We recently connected with Moneer Mouchamel and have shared our conversation below.

Moneer, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s jump right into the heart of things. Outsiders often think businesses or industries have much larger profit margins than they actually do – the reason is that outsiders are often unaware of the biggest challenges to profitability in various industries – what’s the biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

Flow arts is a relatively small niche that has steadily grown over the past 20 or so years. Because of this, many well known brands that sell flow tools are handmade or have been around for quite a long time. The general profit margins of many flow tools, outside of some outliers with LED products, is not as high as other industries. So when one factors in the niche nature of the industry, profit margins, handmade goods, and well-established brands, it is difficult to enter the market as a new brand. The brands doing the best are able to mass manufacture their products and/or materials for handmade goods, which requires quite a bit of capital. I would venture to say that the average flow artist also tends to want budget friendly props, meaning in many situations brands are trying to keep their prices low unless they sell a product that no one else has. There is still much potential to the industry and I’m excited to see how it changes as flow arts grows as well.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I started Bonobo Flow shortly after being introduced to the world of flow arts. Flow arts are immersive and dynamic forms of movement and self-expression that brings together elements of dance, prop manipulation, and sometimes even martial arts. When I first went to a “flow jam” (a gathering of flow artists), I was heavily inspired by the artistic movement, fire spinning, and general energy at the event. I was HOOKED! And so shortly thereafter, I was inspired to start building my own tools because the type of tool I wanted to use for fire spinning didn’t exist as a fire prop. During the pandemic, I had much time to experiment with different designs and eventually was able to build many of the most common flow props on the market. Over time, this led to the business expanding, and in 2021 I started vending at some of SoCal’s largest music festivals. Falling in love with the performance aspect of flow arts as well, my goal with Bonobo Flow has always been to provide flow tools that even I would use as a flow artist and fire performer. I want to make flow arts as accessible as possible so that it can touch others the way it has touched me. I’m proud that I’ve been able to come so far as a company of one, and am excited to keep growing and doing better year by year and help a whole new era of flow arts emerge!

Have you ever had to pivot?

When I first started the company, I heavily relied on selling products that I handmade myself. Although this was fulfilling to a certain degree, it quickly led to burnout and to the realization that it was not scalable. When I started vending some small events and festivals, it gave me the opportunity to find out what many people were interested in that I did not carry. Realizing that I can’t handmake everything I should be selling, the largest pivot I made as a business was to start retailing and sourcing products from other international brands I trusted and only handmaking what I was best at that also required the smallest amount of time to build. This proved fruitful as I was able to vend much larger events with much larger amounts of inventory. It was an interesting transition at first because my original catchphrase for Bonobo Flow was “flow props built by flow artists”, meaning all the products I sold were built by myself. So this picot helped me expand the notion to “flow props built and curated by flow artists”.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When I first started the company during the pandemic, I had ample time and savings to delve into the world of product design and prop building. As time went on and the world slowly started reopening, I had to start looking for work to supplement the low income the business was making. Having a background in sales, I started working in traveling solar panel sales. I would be gone for 10 days of the month and it was able to pay my bills, but it meant that I had 10 less days a month to do all the work I needed to keep growing my business. For many months, I would be working nonstop between running my business and traveling for work. I’d get home from a work trip only to be prepping for the next festival I’d be vending at, as well as filling any online orders that I’d gotten while I was away. This led to some burnout and breakdowns, but I was so attached to my business and passion for flow arts that I’d keep chipping away at the mountain of work ahead of me to ensure I was always making progress towards my goal. Fast forward to 2024, this has been the first year that I’ve been able to live off only the income that Bonobo Flow has been able to give me. Although I don’t know what the future holds, I’m proud to have gotten to this point after 4 years of running the business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://bonoboflow.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bonobo.flow/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bonoboflowprops
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@bonoboflow
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@bonobo.flow

Image Credits

Nicole Saiza
Brian Greenblatt