Who is Flashback? Shark Tank’s Ground-breaking Camera Brand

Flashback has sent a tidal wave through Shark Tank Australia, receiving a huge $500,000 investment offer from ‘Retail Queen’ Maxine Horne, the biggest deal of the season so far!

Aired on last night's episode, Brisbane university students Kelric Mullen and Mackenzie Salisbury pitched Flashback and the ONE35 Camera to a board of multi-millionaire entrepreneurs and CEO’s, the ‘Sharks’, offering investment and mentorship. After an impactful pitch, Kelric and Mack worked through forty-five minutes of questions and negotiations and received an investment deal of $500,000 in return for 10% equity of Flashback, from Australian multi-millionaire Maxine Horne! 

Best friends Mackenzie Salisbury (left) and Kelric Mullen (right) pitching Flashback

The Sharks had a lot of admiration and appreciation for Flashback, Mack, and Kelric. They got their hands on the camera, getting a firsthand experience of the nostalgic film features, such as the old-school winder, view finder, xenon flash, and restriction of only being able to take 27 photos as a time, just like a roll of traditional film.

Mack and Kelric explained Flashback’s place amongst the Gen Z market craze of buying disposable film cameras, and digital cameras, or otherwise known as digi cams, for a more authentic and organic photo taking experience. Compared to these other retro cameras, Flashback’s ONE35 Camera is unique, bringing the soul and spontaneity of film photography into the digital world.

The Flashback camera works by first loading a roll of digital film from the Flashback phone app to the camera. The user selects a film type from a range of different films options, such as #FlashbackBeta film inspired by expired Fujifilm Experia film. Once the user takes all their photos, they then unload the roll from the camera to the app through a wireless internet connection and can start developing the roll. 24 hours later the photos are ready to be viewed, downloaded, and shared from the app’s gallery page. This development time builds the anticipation and excitement just like the good old days with developing film exposures and negatives at photo labs.

Some of our favourite photos taken with the Flashback ONE35 Camera

Flashback offers all the best parts of this film experience, but in a more convenient, affordable, and environmentally sustainable way, so we can change the way the world captures memories.

The Shark who invested in Flashback, Maxine Horne, took a liking to the boys and Flashback, saying, “I do have a soft spot for you, so I am going to give you an offer," even suggesting it would be "a perfect thing to have a retro shark invest in your retro product”. 

Maxine was curious to know why exactly Kelric and Mack came onto Shark Tank. They explained it was a combination of seeking a deal to have the capital to invest more heavily into inventory and marketing, and also that the opportunity to work with anyone of the Sharks would be a game changer for them.

Reflecting after the pitch and receiving an offer from Maxine, Kelric shared, "I am very excited to be working with Maxine. Especially her history with the University of Queensland who we have worked with in the past, she just seems like the perfect person to work with for us."

"Mack and I have always been driven from the get go. We have both dived head first into this. The big difference now is we’ve got some experience on our side - we’ve got some mentorship on our side." 

Mack, Maxine, and Kelric recreating the boys' iconic 'projections' act from during the pitch

The journey of Flashback, Mackenzie Salisbury, and Kelric Mullen, leading up to Shark Tank has been long and inspiring. Pitching on Shark Tank has been a lifetime dream of Kelric’s, and he thanks his high school business teacher Mrs Jessie-Lee Croghan from Trinity Anglican College in Cairns, for introducing him to the international television show. Kelric’s love for entrepreneurship and solving problems for people was inspired by the startups he watched make it to the Tank as a kid. As soon as Flashback’s episode broadcast date was confirmed, Kelric called his teacher to tell her the news. Kelric shared the news with her, saying, “I made it on Shark Tank, Miss”. Her reaction was priceless. “Holy sh*t!” she replied, “If anyone was going to make it to Shark Tank, it would be Kelric Mullen!”. 

Flashback all started when Kelric, a business and film student from Queensland University of Technology (QUT), and Mackenzie, a mechatronic engineering and chemistry student at the University of Queensland (UQ), met and became best mates at Cromwell College in Brisbane. One day Kelric noticed that his friends were not having as much fun as they once used to, and at most events they were just sitting around on their phones. He shared this problem with Mack, and they quickly became obsessed with making a camera for the small moments.

In the beginning it was just the two of them. They went from sketches to 3D prints, to prototype upon prototype. Mack even slept under the stairs at Kelric’s share house to maximise their time working on Flashback. The team started to grow, the community turned into a movement, and the boys started feeling a real sense of responsibility to carry out their mission to help young people be present in their life. They went to local engineers and an expert manufacturer, and together they prepared camera designs for mass production. Mack used his software background to make a great looking mobile app while Kelric focussed on the mission and growing the awareness an crowdfunding of Flashback and through organic social media marketing.

Initial concepts of the Flashback ONE35 Camera

Before they knew it, they had a startup team of highly capable people, and everything was in place. Fast forward a year and a half since launching, $800,000 in KickStarter crowdfunding, 2 million in sales and well over 2 million community Flashback photos, Kelric’s childhood dream of pitching in the Tank turned into a reality.

Founders and best friends, Mack and Kelric, have been working together on Flashback since coming up with initial idea until now sharing the Shark Tank stage together

The dynamic duo have bucket loads of appreciation for each other. Before entering the Tank, Mack shared, in reference to Kelric, that “I think that if I was working with anyone else, I don’t think we would have made it this far”. In return, Kelric explained during the pitch that Mack "is the genius. He is the man that makes things into reality. My thing is ideas and creativity". Together, they are a team on a mission to change the lives of our generation.

In classic Flashback style, we booked a local cinema to watch the live broadcast of the episode with our family and friends. It was an incredibly special moment to share the experience with the people who have supported Flashback throughout the whole journey, and to be able to see their live reaction to the amazing outcome. 

If you missed Flashback’s pitch on Shark Tank, you can watch it on 10 Play available under Season 6 Episode 4 here.

Otherwise, make sure to follow us on Instagram @joinflashback and sign up to our newsletter below to stay up to date with Flashback!

On a personal note, I am very proud and inspired by everything that Kelric and Mack have achieved, with their appearance on Shark Tank just being the cherry on top of an incredible journey so far. Thank you for showing us what can happen when you believe in yourself. I am honoured to be able to help share your story.

Stay candid,

Logan Stansfield

Flashback intern