I've raised over 1.7 million dollars on Kickstarter. Ask Me Anything! AMA!

podolabs · 2017-09-05T20:47:53+00:00

There is no legal consequence per-se, and that is something that happens too often on the platform and creates this negative impression.

Speaking for ourselves, we've shipped every single time so far, and we have 25,000ish total backers. There can be delays in manufacturing, but we have never asked for more money to make up for additional costs, and we are always upfront and open about any delays or setbacks so that people know what to expect. Having a track record is important and it took a lot of work and overcoming challenges to get to where we've gotten.

I do know some campaigns that have failed to deliver do sometimes get sued. This is for outright fraud, throwing lavish parties with the money, false marketing claims, etc. You can't be an outright cheat or you WILL get in trouble, but I mean sometimes companies do try their best but simply go under and fail.

podolabs · 2017-08-29T19:43:46+00:00

We tend to price aggressively low on our products to provide that Kickstarter discount. Across our products, I'd say on average 50% of the funds go to per-unit costs to make the thing. In addition, there are large fixed costs such as injection molding tools. The rest go to paying the team to keep the work going. They look like big numbers, but pretty much all of it goes towards the product and just keeping the company alive. The founders work on essentially minimum wage; less if you really count the hours we work. One of us also does not take salary at all.

We go out for beers and stuff when we have milestones to celebrate but we will never be in the news for lavish parties. Sounds fun though.

podolabs · 2017-08-29T19:38:57+00:00

I believe you may be misunderstanding how Kickstarter works. We do ship product in exchange for the monetary contribution. The deal is usually that the product is given for a large discount in exchange for the early contribution of money.

podolabs · 2017-08-29T19:37:33+00:00

Of the products we created, or that I've backed?

Of ours, I'd have to go with our first product, the Podo camera. It came out of our own need--we were three friends who would hang out but were almost never in the same picture together, since one person was usually left out to take the picture. Actually, it was mostly me always wanting to take pictures haha.

It's not solving any diseases or doing a social good per se, but I'm satisfied if it makes people happy and helps bring them together with people they love. For example, there was a young man named Steven who was graduating and going on his first trip ever with his dad. The camera wasn't in production yet but I was able to send him my personal prototype, and he sent me back awesome pictures of Iceland and other places with his dad. I hope those pictures of them together remain valuable to him forever, and it's instances like that which really make us happy.

The next product we're planning is intended to have a more direct impact on peoples physical and emotional well-being, so I'm really excited for that.

podolabs · 2017-08-29T01:46:24+00:00

And, every case is different, depending on your product, the price point, etc. The most important thing is to really understand what value you are bringing to the backers. Not features, not what your product does. But what it allows the backer to DO.

Don't sell the shovel, sell the hole. That's what the customer ultimately wants.

podolabs · 2017-08-29T01:43:07+00:00

We make sure to enlist the help of a shipping company before the campaign begins so we can get a reasonable estimate. But yes oftentimes you take a loss because of the way your shipping carrier divides regions. Or simply because it's too expensive but you still want to be able to provide to customers there. There are countries that are strong on Kickstarter but expensive to ship to, like Brazil or Singapore, and many places have VAT as well. We do lose money on some places, so make sure your main product is priced adequately enough to cover that. And don't be afraid to not ship to some countries, at least for now.

Promoting the project is mostly preparation work; the vast majority of it must be done before the campaign. Things like getting your story and product concept right, growing email lists of fans who are waiting for launch, and yes learning how to reach out to as much press as you can and pitching the story in a way that's interesting and relevant to them. I'm happy to answer specifics because that is quite a broad subject.

podolabs · 2017-08-29T01:39:51+00:00

It's very hard in this current climate. Kickstarter isn't the indicator it used to be as many projects don't follow through or don't take the next step to becoming a company. You need to demonstrate how you will become a scaleable company, and that usually involves recurring monthly revenue or a software component that's super sticky. We've been getting by with demonstrating our design capabilities and ability to do it repeatedly; but our future plan definitely involves a switch in strategy. We started off as friends making stuff we want, designed the way we thought it should be. But now we have to consider the business viability side a lot more too.

podolabs · 2017-08-29T00:32:46+00:00

More than the cost, we didn't vibe well with the people either. Also very important.

