This is a guest post by Elena Mikhaylova, the CEO of CrowdfundProductions, a company that puts on crowdfunding events and helps entrepreneurs launch crowdfunding campaigns.
“I highly recommend trying and failing. And if you get the other one, success, well, that’s great too” – (Kerwin Lumpkins)
Today, our guests are Kerwin Lumpkins and Steven Gentner, creators of five Kickstarter campaigns, three of which were successful, one that did not meet its fundraising goal, and one that is live.
Tell me about your story before Kickstarter. Where are you from, what do you do for living, and for fun?
Kerwin – I am originally from Kentucky and grew up on a farm. I am an engineer. For fun, I do rock climbing, sailing, SCUBA diving, robotics (as a hobby), traveling and creative writing. I’m working on a novel now.
Steven – I grew up in South Africa. I’m an engineer for a living (software). I’m also founder of the company RoboRealm.
Your first project in March, 2012 was not successful. What went wrong?
The project “Ard-Vark” failed for a number of reasons. Mainly, it was not promoted well (not at all really), and the product was poorly defined. It made sense to me, and I just assumed that it would make sense to others as well. I didn’t show it around enough to gauge interest first.
You started your second project a little over a month after the end of Ard-Vark with a very low funding goal – $1,600 and ended up raising $24K. Do you think it was smart to ask for so little?
“Desktop Balista” was a project that I first did as a hobby and was part of research for my novel which is historical fiction set in about 215 BC. The ballista was a siege weapon used by the Romans and I wanted to understand it better since one of the main characters operates them.
I did not set out to make it as a product, but rather just to learn from it and have fun. When my friends saw it, they said “that’s cool” and suggested that I try to sell it. I put it on Kickstarter to see what would happen. I had access to a laser cutter, so did not need a lot of startup capital to make it happen. $1600 was a very workable goal for me.
In hindsight, I think that a low goal amount is better. I had a plan to make it for a low cost if I didn’t sell very many. However, when I sold hundreds, I went to plan B which involved buying my own laser cutter. It’s good to have a plan for both low and high success levels.
Your third project was the most successful to date. What, in your opinion, influenced that?
Fritz: The Robotic Head was very much a fun project that Steven and I decided to work up. There had been a Kickstarter project that was pretty similar in 2013 called TJ. It raised $40K in funding, so it was an established product with a market. We also had experience with Kickstarter. We promoted it with press releases, and did demos at meetup groups and showed it at a robotics show in Denver while the project was active.
I know that your fourth, while also successful, didn’t live up to your expectations. Tell me, what happened?
We’re not entirely certain what happened on the Rubber Band Machine Gun. It was funded, but nowhere near what we hoped for. And about a month later, another project with a similar name raised well over $100K.
The 2nd project’s video had a big element of the creator, who he was, while ours did not. Our RBmG video was just a simple showing of the product without any story from us. I learned later that Alex (the creator of the next rubber band gun project) hired a consultant to help him do promotion, and I think that was a big element. That coupled with the lack of story in our video. It worked for him. And there’s no hard feelings from us. Good for him. We learned from him. And I backed him by the way.
A comment from Eugene Zhukov, a crowdfunding marketing consultant who worked on “the second project”:
I believe our project was much more successful for several reasons: better design of the product and the Kickstarter page itself; targeted work with media (we contacted approximately 300 outlets with different messages) and smart rewards policy. I am especially proud of the unique fast charger which has become our Unique Selling Proposition.
We worked for two months to make sure our campaign was going to be successful; but it is my strong belief that unless you have a great product that solves a problem, everything else doesn’t really matter. We found out that for many people who like these guns the main pain was the time wasted on reloading of hundreds of the rubber bands. It takes all fun out of the game! So we made it our priority to find a solution to differentiate ourselves from others. It worked for us, it should work for others considering raising money on Kickstarter.
My comment:
Below, you can see the difference in the social media activities for the two projects. You can use this information to get an idea of what activities had different results for the two campaigns.
Alex’s Campaign
Kerwin and Steven’s campaign
Now you are starting your fifth project. Tell me more about it: what is it, what makes you excited about it, and how much will the product be sold for.
TipToe is a 6 legged walking robot, with control via an iPhone app. Like many people, I love my phone and I like being able to do stuff with it. An iPhone controlled robot sounded like a lot of fun to me, so we tucked in.
It came out great and we are really hyped about this product. It walks. It beeps, twitches, has lights, and has a lot of personality. The price starts at under $100 for the basic model and $140 for the advanced model, which adds sensors and more capability. We also will offer a reward to get only the files, for those that like the DIY approach.
There is a story behind TipToe. I spent about 3 months mentoring a 7th grader in robotics recently. He chose to build a 6 legged walking robot kit that was very sophisticated. We built it over time, but when it was fully assembled and we tried to operate it, we could never get it to work right. The software simply was not ready, and support was essentially non-existent.
That was a very discouraging experience for a budding young roboticist. So we (Steven and I) set out to make a robot kit that solved these problems. TipToe is a fully integrated system, including an iPhone app which people are very comfortable with using. I offered one of the prototypes to that 7th grader and his eyes lit up. His interest and wonder in technology was rekindled. So for me, TipToe is already a success.
You have proven that you can deliver a funded product with a high quality and on time. For the vast majority of creators, it is a huge problem. Tell me how you have solved it.
