
Ask HN: What do you do after a successful Kickstarter? - pizzaparty2
I have a novel invention that I am pretty sure at least some people will like. I haven&#x27;t done a whole lot of market research except searching for similar products, a patent search, and just kind of knowing that the device would be useful for certain people.<p>I&#x27;m making the device now. I&#x27;m actually several iterations in but it&#x27;s shaping up. I think I will be able to launch the Kickstarter in about four months.<p>I&#x27;ll probably set the lowest possible number for &quot;success&quot;. That would include remaining legal expenses I haven&#x27;t paid like getting it UL listed, etc.<p>So say I set the Kickstarter goal to $20,000. I could put $2000 in myself and I think get another $2000-$3000 from local supporters. That&#x27;s 25% funded which I think has a chance at providing the initial momentum the project will need.<p>Say I get to this point. I&#x27;ve had a successful $20,000 Kickstarter. I order ~500 boards and cases and assemble and ship them myself.<p>But then what? I&#x27;ll have a successful POC and made a net profit of maybe a couple thousand bucks. How do I grow it from there into a bigger product? For example, I think the invention could be useful to a larger percent of the population than I will capture with just Kickstarter marketing.<p>I think I can do a successful Kickstarter but I don&#x27;t know how to capitalize on that.
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BolexNOLA
Hey there, I know this isn’t exactly what you asked but I felt compelled to
send this along when I saw your example numbers. I’ve actually had a
(somewhat) successful crowdfunding campaign and lI’d like to give two pieces
of advice about what to expect (1), how to consider what you want to raise
(2), and just a general piece of friendly advice (3):

1) 70-80% of your funding, unless you’re a rare breakout viral sensation, will
be raised in the opening and closing 48-72hrs. The middle will be a slog. Be
ready for that and just keep communication/promoting going.

2) It’s relatively easy to clear $2500-$5000. Not EASY, but relatively easy.
It takes a lot to justify people to push you to $10,000+. You HAVE to get
beyond your friends/family/immediate network and that is very, very difficult.
You need to do a lot of prep, host events, and get people blasting this thing
everywhere. You need to shamelessly shake EVERY tree you available no matter
how distant they are.

3) People invest in you as much as, if not more than, your product. The video
needs to feature not just the product/idea (having a functioning version helps
a lot btw) but YOU. People need to like and trust you. This is no different
from investors. Good luck!

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pizzaparty2
Hi, I have questions.

1\. What was your thing? Did you keep it going after the Kickstarter? If so
how's it going?

2\. Why do you get most funding at the start and end? I can see at the start
because that's where you have to bootstrap it but why the end? Did you apply
marketing at an increasing rate or decreasing rate or a constant rate?

3\. On selling yourself. I've heard this but idk how to do it. I'm not an
expert in the field my product is in. My main motivation is just to make
money. So I don't have a compelling story. I'm just a guy with an idea. I was
planning on doing a video where I explain where the idea came from but aside
from that idk how to interject myself. How did you do it or how do you think
someone like myself should?

Thanks for replying.

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BolexNOLA
1\. A feature length documentary. We raised about $4500 (goal was $12k). We
used indiegogo so we were able to keep the partial funding. We got a lot of
great content but we never finished partially because we were simply too
underfunded and the project was too ambitious. We will be releasing a short
series soon instead.

2\. It’s a weird phenomenon that’s mostly related to hype. People are excited
at launch/those are the low hanging fruit. Immediate friends/family. You end
up wringing out that source pretty quickly. At the end people who dragged
their feet or just wanted to see how it would do finally commit - plus you’ll
just naturally be pushing it much harder at the end and probably giving away
fun bonus stuff to people.

3\. The video just needs to show you a lot. Be prepared, be confident, and
just be as affable as possible. Have a friend or colleague coach you off
camera if you can. Just really fine tune that image you know? Attach your
name, your experience, everything about you to this. Be honest and clear - “I
want to make money” can be said in many ways without being deceptive or
obnoxious. You can say, “this product is something I stand by and I want to
dedicate my full time and attention to it. When funded, I can dedicate the
time, energy, and resources this project requires to make it amazing.” Stuff
like that.

And no problem! Hope this is helpful.

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hmwhy
Have only been a backer before so take my opinion with a gain of salt.

Thinking ahead is great, but it's often too easy to overestimate how good an
idea is and get lost in thinking about all the things that were never going to
happen.

