With Laurier Mandin and Jackson Cunningham
Inspiration for a new product can come from anywhere—even a pet store. Once you’re inspired and you’ve got a fire in your belly, you need to find a way to make your idea real. Having ideas is easy; paying for them, not so much.
Some startups use their own money or try to find angel investors. It can be equally challenging and discouraging to find venture capital for modest-scale projects. Crowdfunding is a more recent approach to investment capital. While micro-support is a popular idea, it still requires a dedicated marketing strategy and execution to succeed. No one doubt that Kickstarter often works, but how and when it works best is more mysterious.
Jackson Cunningham is the founder of Tuft and Paw, an online pet furniture store that says its products are “Modern cat furniture both cats and humans will love.” Jackson started a Kickstarter campaign to fund a new cat litter box called, “the Cove.” The fundraising goal was US $10,000. Clearly the COVE is a good idea because it reached its goal within hours and has raised over TEN TIMES the goal to $150,000 with 10 days left in the campaign.
What are the most important elements of a Kickstarter campaign? How many people are involved? Where do you even begin? Jackson Cunningham Skyped from Vancouver and joined Graphos Product CEO Laurier Mandin to talk about The Cove cat litter box, including how Tuft and Paw engaged the company’s online community to help design it.