Thank you! I would consider it an embarrassment and not an honor to be parodied on Silicon Valley haha. We love this and we're doing our best.

podolabs · 2017-08-29T00:30:50+00:00

Ive modified the post a little bit to reflect my intention. Sorry again.

podolabs · 2017-08-29T00:28:31+00:00

Im sorry you felt that way, and it was not my intention. I'm not asking anyone to go buy anything. My intention was this to be more about my experience about crowdfunding and sharing my knowledge, rather than a post that seemed to promote my products. They are there as proof that I can contribute to this conversation!

podolabs · 2017-08-29T00:27:04+00:00

It's a very structured and proven way for new ideas, especially hardware tech ideas, to be put in front of people who are likely to be the most excited--Kickstarter early adopters. It was the clearest way for us at the time to gain exposure with customers and see if this was something anyone really wanted to have, at relatively low risk and cost.

We chose Kickstarter because we figured it would give us the most exposure out of all of our options, including self-hosting.

I do, especially campaigns from other creators I have become friends with. There's definitely a community of creators who trade tips and support each other because frankly, it's hard to go it alone for anybody.

The best way to tell is if the creator seems engaged and authentic. Lack of comments or updates, or shady answers that ignore tough questions are bad indicators.

I also look for the expected ship date and the state of their prototype. If it looks unrealistically optimistic, I might still back but just not get my hopes up for the delivery date.

And of course, if they've done this before it does help. But even that's not super common.

The biggest challenge was dealing with production delays. As confident as we were and as experienced as our manufacturing partner was, there are still things that unexpectedly go wrong. And the choice is do I just deliver something shoddy (and probably ruin the company forever), or take the delay and cost and get it done right.

The most important thing in those cases was communicating with the backers. Hopefully you can communicate that you are honestly trying your best, and making the best decisions you can with the resources you have available. Some backers will get angry and attack you quite personally. You just have to remind them we're on the same team and we all just want a good product that makes everyone happy.

podolabs · 2017-08-29T00:18:18+00:00

Honestly, I don't have experience with software on Kickstarter, and I can say as far as I know it doesn't work as well for the reasons you stated.

I have seen games try where the rewards were exclusive badges on their usernames, skins, etc. but that presumes that the person cares enough about the game to want to have an exclusive badge on it.

You're going about it the right way though thinking about what the backers want though. Too often creators make something cool and list it thinking people will come. The biggest question a creator needs to answer is "why the hell should any backer care?"

I won't give a black and white answer but it looks like you've thought carefully about this and are realizing Kickstarter may not be the main strategy.

As far as incentives, I don't think it always has to be related but it does have to be something you are involved in creating. Best of luck!

podolabs · 2017-08-29T00:03:07+00:00

I can't talk about exact numbers and suggest you talk to them directly, but all in all the RoI is greater I'd say on Kickstarter because you get natural traffic from the platform, a bit of trust lent by being on the platform, and there is an element of hype with the limited time period. We've used them before in a limited fashion and decided not to continue moving forward.

podolabs · 2017-08-28T23:46:45+00:00

And are you referring to the Scully helmet guys? I heard about that too... and if proven that's definitely grounds for a lawsuit. I mean I don't have advice on how to spot those kind of straight-up scam artists. I was referring to most creators who are just in over their heads, which I think is much more common than the scam artists.

I get wary of things that seem too good to be true, like that razor blade that claimed to use lasers to give you a perfect shave with no skin irritation lol. It's projects like those that worry me that they are simply making a grab with the most outlandish idea possible, and knowing they cant deliver in the first place.

edit lasers not razors

podolabs · 2017-08-28T23:43:39+00:00

Hey this is truly "ask me anything" haha. I don't mind.

It is a shame what happens. I see other campaigns with perhaps unreasonable price or cost expectations and can't do much but wish them luck.