It appears that you are not going to spend any more time on validating your
idea, so why not just focus on having a nice prototype, see how it goes on
Kickstarter, and use that as an opportunity for idea validation? How quickly
and/or how well your idea will be funded will likely give you an indication of
whether or not you should be thinking about the next step.

Even in the case that it's underfunded, you still get an opportunity to
interact with those who pledged, find out what works and what doesn't, and
then decide on whether you can make things better or even eventually turn it
into a business.

It should be noted that in the case that your idea is overwhelming overfunded,
you will likely be forced to scale up and effectively doing many of the things
(accounting, manufacturing, shipping, customer service, etc.) required to turn
it into an actual business.

As I gathered, manufacturing depends entirely on what your product is and you
may have to deal with overseas suppliers for cost reasons (there are horror
stories, don't always go for the cheapest). I assume that most people only
think about that after they see how successful their campaigns are (it's very
frustrating that things keep getting delayed for the backers though, so please
try your best not to over-promise). Some people take care of the the rest by
themselves (if they have a team), or using third-party services. In any case,
I don't think you will miss the signs when that happens.

Good luck!

Edit: removed random fullstop in the middle of a sentence. Typos.

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pizzaparty2
I already have some horror stories. I tried getting someone on FIVERR to draft
the patent. Despite many 5 star reviews it was a bad idea. At best I lost
$300.

Anyways for me part of the benefit in taking my time is building out the
skillset to do this in general:

\- knows how to file patent

\- knows how to make case

\- knows how to get a case design

\- knows how to design the board

\- knows how to get the cases and boards manufactured

\- general idea of all the prices involved

\- how do to Kickstarter marketing

\- how to handle the legal side (like an LLC or ...?)

Because you're right I'm just kind of hoping people will like it. But if they
don't I'll still then have the skillset to try something new. Plus the more
people I ask the more likely someone will demotivate me, or steal my idea, or
just leak the concept which would take some shock and awe out of marketing.
I'll do more market research when I get closer to launching.

How did you hear about the campaigns that you backed?

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SQL2219
At least you're thinking ahead. A lot of kickstarters have trouble delivering.
Perhaps you ramp up your ask to 50,000 buy the equipment that will allow you
to be super productive.

~~~
pizzaparty2
Maybe, but I wish I could do it like an equation. I need x dollars to move
this product to the next level. Maybe it would be 50,000. I'm just blind to
what that next level looks like.

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Jack000
anecdotally, I've talked to two successful hardware kickstarter founders. They
both regretted doing it - it took a huge amount of time to raise 30k and 70k
respectively, and they were both blindsided by unforeseen issues and had to
face angry backers.

For a super small hardware project it might be better to bootstrap and start
by selling kits or one-offs.

~~~
zozbot234
The problem with hardware Kickstarters is that creators word them as presales,
instead of funding for an inherently risky venture (which all hardware
projects are). "Rewards" should never be the deciding factor behind
contributing to a Kickstarter campaign. That way, even if a Kickstarter fails,
it's no big deal; nobody is losing anything other than their actual stake in
the project. And the creators are highly incented to succeed, because every
sale they make thereafter is a "full" sale; with a captive market of backers,
no less.

~~~
BolexNOLA
“Rewards should never be the deciding factor”

Nail on the head. Can’t emphasize this point enough. They are _perks_. They
cannot be the product in most cases, because the product may fail and the
entire dynamic is “I didn’t get what I bought.” The dynamic should be “I
donated and it didn’t pan out unfortunately” in the case of a failed project.

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jrowley
I the first thing you should do is tell people you are delayed, or at least
give yourself at least 2x your standard engineering time estimate. The
unexpected always come up and it’s better to manage expectations early and
have those first users in the know and happy.

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rasz
>goal to $20,000. I could put $2000 in myself

so, you are planning to start with a fraud and go from there? :/

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BolexNOLA
How is that fraud? Paying yourself is totally valid. I’m actually skeptical of
projects where a person doesn’t pay themself. It makes me wonder if they truly
understand what it’s going to take. As long as the donors know that, what’s
the issue?

~~~
rasz
>That's 25% funded

Means he will stuff his own KS to pretend demand. This is a fraud and against
Tos.

"Pledging to your own project is not allowed by either Kickstarter or our
payments partners"

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BolexNOLA
Ah sorry I totally misread the initial comment. I thought the critique was
paying yourself.

As for stuffing your own KS...yeah, it’s not allowed. Everyone does it as an
“anonymous donation” of course, it’s very common. But yeah, he’s not supposed
to.

