the electronics are built in Arizona, and lighting shells are manufactured nearby in Michigan, but all assembly happens in-house in Chicago, including things like packaging (again, while we were there they were ‘training’ a new cobot to learn to build and pack small boxes). “Plus”, Matt added, “doing as much as we can ourselves is way more fun”. Matt proudly showed me a user manual he had designed and laid out himself (inspired by a manual from a product he bought for research) and as someone that has worked on a bunch of those in the past, I can say it was one of the best I’ve seen. Most engineers would prefer not to touch that stuff, but any company owner knows that sometimes you just roll up your sleeves and teach yourself how to lay out a tri-fold user manual rather than wait for an external supplier to figure it out.

Working with Red Bull. Twice.

On a side wall of the Outbound warehouse, looming over the Caterham that Matt and Lauren’s daughter Fiona loves to be strapped into while her dad does doughnuts in the parking lot, and a Toyota GR86 rally conversion for the informal Outbound Motorsports Division, hangs a blown up photo of a Red Bull Formula 1 car being worked on by a pit crew. It is a night scene so the lighting is dramatic, which completes the impact of a dozen or so helmeted people attending to the car. The pit crew all have head lights attached to their helmets. If you look closely, you can see that the lights are Outbound Hangovers.

“We were blindly contacted by Nick Schrunk at Red Bull,” Tom began. “They needed lights for the pit crew that looked the part and he thought the Hangover was more futuristic looking than anything else he could find. He asked for 20, but we only had 8 in stock. He needed them in 48 hours, and it was our high season…” The Outbound team scrambled, pulling together a combination of spares and warranty units so they could meet Red Bull’s ask. 

The original concept was that Team Red Bull Skydivers would fall from the sky to the car and act like a pit crew from the heavens. One of the lights fell into the hands of Luke Aikins, a member of the Red Bull Air Force who once jumped from a plane from 25,000’ up without a parachute and landed in a net. He used the light for a nighttime skydive and it worked well. So, when he began work on Red Bull’s 2024 Total Eclipse Project, he reached out to Outbound. This time they needed lights to evenly illuminate the Red Bull logos on the bottom of the plane wings so they’d be visible from the ground 2,000’ away as the photographers attempted to capture one of the most complicated photos you could imagine. The Outbound Evos passed their flight check with flying colours. Apparently they may be called into action again for a third project in the works.

The Future

“Our future is not AI,” Tom tells me. “We don’t need it. Anyway, most things being called AI right now don’t even really use it.” They’d prefer to do it simpler, cheaper, and better. They do get requests for things like speed-controlled brightness, but even something as seemingly simple as this can cause more problems than it solves, and they’re focused on real value adds, not buzzwords. Outbound wants to continue to nail the bread and butter first, and only add to that once they’ve nailed it. They don’t want to make every kind of light, or “be on every bike”. MTB lighting is a niche within a niche, and they’re well aware of what that means. The focus is on quality, customer support, and the mid point of value - in between bare bones and luxury.

They have product targets: a tail light is coming soon that will skip radar for now and focus on the light source itself, addressing visibility from the back and sides using automotive technology (naturally) that won’t blind your buddy riding behind you. They want to release a commuter light that is reasonably priced. There’s an idea for a halo product that would have Hi and Lo beams for high performance use on or off road. They’re dipping their toes into supplying lights to certain eBike manufacturers on the OE side. And they’d like to be as sustainable as possible. Sodium cell batteries promise safety and stability and won’t require rare earth metals. There is a lot on the horizon.

It’s interesting to evaluate Outbound Lighting from a 5,000-metre view. They’re a thriving, successful brand that is developing and manufacturing a technological product domestically. In an industry where slogans like “by riders, for riders” are comically over-used, they’re a bit of an anomaly. Tom and Jason live amongst great riding in Bellingham and Olympia and hold down the ‘serious rider’ title, but most of the others have a background in automotive racing - four wheels instead of two. Chicago is not exactly a mountain bike hotbed, despite the presence of SRAM not far down the road. Outbound's philosophy is “engineers first, riders second” which is a unique take in the “riders first, second, and third” zeitgeist of the bike world. Of course the riding part is important, but at Outbound your riding chops are far less important than the product you’re making. And even though the founder cares more about rally car racing than mountain biking, it doesn’t hold him back from caring deeply about the bike products they’re selling. There are some other brands I can think of that would benefit from placing more emphasis on engineering excellence than looking cool for the camera.

