Cat Goetze may be a technology founder, but she’s been on a long, multi-year journey to reduce our dependence on devices.
Two years ago, Goetze, who goes by CatGPT on social media, wanted to replace her smartphone with something more low-tech.
“I was just sitting there[thinking]it would be so cute if we still had landlines and I could spin the cord and talk to my friends,” she told CNBC Make It. “It felt nostalgic and chic to me.”
When I looked into it, I didn’t realize that in order to get a landline to my apartment, I would have to get a new number and pay for the phone line. So this 20-something teenager created her own version from her life-saving cell phone. “We literally just took over a landline and made it Bluetooth-enabled.”
The pink clamshell handset quickly became the hottest topic in her apartment. Whenever someone alerted the building’s security system, Goetze would let them in through a landline phone. She could also make phone calls from the set.
After two years of use, Götze unveiled the phone to an online audience in July 2025 to see if others thought it was a good idea.
Within hours, hundreds of people commented that they needed this device for their videos. She set up an online shop to collect pre-orders, thinking that 15 to 20 people could physically order and make the devices themselves in their apartments.
Goetze’s project “Physical Phones” generated $120,000 in sales in its first three days, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. By the end of October, the business had sold more than 3,000 units and generated $280,000 in revenue.
“It literally felt like lightning in a bottle,” Goetze said.
Users tap into nostalgia to cope with excessive screen time
Physical Phones currently has five styles of phones ranging from $90 to $110. Götze is partnering with electronics manufacturers to manufacture the phones, with the first batch expected to ship to customers starting in December.
The physical phone connects to both iPhones and Android devices via Bluetooth, and rings when your smartphone receives a phone call or a voice or video call from a platform like WhatsApp, FaceTime, Instagram, or Snapchat. The audio of the call is routed to your physical phone.
Users can make calls by dialing the phone number or by pressing the star symbol.
Activate your smartphone’s voice assistant and ask it to call your contact’s name.
A physical phone is a landline-style phone that connects to your smartphone via Bluetooth.
julia harris
Götze says the success of his business coincides with a growing movement of people to reduce screen time and dependence on smartphones.
She points out that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on how people use their mobile phones today. As people were stuck at home and away from others, they turned to apps like TikTok to fill their time and feel connected.
Now, with some consumers skeptical of tech companies’ attention-holding and tired of navigating AI and AI-generated content online, people are trying to course correct, Goetze said.
“Our attention spans are getting shorter, we’re more anxious, we’re feeling less present, and we’re less able to enjoy life. We’re experiencing a complete loneliness epidemic,” she says. People are now “starting to sit back and realize, ‘Look, I don’t really want this, I’m going to move on and choose a different future.'”
But Götze doesn’t intend to “demonize” technology, explaining that it “brings us some really good things to the world, like sustainable energy and vaccines. But how do we live in harmony with technology?”
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