Kickstarter is home to some of the world’s most impressive accessories for Apple devices. The Libra iPad Pro Case is one of those, for example. With so many products reaching market from the crowdfunding space, we must not forget to take a look behind the curtain from time to time and see all the hard work that goes into making these new inventions a reality.
I recently attended a conference in the bay area where I caught up with Brett Daniels from CrowdMinders to see what goes into making some of the biggest crowdfunding campaigns a success. The following interview has been transcribed from audio and edited for clarity.
What’s the most common mistake you see brands making in their campaigns?
“Not having alternative manufacturing partners in place is the most common cause of delay. A lot of factory owners will increase their price once they see how much you raise on Kickstarter, so it’s best to avoid showing them your final raise amount, if possible.”
What are some secrets to success on Kickstarter?
“Most founders don’t realize you can have multiple firms helping with your earned and paid media at the same time. This helps you mitigate some risk against non-performance by the agencies, but not everyone’s budget allows for this.”
Where do you see the crowdfunding space in 5 years from now?
“We are living in the mere infancy of crowdfunding. I could easily see it as being the number one way to launch any kind of new product, and it’s actually quite close to that point now already.”
When is the best time to launch a project?
Any day other than a holiday will work just fine. More important than the date of launch is the amount of time you put into your campaign before launch. Grow that email list and try out a few different marketing partners before you launch so that there are no surprises come launch day.
Kickstarter or Indiegogo?
“In my opinion, Indiegogo is better than Kickstarter in every way except for brand recognition and trust. Kickstarter is a household name so you may get a higher conversion rate on that platform (possibly), but Indiegogo is a lot better from a marketing perspective in terms of the tools and support they offer. What we see now is most campaigns doing a 30-60 day campaign on Kickstarter and then moving over to Indiegogo Indemand afterward. So I suppose you don’t really have to choose between the two anymore. Offering Indemand was a very smart move by Indiegogo.”
What types of products are best for Kickstarter?
“Anything technology related is going to be easiest. The whole tech space (customers and online media) are very accustomed to Kickstarter. What we are seeing now is that more and more spaces are coming open for crowdfunding. Fashion, for example, was a space that was notoriously hard to crowdfund in several years ago, but now we see it as a great space for marketing to backers. I think that as time goes on essentially every space on earth will be open to crowdfunders.”