Outbound is at a critical point in their timeline. There are innovative products on the horizon. Rather than worrying about speed to market, they'll stick with what they know: making robust, well-designed products, manufactured cleverly and with care to the ones that build them. They can make investments and grow, but they’re wary of doing it too quickly and losing sight of the formula that has worked well for them so far.

Still, in our short visit to Chicago, it seemed like decisions were being made without much delay. On the drive from the airport, Tom told us they were considering either buying a space Matt had found which would require a risky reno, or expand into the space for lease next door. They saw it for the first time while we were there, poking around, placing hypothetical work stations. Two weeks later, they were already under construction, shaping the leased space to their needs. Their work space just doubled. There was discussion of a head count increase. In December they hired two more engineers.

Daylight is burning. Matt and Tom aren’t messing around.

Related Stories

Trending on NSMB

Comments

roil
+15 Pete Roggeman turboshart Curveball mnihiser DanL Dan Dokk Kos Squint Todd Hellinga kryten Metacomet JVP Skooks vunugu

Great article. More of this please. The people and story behind a product are what make it compelling.

Reply

pete@nsmb.com
+6 Curveball Dan Dokk Kos Todd Hellinga vunugu

We're working on it! Love doing these. As you say, the people and story behind the products are the best part of the bike world.

Reply

jhtopilko
+14 Pete Roggeman Christian Strachan FlipSide Abies Curveball shenzhe turboshart AJ Barlas Dan Kos kryten JVP Skooks vunugu

“Our future is not AI,” Tom tells me. “We don’t need it. Anyway, most things being called AI right now don’t even really use it.”

Refreshing to read.

Reply

kos
+6 Todd Hellinga Pete Roggeman Mike Ferrentino Curveball Dan BarryW

I have no interest at all in lights -- having plenty of time for daylight riding -- yet I found this a captivating article.

Really well-written, Pete. Not bad at all for a has-been tennis hack! :-)

Side Note: To each their own, and that’s part of what makes the world great, but I gotta ask, Chicago? Really?!

Reply

pete@nsmb.com
+4 Todd Hellinga DanL Dan Kos

Thanks, Kos. It's been fun writing different stuff lately.

Chicago was amazing - Deniz and I would have loved a few more days to be proper tourists. The Contes moved there from St Louis - neither one a riding hotbed but I think the Windy City was a step up.

Reply

FlipFantasia
+3 Curveball Dan Kos

I cocncur with Kos, great article!

Reply

DanL
+6 Pete Roggeman Curveball Dan Todd Hellinga Skooks vunugu

Great people to deal with, thanks for an illuminating story.

Reply

pete@nsmb.com
+4 Curveball DanL Dan Todd Hellinga

Their future looks bright, indeed.

Reply

caspar-beronius-christensen
+5 Deniz Merdano Pete Roggeman Curveball Dan Skooks

Recieved the Evo/portal package last month. Absolutely no comparisson to my ageing PrincetonTec Switchbacks and various MagicShines , Geminis and others thru the last 15yrs. Very happy with my purchase even with the added  40pct  for Importtax/VAT/shipping to DK. Shipping - cheapest FedEx -  to Denmark was 7 days  : -)

Reply

neologisticzand
+5 Pete Roggeman Todd Hellinga Curveball Dan Skooks

Absolutely LOVE their products. Have countless hours with the OG light set and now really enjoying the newer Portal headlight.

Reply

Roxtar
+4 Pete Roggeman Curveball Dan Skooks

Love their take on customer service/warranty. 

I've always said, it's easy to give 5 star service when everything goes smoothly. It's when things go sideways that you see the true character of a company.

Problems WILL happen. It's impossible to be perfect. The question is how many fiery hoops do they jump through to make things right?

Reply

Curveball
+2 Dan Skooks

It was their CS reputation that led me to buy their lights.

Reply

dolface
+4 Pete Roggeman Curveball Dan Skooks

What a great article, thanks for doing it! I'm a huge fan of their products, was an early adopter and worked through a few product hiccups; Tom's support was tireless, patient and kind. 

I've gotten upwards of 20 friends using the lights and *all* of them are happy and impressed. Really looking forward to their new products too, but their current line is so good it's hard to imagine how they'll improve.

