How I built a successful company from my Kickstarter campaign

And how quickly did it blow up?

The first idea was to make a run of 1,000, with or without the Kickstarter. I would have gotten the money from friends or family or something like that, but after week one, the funding had so far eclipsed that and so I upped it to 10,000. What’s funny is that I didn’t have anything to convince them that this was real money, but I directed them to the Kickstarter, and because of the relationships I had built, they were on board. It essentially became my line of credit.

And so that was the beginning of turning this into a full company, right?

Right. And what I’ve done since then is – it’s a virtual impossibility for a one-stock-keeping-unit company to exist in a retail environment. Now, I knew nothing about retail prior to the previous nine months of my life. I knew nothing about it, so this whole experience has been an incredible education for me. I’ve hired some great people to help me…building a little team, and I have about nine people now helping create this ecosystem.

Until the end of the year, we’re going to seek becoming a brand, and a force, in this nuanced space called camera accessories. It’s a really interesting time.

And so what’s your presence like now?

Through retail channels now, we’re definitely out there, distributing in 23 different countries. We have a retail presence now, but we’re just continuing to improve. We just got our first 1,000 units and we’ve got 10,000 more on the way.

What can you reveal regarding revenue?

So last year, including the Kickstarter, we made $700,000, and for the first half of this year it’s come in somewhere around $500,000. The response has been fantastic.

That’s an impressive figure

Yeah, we have a full business going, and I think that’s rare for a Kickstarter. There are companies that are beginning to use the site as a launchpad, and we definitely plan to do that again.

What do you think convinced people to actually hand over so much cash?

Well, I think one aspect of that was that I said I had quit my job as an engineer. People were pointing that out, saying that “oh, if he’s an engineer it must be good”. Now, of course, that’s a little bit silly, but in my video I could speak intelligently, I was active in my communication with backers.

During the Kickstarter duration, which was about 75 days, I sent about 2,500 personal messages. People were contacting me, asking me about the product, and so I just needed to keep communicating.

But surely, there are some common elements of really successful Kickstarter campaigns

I think what it comes down to is that there are just the normal prerequisites for doing something successful, like a good video, a good description, and so on, but I think the icing on the cake is the personality. If you leverage that, you can actually build a product around that.

And, of course, the ones that end up being successful are ones that look like they’re pulled off the shelf.

Perhaps you had hit the right target market as well?

Digital cameras are very much intertwined with the web. Heavy web users tend to be heavy photographers, or at least some variation of that, and so if you own an SLR, throwing $50 at an accessory isn’t that serious a commitment.

So now you’re the head of a company. What’s that transition like?

It’s definitely a huge learning experience, and I’ve had more people to delegate now than ever before. I’m thrown into the role of manager which, I’m hoping, is kind of temporary.

You’re not enjoying it?

Yes and no. I like the grand planning aspect, that’s what’s really fun for me. But I have to do a little bit of everything now, including management and so on. Lots of meetings, and that’s just new to me. I want to be designing the next product.

Trademark law, shipping and so on, it’s just a million things every day that you need to keep track of.

So has this entire experiment taken you to where you thought you’d end up?

For what it’s worth, when I grew up I wanted to be a baseball player, and the number two thing was being an inventor. An inventor is someone who I thought sits around eating cereal and inventing products day after day. Building a company around all that is a different ball of wax – and it’s something I’ve found really engaging.