We’ve all been there before – stuck sitting at a desk for too long. Uncomfortable, restless, and frustrated, I’m sure many of us would have jumped at the chance to get some relief. Matt Hulme, creator of the Foot Hammock, had the same thought.
He designed a product that attaches to any desk with an adhesive hook, allowing you to put your feet up and be instantly more comfortable. Foot Hammocks come in 8 color options and can be bought in mesh, fleece, and electric heated fleece.
Matt launched his campaign on January 6, and to his surprise raised his $15,000 goal in one day! I recently got a chance to ask him about his Kickstarter success:
1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your project?
I’m a college student and a gamer, so I spend plenty of time at my desk. So much that I thought I needed to invent a more comfortable method (my legs were getting restless and sore sometimes from sitting all day). I got together with my roommate Brent and we invented The Foot Hammock.
We went through many iterations and finally came up with the product we’re presenting for this launch. We timed our launch around CES 2015 because of the press available and especially because of the face-to-face interaction we wanted to have with people and hear their reaction to our product!
For more tips, see: CES 2015: 9 Crowdfunded Companies Share Secret Fundraising Tips
It was the first time we saw a huge group try our product, and the reception was overwhelmingly positive. The Kickstarter success has been amazing and due to the great press and fans of the product, I can’t thank them (and you) enough.
2. Why did you choose to launch your crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter?
I’m just happy we’re getting as much support as we are, and Kickstarter has been great to us. One of their representatives saw our booth and actually approved us early so that we could launch that night at CES. I chose Kickstarter because I have more experience with it and I just think this product fits more in the market that Kickstarter typically produces.
3. You reached your $15,000 funding goal on day one of your campaign. Were you prepared for such a quick response?
I have always believed that this product is a winner, but it was nice to see that the general public agreed! I couldn’t have asked for anything more than what we got – 100% funded in 24 hours.
4. What did you do to prepare for your campaign before launching?
The biggest thing I focused on was marketing on social media like Facebook, Twitter, and eventually Reddit. When it blew up on Reddit everyone else picked us up, and then we were popular at CES, so it was great. Reddit was a massive part of us getting funded.
After posting my link on Reddit my YouTube video views went from 500 to 55,000 overnight. Shout-out to the Reddit community, they’re seriously the best.
5. How do you plan on maintaining your momentum now that you’re trying to reach a $100K stretch goal?
Interviews like these help! We have a few interviews with podcasts and radio shows and the like so it’s been great to have press help us out.
6. What is the most important advice you think someone who wants to launch a crowdfunding campaign should know?
They should know that the most important thing is being transparent and open with your fans. I remember when I posted on Reddit I stayed up for about 36 hours responding to their comments. I wanted to make sure they were happy with the product and/or their concerns were being addressed.
I think that kind of respectful customer-oriented culture will always be met with a positive response, and I think our Kickstarter numbers reflect that. It’s also nice if you contact as much local press as possible, and get as much traditional media (non-digital) exposure as well. Too many people underestimate the power of traditional media because of social media’s rise, but traditional media still does wonders.
For more tips on how to get PR for your project, check out this article.
Conclusion
The great thing about crowdfunding is that there are so many different paths that creators can take to be successful. A few things that Matt mentioned that helped his project get noticed were: timing it around CES 2015 (the consumer electronics show), promoting on social media platforms, doing interviews, and taking a customer service oriented approach when dealing with potential backers.
These tactics have proven very worthwhile; with 17 days left to go, this campaign has raised over $74K from more than 1,800 backers!
