Despite a growing number of reported materials which exhibit the NF phase (for example ) studies into the phase are still in their infancy and little is known about how certain structural features drive NF phase formation. As a result, the majority of reported ferroelectric nematogens can be broadly classed as derivatives of one of the three archetypal structures (Fig. ): RM734 , DIO and UUQU-4-N . For RM734, the synthesis is typically performed left-to-right, installing the 4-nitrophenyl unit last and employing a benzyl protecting strategy (Fig ). The benzyl group enables high yields, but the hydrogenolysis deprotecting step brings issues of functional group compatibility. An alternative synthetic strategy has using a tetrahydropyranyl protecting group , suffers from low yields (Fig 2 (b), circa 40% over 3 steps). Herein we report a new synthetic pathway to 'RM734-like' compounds which installs the aromatic rings in the opposite order to the original synthesis of RM734 right-to-left (Fig 3 . (C)). We eschew the need for any protecting groups entirely and allows for the highest possible functional group compatibility. We utilize this new methodology to report a series of novel RM734 derivatives, including those with halogens and alkenes at the terminus, some of which exhibit the NF phase.