As Trident Design helps inventors turn design ideas into reality, crowdfunding campaigns are an increasingly popular part of the process. To better serve their clients, Founder Chris Hawker decided Trident should run their own Indiegogo campaign. Many startups dream of reaching their funding goals on the popular crowdfunding site, for Hawker and his team, it only took 24 hours.
A few years ago, Hawker was using a key to open a box – a simple task that many people do with often limited success. He thought someone should invent a sharper key since everybody would use it. Then he realized, “That someone is me!” Hawker held on to the concept and when the idea for a crowdfunding campaign surfaced, Quickey Multi-Tool was born.
“That would be perfect for it, it’s so simple,” Hawker says of the multi-use tool and its viability on the site.
Quickey fits a lot of functionality into one key-sized piece of metal. The tool is part box opener, bottle opener, screwdriver, scoring tool and file. Trident aimed for a solid design that has some heft with a good grip.
“Without even thinking about it, I end up using it all the time,” Hawker says. When he accidentally misplaced one of the prototypes, he wasn’t even worried that he lost it. His initial thought was, “How am I going to open my mail?”
“It instantly becomes indispensable to have on your key-chain,” he says.
It took several tries to create the final Quickey.
“Even though it’s quite simple, it took a lot of prototypes to get it just right,” Hawker says. Trident spent about 200 hours crafting the product and their Indiegogo campaign, which gave them the base for their initial goal of $4,000. That amount would help them break even on their first run of Quickeys. Hawker’s super-secret stretch goal was $40,000.
With 27 days still left in the campaign, Quickey has raised over $77,000.
“I never imagined we would do this much,” Hawker says.
Their success demonstrates the power of crowdfunding when a company has a great product and a solid campaign. Hawker says they spoke extensively with other businesses that had run successful campaigns and Indiegogo before launching their efforts.
Hawker identified three things that led to their success – a great product, a well-constructed campaign and a solid network. First comes a great product. A business can have a great campaign, but if people don’t like the product, the campaign won’t be funded.
A strong start also propelled them towards success. Indiegogo told Hawker, “Campaigns that hit at least 30 percent of their take in the first 24 hours almost all make it.” A weak start turns a campaign into a vicious cycle versus a virtuous cycle. If backers see that others aren’t interested, this might decrease their interest. Instead, “The better you do, the better you do,” Hawker says.
Trident was also able to utilize their extensive network to gain a strong initial push.
“People were buying it not just to do us favors but were seeing it and actually want it,” Hawker says. Their momentum put the Quickey into the Indiegogo newsletter, which goes out to everyone that has backed a campaign, helping them earn $25,000.
Backers are showing great interest in the product. Hawker says they have received several requests from companies who want to use the Quickey as a promotional product, others that want to license it and some businesses who just want help with their campaigns.
For more information, visit Quickey’s indiegogo page.
