LOUDOUN COUNTY, VA – A Loudoun County entrepreneur is trying to give families more true downtime and space for connection by reviving, in a sense, an older version of this household technology.
The Homie phone is bringing back the cord – but despite its retro-cute look, this isn't exactly a "make phones dumb again" endeavor. The corded, plug-in phone runs on household Wi-Fi and can be programmed to accept calls only from certain numbers or at certain times. It's also intended to help families truly limit screen time, help remote workers separate their workday from their home lives, and help protect seniors, especially from constant predatory scam calls.
Founder Devon Szklennik of Aldie told Patch that her young kids inspired her to launch the business.
Szklennik's 10-year-old daughter was entering the world of personal technology about a year ago, but even with an older-model iPhone and every kind of parental control or content limit set, "still, it just felt like she wanted to stare at the screen, regardless of the function she was able to do or not do. I really wanted to get her away from that."
Szklennik first thought of having the family chuck their phones away in the evening and rely on a traditional landline.
"The problem with a landline is you get spam calls and random calls that pop in here and there in the evenings, and so that doesn't solve my quiet evening problem," she said.
After more research, she came up with the closed-loop landline, a clever phone hidden in an unassuming device. Homie phones are loaded with accepted contacts, and only those calls get through (with 911 as an exception, of course).
Szklennik, who has a background in software and sales, tapped into her professional network and partnered with a VoIP developer to build the software and ensure it's ready to operate at scale.
A few phones have been out for testing among family and friends, and the first batch is set to ship this fall. Szklennik says she's been overwhelmed by the response — they just passed 3,000 orders.
"I think when I went into this, my initial goal was 100 orders," she said. "So I'm really, really pleased with that. Word of mouth has been huge."
A second batch of phones is planned for January 2027.
The idea seems to be riding a serendipitous wave of nostalgia as well, the entrepreneur says.
"There seems to be a big trend, especially for millennial parents, for themselves and their children, to … come home like it's 1999 and bring back as much of that era of their lives as possible," Szklennik said. "Playing outside, things like VHS tapes, introducing kids to toys that were a little bit slower and maybe didn't make all the noises and play the music and have all the shiny, flashy buttons, and just really slowing down and being intentional with their time. And so that I think right there is where I've seen the most positive reaction."
Szklennik, who says her dad is a serial entrepreneur, appears to be following in his footsteps. She's also the founder of The Posh Porch, a company that organizes seasonal, pumpkin-heavy porch displays for homes and businesses.
That business is in its third year, and Szklennik says its evolution has been "beyond my wildest dreams. … It is absolutely blowing up in the best way."
Szklennik has some advice for anyone mulling over their own small business idea: "Oh my God, do it!"
As ambivalent as she is about artificial intelligence – she is trying to party like it's 1999 every evening, after all – Szklennik says AI has real value to potential small business founders. AI tools for business owners can free up a lot of time and manpower, making it much more feasible to launch a side project for already busy people.
Like it or not, the technology is here, she said, adding that, "We should make the most of it in the ways it can support us to follow our dreams."
Szklennik recalled something her dad told her as a child that's always stuck with her.
"He said, 'There are no unique ideas,'" Szklennik said. "There's somebody who wakes up every day and hustles and gets it done.' … There might be 50 other people this morning with the same idea that you have."
She continued, "You just need to be the one that's, like, that day is today, and I'm going to do it."
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