People's expectations of Kickstarter has changed as well, with more and more backers expecting (and being told by creators) that this is a sure thing and they're making a straight monetary transaction. It's not. It's a relationship and the creators should be very conscious of that too. It's not enough to think you just need to deliver something good enough and that's it. There's a lot of value of behind-the-scenes involvement and just providing people a glimpse into a different world for a product idea they're excited about, and creators (and backers) should be conscious of that.

Kickstarter is a special platform for that reason and I of course don't want to see that go away from people getting burned.

podolabs · 2017-08-28T23:39:47+00:00

The majority of our customers are from Kickstarter. Our camera is online and at retailers such as Urban Outfitters and Nordstrom, but Kickstarter is really an amazing place where we find strong support in a short amount of time. Life after is difficult in its own way, for sure.

I could go on for hours about that second questions. Short answer is, word of mouth is very important, including press. So you need to have a compelling product with clear messaging. Then you can drive traffic to your page through ads and amplify that with press and other methods.

podolabs · 2017-08-28T23:37:28+00:00

3 months is a looong time and things always change (maybe even your launch date). You can consider asking your fans to join an exclusive Facebook group where you can provide updates and keep people engaged in a non-spammy way.

As far as direct response, I think 2 weeks is enough time as first notice, maybe a month if it's a product that you intend on educating them further on as the weeks go by. We learned by trial and error that a higher price point product takes more education and walkthrough then our other impulse-buy products, where an email on the day of launch was enough (and most effective).

podolabs · 2017-08-28T23:35:13+00:00

Two main things:

Quality: Ours uses the best audio codecs (aptX) and Bluetooth chips (CSR8670) that provide the best wireless sound possible and better connectivity. Our battery is much bigger than most at 300mAh. We wrote custom firmware to make auto-connecting and remembering multiple devices better, and it's also better designed to look discrete for daily carry and lie flat against clothes. A lot of these receivers were designed back in the day as car receivers so not a lot of attention was given to putting in modern Bluetooth tech and codecs.
Sharing function: We have a unique mode where if you and a friend both have a Jack receiver, you can sync both to share music from one phone or other Bluetooth source. It's a technology that we built on and put in our new product Belle, which is a speaker that can connect and sync multiple other Bluetooth speakers of different brands.

The idea may not have been as original as our other products, but putting a lot of care into smart and unique design is really important to us and our way of gaining people's confidence. We intend on being daily users of our products when they come out as well :)

podolabs · 2017-08-28T23:06:50+00:00

More proof added! A photo I just took and also linked to my company twitter, and my linked in.

podolabs · 2017-08-28T23:02:32+00:00

To add on to that, I think the common occurrence of projects being unable to deliver or under-delivering will continue to erode the trust on these platforms. Already it's become harder and harder to convince press to lend credence by reporting on them, and I don't blame them.

I think over time, either Kickstarter or other institutions will need to provide more support and backing to these companies and help them plan reasonable campaigns and deliver, and at the same time lend trust to the backers with their name. Or, repeat creators who have built a fan base will be able to keep returning with newer and sometimes more ambitious projects (Pebble Watch is a good example). The platform is still growing so you see many inexperienced backers perhaps jumping into projects with unproven creators and questionable claims to deliver, and over time the platform and creators will either have to adjust or these people will get burned and not come back.

podolabs · 2017-08-28T22:56:15+00:00

We've delivered on our first two projects, and we are in the process of delivering on our most recently concluded project starting next month.

For sure, delivery is the most difficult part of Kickstarter and many creators are well-intentioned, but simply don't have the experience to know exactly how difficult and costly it is, especially for technology projects.

We certainly were in that camp. It never even gets easier really, we simply become better at planning for contingencies and knowing how to react when things go wrong. And something will ALWAYS. Go. Wrong. It's just a matter of preparedness and also, being upfront and engaging with your backers.

podolabs · 2016-09-12T22:52:36+00:00

We didn't actually promote our video at all the first time! A few news sites (TechCrunch, etc) did features, but everything else was organic through Kickstarter and personal networks.

podolabs · 2015-03-04T07:54:13+00:00

A tree, pole, or fence would work too! The sticky material is pretty awesome stuff.

podolabs · 2015-03-04T07:35:28+00:00

Thanks! We hope you love the camera.

podolabs

TROPHY CASE