On yesterday’s Dot Complicated with Randi Zuckerberg, three Kickstarter Staff Pick project founders sat down to discuss what it takes to make a successful crowdfunding campaign.
Tyler Tate Founder of Crema
“We set a goal of $25k, we need a big push in the last 10 days.”
“We have 200 people who have backed the project. That was the purpose. Find a group of people who want to buy single origin coffee.”
“Small specialty roasters come to Crema and list their products for sale. Then coffee drinkers can find what they’re looking for.”
“The Brew List is a kind of like a Netflix queue for coffee.”
“There’s a group of people who are becoming dissatisfied with the coffee selection at the grocery store.”
“I talked to people at CoffeeCon2015 and bloggers for Daily Espresso who said they’re looking to the internet to find a coffee roaster to buy different coffee.”
“Crema, being a coffee marketplace, the main reward incentive we’re giving is coffee.”
“Coffee mugs and quality espresso tampers are some of other reward incentives.”
“We launched our campaign early. We wanted to gain some traction to be in a stronger position to launch our product. But we haven’t identified all of our roasters yet.”
“We’ll be finalizing our partnerships with our roasters and getting the marketplace ready to go.”
Fave app: “Buffer. All of those different profiles you have on the web, Buffer puts them all together.”
Gil Hova Founder Formal Ferret Games
“Battle Merchants fit more into the hobby market. With Bad Medicine I could get backers involved in the pharmaceutical industry.”
“My girlfriends’ dad works in Big Pharma and said a fun idea for a game would be making up a name for drugs, so I did it.”
“I love the personal connection. I was introverted. The structure of board games helped me connect and become a people person.”
“I had to figure out how much my game costs to make, once I figured out a unit price, I looked at how many backers I could use and how many copies I could sell.”
“There’s a significant manufacturing cost. You have to print a board game by the thousands. You can’t just get a couple games made and stick them in your attic.”
“One level is the $1 level to follow along and get updates and then in the last 48 hours people bump their funding up.”
“I allow people to print a copy of the game and play at home which is common for board game campaigns.”
“At $100 I allow backers to supply a side effect of a drug.”
“I did not put in an Early Bird reward because there’s two problems: You lose goodwill and people who funded early on aren’t going to be incentivized to pledge more later.”
“I use Print & Play Productions to make a prototype of my game for $30.”
“You can succeed to fund but can fail if you don’t deliver your product.”
“We’re printing in China, which means I launched my baby in a canon and it’s going to arrive on the other side hopefully soon.”
“I really enjoy a game called Ascension. A deck building game. It’s a beautifully designed game.”
Eddie Lee Co-Founder Podo Labs
“We started as an app company. It wasn’t very sexy. Our investor told us we were great but we need to change what we’re doing.”
“I got a SnapChat from a friend and I was wondering how I could take a photo of myself without taking an awkward selfie of myself.”
” The camera is separate from your body but you’re still in control.”
“Podo sticks with a silicone gel. It can stick and unstick to a surface, it’s not replaceable and entirely washable.”
“Kickstarter’s been invaluable for small companies trying to find a market for their company. You can’t do it through a huge business.”
“I think the press liked that it was the selfie stick killer.”
“There’s a lot of wedding requests because you can use it as a time lapse camera.”
“A mom told us that she wanted a hands-free camera so she could show her daughter the recipes.”
“It’s accessible to everyone, that’s why it’s so successful.”
“We have a physical product so it makes sense to offer our supporters to have the product first.”
“We were hoping to do a crowdfunding platform almost a year ago but we decided to raise money and find mentors to get ourselves ready rather than make people wait.”
“Delivery is obviously a priority. We have a lot of help, thankfully, to make sure we’re on time.”
“People have high expectations for this product and we’re hoping to get in stores by Christmas.”
“I can’t live without my Mail app.”
Join Dot Complicated with Randi Zuckerberg every Wednesday only on SiriusXM Business 111 at 12ET/9PT.
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