Say what is true
NFC cannot do everything. Tags can be copied; authentication works because of the locked identifier and your records, not magic. We would rather explain the limitation than oversell past it.
About Capstone Tek
We build both halves, so neither one lets you down
Plenty of companies will sell you NFC tags. Plenty of others will build you a web page. The gap between the two is where most projects quietly fail. Capstone Tek does both, which is why our tags are specified against your actual packaging and our pages are designed for the second after the tap.
Woodridge, IllinoisServing the US & Canada
Why we exist
A tap should be worth taking
Most contactless marketing fails for an unglamorous reason: somebody bought tags without deciding what should happen next. The tag works, the page is a generic landing screen, nobody taps twice, and NFC gets written off as a gimmick.
Capstone Tek started from the opposite end. We ask what you want to be true thirty seconds after someone taps — the product is verified, the contact is saved, the review is posted, the RSVP is in — and we work backwards to the hardware from there. The chip is the cheap part. The thinking is the product.
- Outcome firstWe will tell you if NFC is the wrong tool for your problem rather than sell you tags anyway.
- Specified, not guessedTag type, antenna size and placement are chosen against a real sample of your packaging.
- Built to be changedYour content stays editable long after the hardware is printed. That is the whole point.
How we work
Five things we hold to, even when it costs us the sale
Pilot before scale
A tagged product line with a real engagement rate is worth more than a confident projection. We size the pilot to prove or disprove the idea quickly.
Your data is yours
Customer details captured through your tags belong to you. We do not resell them, mine them or hold them hostage behind a platform.
Stay inside the rules
Review platforms have policies and we follow them. If a request would put your listing at risk, we will say so and offer a compliant alternative.
Fixed, written quotes
You get a number before work starts and we hold to it. Scope changes are agreed in writing, not discovered on the invoice.
A person answers
You deal with the people who built your project, not a ticket queue. The phone number in the footer reaches us.
What we make
Four product lines, one technology
Ways to work with us
Three shapes of engagement
Most clients arrive wanting one of these. If none of them fits, say so and we will build something that does.
You tell us the goal, we do all of it
We specify the hardware, design the card and the page, produce, encode, test and ship, then support it afterwards. The most common arrangement and usually the fastest.
- You provide
- Brand & goal
- We provide
- Everything else
- Best for
- Most clients
Your creative, our engineering
Your agency, stationer or in-house team owns the look. We specify the tag, supply encoded inlays to your printer, and build the page to their design. Nobody has to learn NFC.
- You provide
- Design & print
- We provide
- Hardware & platform
- Best for
- Brands with an agency
Behind your name, not ours
For agencies, printers, planners and resellers. We stay invisible: no Capstone Tek branding anywhere, you keep the client relationship and the margin, and we handle the parts you would rather not build.
- You provide
- The client
- We provide
- Silent delivery
- Best for
- Trade partners
Quality
What happens before anything reaches you
Most NFC disappointments are avoidable, and nearly all of them are avoided at specification and testing rather than in production.
01
Specified against a real sample
Where it matters we want your actual packaging in our hands, not a drawing. Metal, foil and curved glass behave differently from flat card.
02
Proofed before production
A digital proof always, and a physical sample on larger runs — a real card, on the real stock, that you can tap on your own phone.
03
Encoded and locked
Each unit written, recorded against your project, and set read-only so the destination cannot be altered in the field.
04
Read-tested
Tested on both iOS and Android, through a case, on the surface it will actually live on.
05
Replaced if it fails
Failure rates are low but not zero. Faulty units get replaced, and we would rather you told us than worked around it.
After launch
What support actually means here
Support is where a lot of suppliers quietly stop. The hardware shipped, the invoice cleared, and six months later nobody answers when a link needs changing. That is the opposite of how this technology is supposed to work — the entire point is that it stays editable.
- A person, on a phoneThe number in the footer reaches us. You deal with the people who built your project.
- Content changesChange the page, swap a destination, update an offer. Either you do it, or you ask us and we do it.
- Replacement hardwareFor genuine failures, on the terms set out in your quote.
- Reporting you can readNumbers you can take into a meeting, not a dashboard nobody opens.
- Your data, on requestExport everything whenever you want it, including when you want to leave.
If you ever want to take your project elsewhere, we will hand over your content and your data without making it difficult.
Lock-in is not a business model we are interested in.1Business day — typical reply time
0Ticket queues between you and us
Responsibility
Where we try to do better
We make small physical objects for a living, so this deserves an honest paragraph rather than a badge.
Lower-impact materials offeredBamboo and recycled-PET cards, and paper-faced labels instead of PET wherever the application allows it.
Plastic-free packingRecyclable card sleeves and cartons, not blister packs.
Designed to replace reprintsThe strongest environmental argument for what we make is that it stops something else being printed repeatedly.
Leaflets off the lineA tag can carry multilingual instructions that would otherwise be printed into every single carton.
No greenwashingA tag is aluminium, silicon and film. We will not pretend it is carbon neutral, and we will tell you when your volumes are too low for a material switch to matter.
Right-sized ordersWe would rather you ordered what you need twice than over-ordered once and binned the remainder.
Agencies, printers, stationers and planners
If your clients keep asking for something like this and you do not want to build it, we are happy to sit behind you. White-label delivery, no branding of ours anywhere, and sensible terms if you place work regularly.
Company details
Where to find us
Office
3510 Hobson Road, Suite #204
Woodridge, IL 60517
United States
Where we work
Across the United States and Canada, remotely and on site for larger rollouts.
Start here
Tell us what you want a tap to do
One short call is usually enough to scope it. We will come back with a plan, a sample and a fixed price — normally within one business day.