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Signed, sealed, delivered. Business after campaign fulfillment.
“There’s three endgames always from a crowdfunding campaign,” Hawker says. “One is to fulfill your campaign and be done. Number two is to build a company around it or fold it into an existing company and keep selling a product. And number three is to license it.”
Crowdfunding has not been a one-and-done experience for this group of product entrepreneurs. Each is parlaying their initial success into new businesses and new campaigns. Here’s a brief update on each.
Blerline Tracing Sticky Notes
Blerline successfully wrapped up their campaign on time at the end of September 2014.
“The success of the campaign was really motivating,” Haar says. “It pushed us to define the brand.”
Haar is taking that brand to the National Stationary Show in May.
“We really look forward to sharing our products with buyers and learning more about how to best position Blerline Tracing Sticky Notes in the marketplace,” she says. “We are targeting large retailers like Michael’s, as well as specialty stationery and gift stores.”
Juiceboxx
Saving Macbook chargers from cord fray, Juiceboxx just finished shipping out the last of their campaign rewards. Now it’s on to bulk orders and new product development.
“The success of the campaign has completely changed our business, opening up a ton of new opportunities,” Scherpenberg says. “We have formed some new companies and begun working with other companies to assist in launching their products. We have a lot of cool ‘stuff’ in our queue.”
Imbue Creative Tool
A successful campaign made Imbue and new business BLK SEA Studio possible. With the campaign rewards fulfilled, it’s time to focus on the business.
“Now we are using BLK SEA to create more of our own products, sell our products, share our love with design on the world wide web, help entrepreneurs with the design process, and collaborate with other talented creative individuals,” Zemskov says.
Spoolee
Walker is about a month away from joining the ranks of campaign fulfillment.
“We’ve been holding off on the marketing and advertising campaigns until we actually have product to ship, so I expect to be pushing those initiatives in a month or so,” he says. “I’ve also been developing some additional products to add to the Spoolee family of cord management accessories, so stay tuned.”
Trident Design
As founder of product design firm Trident Design, Chris Hawker was no stranger to the product development lifecycle before launching two extremely successful crowdfunding campaigns. That success has changed the course of a business. Crowdfunding products will now be Trident Design’s primary focus.
“Offering crowdfunding services has proved to be a more exciting business model than just product design and licensing,” Hawker says.
With campaign rewards for the Quickey filled, Hawker licensed the gadget with Colorado-based Niteize.
“We decided our best opportunity with that product was to turn it over to them,” he says. “Licensing is a great opportunity if you have a successful campaign because you have market validation.”
The company has now sold the product to a number of large retailers.
Fulfillment for the Carbon Flyer is slated for August. The plane and its success has also warranted its own spin-off company.
“Our intention there is to create a whole line of carbon fiber based products,” Hawker says.
Despite ups and down, and a whole lot of time, these entrepreneurs have no qualms about their experiences with crowdfunding. Some of them would do it again in a heartbeat, and all of them recommend it to other entrepreneurs – with a little bit of preparedness.
