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How to raise 5M on Kickstarter and Become an instant Millionaire

SJVC

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@MyronGainz ...Im on the verge of tears by the time we arrive at Espace, since I'm positive we won't have a decent table. But we do, and relief washes over me in an awesome wave...
 
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Tommy92l

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I've gotta say. Good for him, seriously... that is absolutely amazing, even more so after seeing he failed the first time!

With that aside, this thing looks like a cheap piece of shit.
 
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csalvato

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The shitty thing about Facebook ads is that getting competitive intel is really difficult. We can't even see what his spend was, or anything like that. But since people here saw Facebook ads, we know there was a FB campaign.

So it seems like the "Secret sauce" here was marketing. As @MJ DeMarco said, the first kickstarter validated everything. The first and second ones don't look that different to me...which corroborates.

To me, it looks like he found the right FB ad campaign to drive people the right people to the product -- one that got a lot of shares where he had a great CLV:CAC ratio.

He probably tested this out with his last Kickstarter, and was able to harness that data to drive in big profits.

Big props to the mofo.
 

JustinBoshans

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1) Choose a common product that is used by millions of people but has not been innovated for decades
2) Make it cool again
3) Find a manufacturer and get a prototype made
4) Start a Kickstarter campaign



Link to Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryangrepper/coolest-cooler-21st-century-cooler-thats-actually

Thought I would post this because I think there are great lessons here for someone who is actively looking for what product to sell.

It's funny how simple it all really is. If I ever decided to go the innovation route I'm definitely going the kickstarter route. Good post.
 

Joe Cassandra

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I reached out to Ryan cold and asked him how the hell did he do such a bang up job with this Kickstarter as I'm sure KS loves him to death as it shows the proof in the pudding, that crowdfunding isn't going anyway and will only get bigger as the future comes.

Here's what he said (I asked him, again, how did they get so much traction):

Hey Joe,

Thanks for reaching out. I’ll be sharing more details of my Kickstarter
experience after the campaign closes, but here are a few of the biggest
factors.
1. People are much more interested in coolers in the summer rather than the
winter.
2. We had a group of passionate supporters from our first campaign, ready
to take up the charge and share among their friends.
3. We improved the COOLEST design, took a more targeted marketing approach
and focused our video on all the great features offered.
It's been such an exciting time, and really we have all our amazing backers
to thank for that!


Notes:

1) Timing is everything with these campaigns (good advice for me as I may run a Kickstarter but it would now have to be for next year summer)
2) Have a base. Don't expect Kickstarter to do any marketing, SEO for you. Get initial funders before the gig hits to get it off the ground ASAP
3) Test your design, make changed. Target the right market and make sure you have the right tools to show how awesome your product is.

He's done awesome, 8MM as of today and 25 days left!
 
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TedM

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Here's another comment on this story
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/08/business/how-to-make-8-million-kickstarter/index.html

"So, what was the secret behind Grepper's astonishing comeback? And what are the best tips that could help turn your business idea into a crowdfunding mega-success? To find out, CNN's Future Finance spoke to Grepper himself and Julie Wood from Kickstarter, as well as crowdfunding experts Piers Duruz and Salvador Briggman about their top tips for being a Kickstarter success."
 

WorldImperator

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This is probably one of the most awesome things I have ever seen here, in trams os business creativity. I think he will make real millions on that, get patent and sell worldwide.
 

fishburn7

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So what happens to the funder's money when a kickstarter project isn't completely funded? do they lose it? do they get it back? do they get the product anyway?
 
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splok

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So what happens to the funder's money when a kickstarter project isn't completely funded? do they lose it? do they get it back? do they get the product anyway?

On Kickstarter, no one's money is taken until the project is fully funded, though there are some platforms (IndieGoGo, maybe others too) that will take the money from the beginning.
 

FeaRxUnLeAsHeD

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There's so much more to it than this. To everyone saying kickstarter is an easy way to generate money...

Go make a kickstarter campaign. Get the fanciest pictures and videos, the flashiest descriptions, and watch yourself get 0 views.

Why? Because you need to do all the advertising yourself. There's thousands of kickstarter projects on the website. Nobody will ever see yours. You have to do all the marketing yourself...
 

MJ DeMarco

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biophase

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MJ DeMarco

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The title of the thread an example of people who think that raising money is the same as making money.

Yea, and it seems the entrepreneur felt that way as well. If you read the complaints, he supposedly made a video and commented as much.
 
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Tom.V

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3things

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Rut Roh!

$13 million Kickstarter project for a cooler continues to be a disaster

http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/13/11424924/coolest-cooler-kickstarter-disaster-delays

Seems like Kickstarter failures, or failures in process, are becoming more normal as entrepreneurs fail to execute.

The thing that somewhat baffles me is how they seem to have run out of money and be looking for investment [and presumably aren't sitting on a hill of inventory]...so they can produce/deliver products that people already paid for. [according to that article]. Begs the questions where did everyone's pre order money go, and how do you mismanage it that bad that you don't have any money and you don't have product [even though ppl already paid for it, and you don't seem to have produced or delivered much]?

I realise there's going to be unforseen expenses, humps in the road, manufacturing issues that need $ etc...but to the point where it gobbles up basically all the money you took in preorders? And presumably the preorder price had some sort of you know, profit built into it? Anyway, back to work.
 

NonMagicalGenie

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Rut Roh!

$13 million Kickstarter project for a cooler continues to be a disaster

http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/13/11424924/coolest-cooler-kickstarter-disaster-delays

Seems like Kickstarter failures, or failures in process, are becoming more normal as entrepreneurs fail to execute.
Kickstarter projects like this ruin the chances for many other campaigns that actually care about their consumers. Its horrible.

