About Olinthus.
Get to know us!
Welcome to Olinthus—a company devoted to creating products and experiences that inspire inventive ideas, spark joy, and make you laugh. We just launched our first product, Cicada, and have several others that are currently in development.
The Team.
Charles and Ethan have decades of experience leading creative design and engineering teams at top music gear companies. In 2023 they decided to leave that all behind and form Olinthus.
Charles Etienne
Well, I woke up one day and thought, “The world needs more companies with cool names!” But on a more serious note, Ethan and I had a bunch of product ideas that we thought no one would want to make. So, we figured we would do it. Plus, I’ve always wanted an excuse to buy more office plants.
Mostly, I steer the engineering and manufacturing side of the ship, I make decisions, and occasionally get caught creating excuses for me to buy tools that I want. I once designed an entire product as an excuse to get a new oscilloscope.
I have a physics degree from Cal State, I’ve started a few failed businesses, and I’ve spent twenty years in the musical instrument industry, working with some of the greatest brands out there. I also tour as much as I possibly can, but it’s exhausting and I’m getting too old for it.
I’m probably watching someone review a handheld retro game emulator on Youtube. I like to cook pizza (my oven gets to about 1200°F) and drink wine. I have a life outside of Olinthus, but that’s not by choice.
Ethan Tufts
Many of my past jobs were with companies unwilling to take risks. Charles and I both wanted to build a company that pushes boundaries, rejects convention, and embraces humor. Plus we have a Youtube show and it gave me an excuse to be on camera.
My job is to tell the story of our products and our mission, and to build strong relationships with those that share our values. I try to spend most of my time coming up with creative marketing ideas, but our video studio isn’t going to vacuum itself.
I spent two decades leading marketing teams, I’ve recorded six albums, but haven’t toured nearly as much as Charles. I started a Youtube show about cars as an excuse to suck less on camera. The show is going strong but I’m still not sure about my on-camera presence.
I’m either galavanting with my family or tending to my unnecessarily large fleet of needy old cars. I used to record a lot of music and am trying to get back into it, but often procrastinate with late night Craigslist searches for obscure 1980s cars.
What does the name Olinthus mean?
To us, the name Olinthus means creativity, technology, art, science, and natural beauty.
Olinthus is an alternate spelling of Olynthus, a neotropical genus of butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. Olinthus was also the first name of Olinthus Gilbert Gregory, an English mathematician that combined his love of mathematics with an interest in music. The word origin comes from the Greek Olynthos, meaning “the fruit of the wild fig tree”.
