It is rare that I interview a project owner that has seen such great early traction so early in the campaigning process. In addition to a great pitch and high quality video, The Ripple – The World’s Only Detachable Bowl and Plate, is an awesome example of a company that has taken the time to develop a comprehensive press page, making it easy for bloggers and journalists to find high quality images and better understand the story behind the campaign.
If you are thinking of starting a Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign, check out their website as a template for a well-communicated value proposition. Their product is also just kind of cool and has a friendly design.
Karl Schwartz and Kevin Scharfe, the creators of the project, began developing The Ripple a year ago with the mission to design a bowl/plate combination that would allow people to eat anywhere comfortably.
Kevin is an artist, designer and teacher born and raised in Montana. He has a spark for creative design that inspires the people around him and he is passionate about bringing his designs to life. His off the wall ideas have led to beautiful and unique award winning designs.
Karl is an engineering minded designer, entrepreneur and teacher born and raised in Alaska and now lives in Montana. He has been a professional graphic designer for 10 years, taught Web Design and Engineering for 9 years, and in his free time, enjoys spending time with his family.
The two founders were nice enough to provide some tips to help up and coming creative types that are thinking of starting a crowdfunding campaign and would like to learn about the source of their early success. The results can be found below.
The video looks awesome! Do you have a background with video editing or did you hire a firm to help out with the production?
We really lucked out and had a family friend who helped us with the video, he had access to a lot of the professional grade equipment used to shoot the video. He also had the knowledge to edit and pull together a professional video about our product. Kevin and I are both artists and designers, and had a vision for the video and what we wanted it to look like. All of that coupled with great friends and family to be actors we ended up with a cool video.
You’ve raised a large amount in a few short days. Where have most of your pledges been coming from? Do you believe you need to “bring your own crowd” to Kickstarter?
A large majority of our funding has come from a massive group of friends and family who have helped, not only by funding our project, but by sharing it with others. We knew going into this that we would have to “bring our own crowd.” Surprisingly we have gotten a lot of support by strangers too, who have stumbled across the product organically, via blogs, Kickstarter, and other outside sources.
What has been your marketing or sales strategy for the Kickstarter campaign? Any advice for new project owners?
Spread the word in every way possible, and be ready for a lot of work! Kevin, I and our families have been working hours upon hours to execute our plans and try to get this to take off. We are humbled by the support, and very optimistic that our project will find success.
I really like your press page. What other ways did you go about preparing for the launch of the campaign?
This launch has been 2 years in the making, refining our design and prepping all the marketing materials, Kevin is a brilliant photographer and designer, I have worked on the internet marketing and we, with the help of our very supportive wives, have researched and studied what other successful people have done.
I know it is early in the process, but is there anything you would do differently or are looking to change up at this point?
At this point we are fingers crossed, we hope for continued support, exposure and luck. We definitely want to thank everyone who has supported us so far!
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