One major bad apple ruins the chances for thousands.
 
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RHL

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Seems like Kickstarter failures, or failures in process, are becoming more normal as entrepreneurs fail to execute.

Instagram generation. It's the Kardashian/Bilzerian effect. These projects are like a role playing game character, with a finite number of points to distribute among "stats."

Everything is dumped in marketing and the pitch video/funnel.

Nothing is put on the product.

This is the recipe for a product that explodes off shelves when launched and then bombs just after. Great mainstream example: The new Batman/Superman movie. Huge hype, terrible reviews, massive week-2 box office crash.

You can only pull this stunt once per product unless your business, like Bilzerian and Kardashian, is basically being a celebrity mega-affiliate for already existing products.

The title of the thread an example of people who think that raising money is the same as making money.

Also the continual FLF favorite of: "Gross revenue" and "profit" are basically the same if the number is high enough."

"Hey guys, I grossed 20 bazillion last year!"

Great, how much did you keep?
 
Last edited:

MJ DeMarco

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Also the continual FLF favorite of "gross revenue" and "profit" are basically the same if the number is high enough

Actually I don't see a lot of this here, but I see self-proclaimed gurus do this. And it makes for great click bait. "This entrepreneur did $500K last month, see how he did it!" (No mention of profit -- anyone can "do $500K" when you're selling dollars for pennies.)

ecommerce-cogs.jpg
 

csalvato

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Looks like all that Facebook spend to get $13M in sales wasn't factored into the total costs he would incur to, you know, make the damned thing.
 
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Mario Longtin

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I don't understand how anyone can look up to that guy. He's a con artist at best. He still owes thousand of coolers to the backers that supported him (Invested in his idea) that was over 2 years ago now. He's out of money already; and he's asking the backers to shell out another $97 to expedite the shipping process? That's insane. He's also selling them through amazon and his personal website. The way I look at it; someone should be responsible for this.
He's also a douchebag. He made a youtube video which he deleted on his personal channel describing how he planned how using kickstarter as free money, and how everyone who's actually dumb enough to back a project well it's there fault anyways and they should be taken advantage of! How's that for a CEO? He's one step away from getting a massive lawsuit. He definitely tarnished his name for good.
 

MJ DeMarco

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I don't understand how anyone can look up to that guy. He's a con artist at best. He still owes thousand of coolers to the backers that supported him (Invested in his idea) that was over 2 years ago now. He's out of money already; and he's asking the backers to shell out another $97 to expedite the shipping process? That's insane. He's also selling them through amazon and his personal website. The way I look at it; someone should be responsible for this.
He's also a douchebag. He made a youtube video which he deleted on his personal channel describing how he planned how using kickstarter as free money, and how everyone who's actually dumb enough to back a project well it's there fault anyways and they should be taken advantage of! How's that for a CEO? He's one step away from getting a massive lawsuit. He definitely tarnished his name for good.

Uh, did you read the rest of the thread?

None of us look up to him.

In fact, the OP looks to be banned and this kinda shady-shit is about as anti-Fastlane as it gets.

PS: Welcome to the forum. :)
 
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AllenCrawley

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Actually I don't see a lot of this here, but I see self-proclaimed gurus do this. And it makes for great click bait. "This entrepreneur did $500K last month, see how he did it!" (No mention of profit -- anyone can "do $500K" when you're selling dollars for pennies.)

View attachment 12101
I was on a webinar recently where the guy was complaining about people like us. Those that don't buy into the "I made $50k last month" without context. He literally said, "what does it matter? Even if it took me $49,999 in Facebook ads to make that $50k I'm still profitable." No mention of cost of goods as this was indeed a physical product based "training". I immediately shut down the webinar.
 

Oztrepreneur

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Ok so here's a kickstarter related Q.

I saw a pretty cool product on kickstarter with some serious amount of backing (500k+). I thought that's a great opportunity as I see a few ways to make it better in small fashion. Jump onto Amazon who I thought I'd use as the platform and there are near identical versions on there....with next to zero reviews. How can kickstarter product be going gangbusters yet Amazon product be dead in the water?? Poor marketing / execution / branding?

Opportunity or trap?
 
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csalvato

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Sometimes it's supposedly smart people/businesses who do this. I called my credit card company (Amex) last year to get a credit increase on a business card and was asked what the gross sales of the business were so they could approve the increase. I asked, "Do you mean net income? Or do you really just want gross sales?" They said, "Gross sales."

I happily told them that our gross sales were about $6M. They didn't seem to care that our business was buying and selling houses, and our net profit margins were only about 7-8%. In fact, that $6M in sales could have easily represented breaking even for our business...or even losing money. You'd think the underwriters at Amex would understand (and care about) this...but apparently not...

Though perhaps it's me that's missing something...

I'm not an underwriter but I think the reason for this is not to gauge your ability to pay the bills, but your spending power. If you are pulling in $6M in gross revenue, that's essentially $6M in spending power. If you put 50% of that through AMEX, thats conservatively $75,000 in revenue for their processing fees (2.5% of $3M).

Again, not an underwriter, but I don't think they are using your revenue to gauge whether or not you can pay them back, but whether or not you can actually even spend that much money with them. If you can't, it's not even worth the risk of extending you the line of credit.

In other words, it's probably a factor they use in conjunction with your existing credit history to approve the credit limit; but not something that is a gauge of your ability to pay the bills responsibly.
 

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