Hey, thanks for welcoming me to the group. Since theres only a few members, I thought Id do an intro: Id been following the rise of Kickstarter for a while and in 2013 a few things came together which led to me launching my first project, Squishy Forts. I used it as the basis for an MBA assignment, and aligned my launch with the launch of Kickstarter in Australia. It was really just an experiment to learn the Kickstarter process, and what worked and what didnt - I did a lot of research beforehand, and based my campaign heavily on the Tim Ferriss / Soma guide, and used Pebble as a model for a great Kickstarter project (the highest funded project at the time). I made a few mistakes, but my plan to make the project go viral paid off and in Dec 2013 I funded at over $67k, which was pretty awesome, and I know Ill do better next time. 10 months later Im going through manufacturing with Squishy Forts... my biggest mistake was not having my whole supply chain fully established, with a proven manufacturer. My next project (which will be after Squishy Forts ships) will have that stuff sorted well in advance, and in the meantime, I believe Ive found a solid manufacturer, so am focusing on delivering to my backers and turning Squishy Forts into a long-term business. The experience also taught me there is a massive opportunity out there for post-Kickstarter tools and in Feb 2014 I won Startup Weekend Perth with an idea for a pledge management system. We had a few hiccups along the way, but our beta is almost done and Ill soon be looking to get some feedback from people like the members of this group. As a project creator, my main focus was to create something that didnt exploit project creators, but still let us make some money while providing them with awesome tools. I think weve developed something awesome so I cant wait to show it to the world. Generally, Im passionate about entrepreneurship and crowdfunding, and in August when I finished my MBA I did a weekend project to create a site that was Product Hunt for Kickstarter, which I launched as CrowdLoot. The idea was to create a better method for project discovery, with people like the members of this group curating whats hot and whats not (versus the Kickstarter staff who seem to be a bit artsy at times). I managed to get the site listed on Product Hunt and got some great traffic, but it was a weekend hack and needs a bit of work to the interface before I relaunch it and really market it. Anyway, thats me ;)
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 05:01:05 +0000
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