Every camper, boater, and DIYer knows the feeling: gear scattered across the truck bed, tools sliding off the workbench, keys buried at the bottom of a bag. For founders Bryan Meyran, Mike Ertel, and Scott McCranels, that everyday frustration became the starting point for a product built around a simple idea: “KEEPa Life Simple.”
From a Damaged Sailboat to a Patented Solution
Bryan Meyran’s path to inventing KEEPa wasn’t a straight line from a corporate lab. It started on the water. Raised on Manhasset Bay in Port Washington, New York, Meyran grew up working at local marinas before heading to community college in the Florida Keys and eventually running a boatyard alongside his uncle. At 22, he rebuilt a damaged 38-foot sailboat from the hull up, then spent years cruising the Bahamas and Caribbean. That hands-on relationship with gear, storage, and the constant hunt for a place to hang or clip things stuck with him.
Decades later, after building a career in carpentry and restoring two historic homes in West Palm Beach, Meyran secured a utility patent in 2021 and partnered with lifelong friend Mike Ertel and longtime connection Scott McCranels to launch KEEPa. Ertel, a patent attorney by trade, helped lock down the intellectual property — utility patent, design patent, trademark, and trade secret protections. McCranels, an orthodontist and former professional surfer with decades of experience testing gear in demanding outdoor conditions, rounded out a founding team built on craftsmanship, legal rigor, and real-world use.
The Product: Click It, Stick It, Screw It
The KEEPa Magnetic Clip is designed around three ways to secure your gear: clip it, stick it magnetically, or screw it into a surface for a permanent mount. It’s built with two neodymium magnets and grippers on the interior surface, engineered to add substantial holding power beyond what a standard magnetic clip offers. The strap is designed for durability, and patented tabs are built in to make the clip easier to open, a small detail addressing a common complaint with competing designs.
The goal, according to the company’s mission statement, is “creating a quality solution to solve your everyday problems,” whether that means keeping tools secured in a garage, gear organized on a boat, hats on a bag, or supplies off the ground at a campsite or job site.
What Sets It Apart
According to the founders, common shortcomings in competing magnetic clips include weak magnets, no interior gripping surface, straps that break easily, and clips that are difficult to open. KEEPa was designed specifically to address each of those points, with a focus on being strong, more durable, and more refined in its overall build.
Made in West Palm Beach, Sourced With Intention
One detail you won’t find on the company’s social channels: KEEPa is manufactured in West Palm Beach, Florida, using materials sourced both locally and globally. The only material the team sources overseas are the magnets because comparable options aren’t currently manufactured domestically, a transparency point that reflects the realities of small-batch manufacturing rather than a marketing gloss.
Built for Everyone, Everywhere
KEEPa’s audience spans anyone dealing with gear that needs a home: campers, boaters, van-lifers, DIYers, students, and everyday households looking to keep items off the floor, organized, and within reach. The product is intended for ages 14 and up, given the strength of the magnets involved.
A Team Rooted in Craft, Not Just Commerce
What distinguishes KEEPa’s origin story is how little of it involves a traditional startup playbook. Meyran spent two decades as a hands-on carpenter before inventing a product. McCranels brings a lifetime of testing gear in the ocean, on a surfboard, and in professional competition. Ertel spent 15 years in patent litigation before helping build KEEPa’s IP foundation, and still dreams of writing taglines for the brand’s ads himself.
That combination–an inventor who builds things with his hands, a scientist-athlete who understands durability under real stress, and an IP attorney who protects the idea itself–is the throughline of the brand. KEEPa isn’t positioning itself as a lifestyle gadget with a flashy launch video. It’s a small, Florida-based team trying to solve a problem they’ve personally run into, again and again, on boats, job sites, and camping trips.
For a company built on the idea of keeping life simple, that origin story might be the most fitting detail of all.
Written in partnership with Tom White