Reply

ClydePointless
+4 Pete Roggeman Deniz Merdano Todd Hellinga Skooks

Great lights, solid company, and I am stoked that this is where I put my money.  Can't say enough good things about them.

Reply

Shinook
+4 Deniz Merdano Pete Roggeman Todd Hellinga Skooks

I met Tom when he was working at I9 on the light project and he's the one that got me interested in night riding. I went from having some lights "just in case" to actively trying to organize and participate in night rides where we live on purpose. Our paths would cross every so often at The Hub on those December days when the sun went down early enough that they were still open long enough that you could get a night ride in then drink some beer.

His passion for the subject is contagious and he is just an all around great dude to be around. When he says he tests things, he really means it, but it's also not just him and his products. When he worked on that project, he tested everything on the market as far as I could tell, but even more if he heard you say a single thing about lights his first question was: "What do you love and hate about your lights?". That feedback and discussion loop always seems to be on his mind and it shows in the Outbound products IMO. I was really stoked to see him move over to Outbound and seeing their product line progress since, everything I've had from them has been awesome and they are a great company to deal with, owned and run by people passionate about what they are doing. Not just in the "I love bikes" sense, but in the "I love bikes and seeing other people on bikes" sense also.

Reply

dubxion
+2 Pete Roggeman Curveball

Great article on one of the most well-loved companies in the industry! This past fall was my first time really needing lights and picked up a Evo/Hangover package after seeing all the positive experiences from everyone on different forums. Not much to compare to in my own experience as the last lights I really used were borrowed for a team 24hr race in the mid-00's, but they've been great. Timely piece and great to see a company thriving, and how it is doing so, in the midst of difficulties in the bike industry now.

Reply

RyanJR
+2 Dan Pete Roggeman

Very nicely written and interesting piece, Pete - nice work!

Reply

cheapondirt
+2 Pete Roggeman Skooks

This piece drove me to their website, where I noticed something they might want to tweak. I read multiple one-star reviews with words of high praise attached. There must be a subtle design flaw with the review system, leading people to click on, maybe, the wrong end of a line of stars? It doesn't particularly matter, because there's no ambiguity of intent when you read the text.

When my kids are older and I can reliably get out in the evenings, I aspire to own a set of these lights. They look awesome.

Reply

Squint
+2 Deniz Merdano Pete Roggeman

Very interested to see what comes out for further road lighting. Love these kinds of little companies doing a specific thing really well.

Reply

chrisw
+1 Pete Roggeman

Hi, just had to reset my password to log in so I could say Outbound are the best lights I have ever used. Have been a few, starting in the early 90s with homemade halogen downlights, 38mm plastic pipe for housing and 2kg lead acid batteries. Was worth the $$(USD vs the NZ scrip) and freight to get it 1/2 way around the world. Even had the locking lever on the bar mount fall off and Tom sorted me out 2 free replacements so I could have one for the computer and one for the Mtb. The new ones were better designed- just needed a load of duct tape on the commuter / pub bike as those bars are still 25.4 and the new bar mounts didn’t go that thin!

Reply

skooks
0

I have an Outbound Evo on my bars.  The integrated battery and the mount system makes it so easy to install and remove, it's super robust and nicely packaged, and the battery lasts a long time.  The beam pattern works well, and it is bright, but not bright enough to use without a light on my helmet. The combination of the 2 lights works great though. 

I recently bought a new helmet light from Full On lighting in Victoria BC. Also a great company to deal with, and MB6 light is very impressive. It's an external battery design, which I like for helmet lights because it allows the light head to weigh less. The beam pattern is very good. Super smooth with no hot spots anywhere. Much brighter than the outbound lights. It really does a great job at eliminating shadows,  so welll in fact that it makes the handlebar light unnecessary.  The only downside is it costs ~2x more than the outbound Portal, which was my second choice for a new helmet light.

Both Outbound and Full On are great small companies run by people who care about the products they make and the people using them, and I wouldn't hesitate to buy lights from either of them.

Reply

the-prophet
0

Currently hiring for an Development Engineer, $85-120k, unlimited PTO, working in Bellingham.

"Must be able to figure shit out." :)

https://jobs.growcyclingfoundation.org/job/1613589-product-development-engineer-electrical-outbound-lighting

Nice work Outbound, the industy needs more companies like you.

Reply

Please log in to leave a comment.