Just launched a crowdfunding campaign - Indiegogo

[mdturner]

Hey guys, so I've been lurking here for a minute mostly just reading and gathering information. Over the past 6 months, my partner and I have been designing a pair of sunglasses and putting together a company. Now we are at the point where we need funding so we decided to try out crowdfunding. If you are not familiar, this is a place people can post projects or anything else and offer pre-sales usually at a discounted rate. If they reach their goal then the company gets the money. If they don't reach their goal then everyone gets their money back. It's a true win-win. So we decided to go with Indiegogo.com and if you all could check out the page and site and give some feedback that would be awesome. Right now the site is just a single page mainly focused on channeling people to our Indiegogo page. What do you think of the logo? Overall design of the model?

Calero Sunglasses | Indiegogo
http://www.facebook.com/CaleroSunglasses

Thanks,
Matt

 

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[1step]

Cool man, the logo is nice. The video is pretty good, search for (google) "start with why" and watch that video if you have never seen it. I think it could really help you.

Did you happen to watch shark tank last night? They had a sun glass company on there asking for funding.

Good luck, if it was guaranteed that you reach your goals I would sign up now as I like the product.

 

[Eskil]

Agreed. Looks cool, but one thing I would do on the Facebook (and maybe even inside the video) is some photos of people modeling the sunglasses. Maybe ask some students or someone if they wouldn't mind volunteering for some model shots, just so people can see what they look like on someone's face.

 

[mapaul04]

Wish you had more posts as this feels a bit like self promotion, but I like the product and hope you arent here just to advertise.

Good luck guys

 

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[Silverhawk851]

A few questions.

Do you have a patent on the SnapLock hinges? Is there anything proprietary about your company. and if so what is your Unique Value Proposition? What do you do better than your competitors, I.e. is it price-advantage, branding, etc?

 

[mdturner]

Hey thanks for the feedback guys,

1. I didn't see the shark tank but I'll look it up later tonight. There's always people trying to start sunglasses companies to try and take down Luxottica but most people know nothing about the technology and they just get premade ones from China with their logo.
2. We are working on getting some lenses custom made soon so that we can do the modeling shots. So that will definitely be coming
3. As a company we offer a lot of value. Everyone thinks sunglasses are easy to jump into. There is a ridiculous amount of math that goes into making them though. In order to achieve good optics, every little detail has to be taken into account. Most companies that produce glasses in the $30 range (knockaround.com enclaveeyewear.com) just go to china and pick a design for their logo to be printed on. The glasses I snapped in the video were actually Knockarounds haha. They will also be made locally in Utah. And are made with the exact same materials as the big brands (Oakley, SPY, Smith, VZ, etc.). They will be worthy of the $100 dollar range but trying to break into that market is near impossible so I thought that it would be better to create true high quality sunglasses but at a lower price. Sure the revenue is less but I would rather be selling more at a lower price and gain a reputation than struggle to survive with the big dogs and barely be noticed.

 

[mdturner]

Good luck, if it was guaranteed that you reach your goals I would sign up now as I like the product.

See that's the best thing about crowdfunding, if we don't make goal everyone is refunded their money. If we do make goal then I call the manufacturers, they start making our product, and you get your Gators in just a couple months. No one loses with crowdfunding!

 

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[Eskil]

With Indiegogo though, I think you get to keep the funds even if the goal isn't met.

 

[1step]

The shark tank glasses were made from wood frames. Was pretty cool, looked nice

I've only used kickstarter once, I bought the pebble 9 or so months ago and still haven't received it. I know I get my money back if funding isn't let it was more the time commitment to sign up and everything.

I did sign up to fund the project, I was number two. Hope you make it to the goal. I suggested it on another thread yesterday but read the Tim ferriss post on how to fund kickstarter campaigns (if you haven't) it might help you some

 

[mdturner]

With Indiegogo though, I think you get to keep the funds even if the goal isn't met.

There's two ways to structure your indiegogo campaign. Flex and fixed pricing. Either way if you meet your goal then you are charged 4%, but with flex funding if you don't meet the goal then you get to keep what you earned however there's a 9% fee. And they tack on another 3% for credit card processing. For fixed funding it's 4%. That's it. If you meet your goal you get the money if you don't meet your goal everyone get's their money back. We are doing fixed funding and every project has it stated on their page under how much they've raised.

How Pricing Works | Indiegogo

 

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[mdturner]

The shark tank glasses were made from wood frames. Was pretty cool, looked nice

I've only used kickstarter once, I bought the pebble 9 or so months ago and still haven't received it. I know I get my money back if funding isn't let it was more the time commitment to sign up and everything.