I have backed projects myself that never delivered, or were very late. I think most often what happens is that very creative people make some new gadget that may be ultra cool, but they don’t know how to go from making one or two in their garage, to making hundreds or even thousands.
In some cases, people find that the worst thing that can happen is for the project to be wildly successful. They find that their pricing isn’t realistic against what it will cost to make the thing in bulk and ship it. And suddenly a $30,000 success somehow turns out to be a monetary loss to them. Logistics can be challenging, and it takes a LOT of work to fulfill those orders.
So how do we solve it? By working a LOT. Steven and I spend a lot of time up front on the engineering, working out all the bugs so that when we launch, we are ready to go to manufacturing. And we both know that the real work starts AFTER the project ends and it’s time to start making product. We break it down into digestible pieces, and then go attack those pieces.
My wife is a huge element of our success. She has a talent for logistics that is unparalleled. She orders parts, makes phone calls, stuffs hundreds of bags with hardware, works long hours with us, and helps to keep us on schedule. I am very proud of our little XYZbot team.
Based on your experience, what are the three most critical components of success on Kickstarter?
I think this is true for any Kickstarter project, whether it be a techno gadget or a computer game or a play that you want to produce:
– Have a good product that people like.
– Promote that product and yourself tirelessly.
– Deliver that product and prove to your backers that you are worthy of their trust.
Your Fritz campaign generated more than 25 articles and reviews in the media, including Mashable, Huffington Post and Engadget. How did you do it?
We sent out press releases. We researched similar projects on Kickstarter and looked at the press that they got, and then approached those news sources with emails giving basic information on the project. We spent several hours every day pursuing these kinds of leads during the project.
How do you know when you are ready to go live on Kickstarter? What are the conditions without which you wouldn’t start a campaign?
Make sure the project is ready. There are several elements to this:
– Technical – Have the bugs worked out. Don’t launch with the first or even fifth rough prototype. Launch when you have a box full of prototypes that you have rejected because they weren’t ready.
– Have a press release written and ready to go that you can send out just after you press that green launch button.
– Have a promotion campaign plan ready to execute. Who will you email? What blog sites and news sites will you send your press release to?
– Be rested and ready to spend the next 30 days answering emails and posting updates for hours every day.
– Have evidence of prior promotion and have some good feedback. And not from your friends and family. Bless them, but they always will be encouraging. Get good feedback from people that you don’t know. That’s how you know that you have a good project.
Out of all promotional activities which one, in your opinion, has brought you the most money and backers?
Exposure on popular media sites like mashable.com I think is pretty huge. A site that is looked at by a lot of people every day will drive traffic to your site, which just causes more traffic.
Do you have plans for future Kickstarter projects?
Yes, we have 3 others that we’d like to do and get new ideas all of the time. But we force ourselves to focus and get one thing done. When we launch a project on Kickstarter, all the other cool and fun stuff that we want to go play with has to be put on the back burner.
What would you like to say, based on your unique experience, to those who are now thinking of starting a crowdfunding campaign?
DO IT! DO IT! DO IT! Kickstarter and crowd funding has opened up incredible new opportunities for entrepreneurship and creativity. Why not launch a crowd funding campaign? The worst thing that can happen to you is a failure. We’ve failed plenty. You learn so much from failure. I highly recommend trying and failing. 🙂 And if you get the other one, success, well that’s great too.
My Top 12 Takeaways:
1. Explain the benefits of your project to others. The fact that it makes sense to you is not enough to make people support you.
2. Set the lowest goal possible to deliver your product and you will increase your chances to exceed it.
3. Make plans for different success levels: be able to produce a low quantity without losing money and get ready for large manufacturing with all complications of logistics and international tax laws.
4. Take your crowdfunding project seriously, just like a real business, but make sure to have fun doing it. It is not a way to get rich fast, so why would you do it if you are not enjoying the results?
5. Go out! Don’t just rely on the power of the Internet. Talk to your friends, neighbors and strangers about your project. Ask for honest feedback.
6. Your campaign results will not always be up to your expectations. Don’t get frustrated or angry. Crowdfunding is about creation and learning, not competition.
7. Don’t measure the degree of success by the amount of money raised during the campaign. Measure it by the amount of knowledge you’ve gained, experiences and satisfaction from what you have done.
8. Crowdfunding is a team effort. Make sure to surround yourself by knowledgeable, hardworking and enthusiastic people.
9. You can’t skip working with the media in order to raise a significant amount of money. Do your homework and don’t wait for the middle of your campaign to contact journalists.
10. Don’t expect to rest after the end of the campaign. Now you have a responsibility to deliver what had promised while staying in contact with your backers.
11. Success in crowdfunding has three components: great product, clear explanation of the benefits to other people and timely delivery.
12. Don’t be afraid of failure! Find what you are passionate about, learn how to make it happen and share it with the crowd.
About the Author
Elena Mikhaylova is a serial entrepreneur with twenty years of experience in diverse industries including crowdfunding, PR, and social media marketing. She is an internationally published author of hundreds of articles, several research papers and two books.
Elena has been a speaker at a number of international conventions and conferences and an instructor at Colorado Free University. She was also an organizer of one of the top ten largest crowdfunding meetups in the United States and was recognized as Top 1% on LinkedIn in 2012.
