Today, crowdfunding seems to be the solution for everything<\/b>, and that\u2019s a good idea for hardware products. It\u2019s usually the first idea that project owners have when they think about how to raise money. But being a good idea doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s an easy one.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not necessary \u00a0to mention that a campaign is a big effort in marketing and PR<\/b>. It will probably affect the whole team, and this work needs some preparation. As an indicator it\u2019s very convenient to start the campaign with about 20% of the amount covered. Of course devices and cool things are better for crowdfunding than services or less good-looking products.<\/p>\n
Part of success is to be the first one in a category<\/b>. I guess there are not many opportunities for the same product to make noise. You can have success and repeat it, especially if you create a family of products pointing to the same group of people. That\u2019s so important because you can increase your LTV by not adding a lot to the CAC.<\/p>\n
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A lot of effort in PR and marketing is needed. Being sure about the milestones and the promises <\/b>you make is not easy. It\u2019s so common and embarrassing that many hardware projects need to delay delivery dates, due to complications in the process. It might not break the company, but it affects the credibility of the brand and also how much people believe in startups, hardware, and crowdfunding platforms.<\/p>\n
Short timeframes <\/b>compromise viability and very long ones decrease customer interest. Personally I would buy many gadgets in crowdfunding campaigns if I could receive the product the next day, but it\u2019s complicated for me make an impulsive purchase with the letdown of 9 months delivery.<\/p>\n
If you fail the first time<\/b>, it\u2019s so complicated to launch another campaign with the same brand. Media and people probably will not pay attention to it again. Also you\u2019ll be tired and your community and early adopters probably burned out. You can always change the brand and start again.<\/p>\n
Some details such as world wide sending<\/b> could complicate your campaign, perhaps limiting it to some areas is better. Also taxes <\/b>are involved, VAT in Europe, or import tax in some countries, and that affects the total price and your real income (as well tax declarations\u2026).<\/p>\n
If you launch the first release with an attractive price<\/b> it\u2019s difficult to cover your costs: CE certifications, manufacturing molds, and of course crowdfunding platform fees and marketing costs, like professional video.<\/p>\n
So maybe you\u2019ll need to add some investment <\/b>to this money. At least for investors you will ask them already having a market validation of your success. Probably if you\u2019re under 100k\u20ac there\u2019s no chance to cover costs, but it\u2019s better if you can get 200k\u20ac or more.<\/p>\n
The validation <\/b>comes from a really special group of people. Success is a really good indicator, but it doesn\u2019t mean you know how to convince all future customers. You will also need to learn about what kind of marketing works when you\u2019re not in a crowdfunding campaign.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s common that when you finish your campaign you feel like going back to the beginning<\/b>, a lot of effort, a nice product, investment raised, but not a huge profit. That\u2019s the moment to use what you have learned and made and use them to build a company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today, crowdfunding seems to be the solution for everything, and that\u2019s a good idea for hardware products. It\u2019s usually the first idea that project owners have when they think about how to raise money. But being a good idea doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s an easy one. It\u2019s not necessary \u00a0to mention that a campaign is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125,121],"tags":[123],"class_list":["post-2741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hardware-en","category-insights","tag-hardware"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2741"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2743,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2741\/revisions\/2743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wlappe.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}