There's actually been a ton of wood sunglasses startups recently. As cool as they are though, they aren't practical. It's just wood and you can only get so much from wood when it comes to versatility and durability.

The Pebble is awesome. I was too late to the party to fund it but want to pre-order one. If you check up on them you'll find they've run into massive delays. I'm not surprised by this since he had 85,000 pebbles ordered. Supposedly they just started shipping late last month so you should be checking your mail for it.

And thank you for the support! I did read that post and it was actually the only reason I looked into crowdfunding. I was a little wary of it before but after looking through some threads here I decided this was a good route.

 

[mdturner]

Well a quick update, I have been receiving a ton of positive feedback on the design of the Gator. It seems that the crowd funding scares a lot of potential customers away though since it's not yet a solid product. I feel if we had the money to start production upfront then we would be having awesome results

 

[TheTruth]

Cool man, the logo is nice. The video is pretty good, search for (google) "start with why" and watch that video if you have never seen it. I think it could really help you.

I agree with the suggestion to watch the "start with why" video as it would give you guys some guidance.

I do not agree with that video being good. It comes of rushed, there is lots of background noise and there is no flow to it.

I get it, you guys are on a budget, but your video is your center piece and your current one has too many flaws to work... i.e. I barely see your product, I don't know why you are doing this, you don't trigger any emotions, you don't get me excited etc. etc.

Agreed. Looks cool, but one thing I would do on the Facebook (and maybe even inside the video) is some photos of people modeling the sunglasses. Maybe ask some students or someone if they wouldn't mind volunteering for some model shots, just so people can see what they look like on someone's face.

Ditto. Showcase the product, make me fall in love with it. Copy Copy Copy. Get someone who knows how to write copy to help you guys make a good script.

Hey thanks for the feedback guys,


3. As a company we offer a lot of value. Everyone thinks sunglasses are easy to jump into. There is a ridiculous amount of math that goes into making them though. In order to achieve good optics, every little detail has to be taken into account.

Here is the thing though... nobody cares.

The reason I say this so bluntly is because I want to give you a bit of shock factor and a look into my (the consumers mindset).

Think of it this way, If I went into an ice cream shop and asked why would I buy from them and they told me "well son, you see ice cream takes a while to make, especially if you want to do it properly and we spend a lot of time doing that and I have a family etc. etc."

I would walk away and go to a competitor who told me that their ice creams flavors would not only melt in my mouth, but the temperature that they store their ice cream in dances with my taste buds making a blend of flavors never before experienced, let alone on such a hot sunny day.

See that's the best thing about crowdfunding, if we don't make goal everyone is refunded their money. If we do make goal then I call the manufacturers, they start making our product, and you get your Gators in just a couple months. No one loses with crowdfunding!

You sure? What if your campaign fails and when you re-launch the same ppl that invested don't want to risk it with you anymore (meaning they don't believe in you anymore)

Will this impact your brand? Will you have lost core customers? etc. etc.

Not saying you should not have showcased your campaign, because you took action. I applaud you for that, but every action has a cause and effect.

Well a quick update, I have been receiving a ton of positive feedback on the design of the Gator. It seems that the crowd funding scares a lot of potential customers away though since it's not yet a solid product. I feel if we had the money to start production upfront then we would be having awesome results

Awesome you have a great design, now let's turn that into a business.

Your campaign was pre-mature and from looking at it you did not have solidified sources of traffic. You will need a better marketing strategy and campaign for this to work out for ya.

Contact View Profile: AndrewNC - Millionaire Entrepreneur Forum , he is the go to guy when it comes to crowd-funding. He is going to be able to guide you guys down the right path.

 

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[AndrewNC]

If you wan't to give it a second shot, send me a PM and I'll help you out. Why did you choose indiegogo as your platform?

1- Did you put your marketing strategy into motion well before you launched?
2 - Touch up the sales copy and perks/video
3 - Dont expect any traffic from the crowdfunding website itself (nobody on there will find you until you rank). You have to drive interested users to your page yourself.

The Truth knows his stuff when it comes to sales copy and video.
For the video - find out what the best do, and take a lesson from them (or find some guys on the forum who do this for a living):
$1 Million Funded - CST-01: The World's Thinnest Watch by Central Standard Timing — Kickstarter
$10 Million Funded - Pebble: E-Paper Watch for iPhone and Android by Pebble Technology — Kickstarter
$1.4 Million Funded - Elevation Dock: The Best Dock For iPhone by Casey Hopkins + ElevationLab — Kickstarter

I gave some info in the below post to another forum member.
https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/in...iegogo-campaign-needs-traffic.html#post274835

...either way if you want to seriously raise funding for your project and you are an action taker, send me a PM and I'll share what I know with you.