Episode 0034 | Crowdfunding Stories: Dale Backus & Ohsnap

10/02/19 • 53 min

Get Funded Today: The Funded Today Podcast

We’re back atcha today with another good one that includes a very impressive guest who is also literally live on Kickstarter right now! Our client Dale Backus has developed a wildly-popular phone grip that has been raising thousands of dollars per day to challenge a complacent industry leader. Let’s see what we can learn from his crowdfunding story...

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⭐ During this episode, we detail these takeaways:

1. Entrepreneurs don’t always pioneer new markets but sometimes substantially improve existing products by providing new-and-better competition.

2. Although it’s usually best to start with a minimally viable product (MVP), some products require more-than-minimal functionality to effectively compete.

3. Crowdfunding can provide a wealth of useful data, including data that helps with manufacturing forecasts.

4. Customer surveys should be worded very carefully in order to obtain accurate actionable data, or else they might lead surveyors astray.

5. Backer updates and other communication should be authentic in presenting both the product and its creator.

6. Effective marketing can’t compensate for a flawed product, but a great product will benefit from effective marketing.

7. Successful startups need to continue to improve their products/services or else they might allow competitors to overtake them.

✍️ Click here for this episode’s complete show notes!

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👉 We want to help as many people as we can; so, if this podcast helps you, then we urge you to please...

• Subscribe to it on our website so that you don't miss an episode!

• Discuss it in our private Facebook group with us and fellow entrepreneurs! Join this group to network for success and to get personalized answers to all of your business questions!

• Review it on iTunes to help us reach more people who need it!

• And tell all of your associates who might benefit from it!

We rely on YOU to help spread the word!!!

----------------------------------------------------------------

⭐ During this episode, we detail these takeaways:

1. Entrepreneurs don’t always pioneer new markets but sometimes substantially improve existing products by providing new-and-better competition.

2. Although it’s usually best to start with a minimally viable product (MVP), some products require more-than-minimal functionality to effectively compete.

3. Crowdfunding can provide a wealth of useful data, including data that helps with manufacturing forecasts.

4. Customer surveys should be worded very carefully in order to obtain accurate actionable data, or else they might lead surveyors astray.

5. Backer updates and other communication should be authentic in presenting both the product and its creator.

6. Effective marketing can’t compensate for a flawed product, but a great product will benefit from effective marketing.

7. Successful startups need to continue to improve their products/services or else they might allow competitors to overtake them.

✍️ Click here for this episode’s complete show notes!

----------------------------------------------------------------

👉 We want to help as many people as we can; so, if this podcast helps you, then we urge you to please...

• Subscribe to it on our website so that you don't miss an episode!

• Discuss it in our private Facebook group with us and fellow entrepreneurs! Join this group to network for success and to get personalized answers to all of your business questions!

• Review it on iTunes to help us reach more people who need it!

• And tell all of your associates who might benefit from it!

We rely on YOU to help spread the word!!!

Previous Episode

Episode 0033 | Ultimate Crowdfunding Pre-Launch Checklist

As promised, we’re going to break out our newly-minted Ultimate Crowdfunding Pre-Launch Checklist! And, after this episode, we’re going to give it away to you for free... no catches. And you can start using it to prepare yourself to take your next big idea to the next level. So, hang in there until the end and let’s get started!

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⭐ During this episode, we detail these takeaways:

1. Entrepreneurs should commit to success, improve both their character and their competence, obey the Golden Rule, build a good team, lead them well, and focus on customers.

2. Crowdfunding campaigners should offer the crowdfunding community a minimally-viable tangible product that is sufficiently new to them, that is neither too “niche” nor too localized, that has been refined through market-testing into a functional prototype, that enjoys an appealing form, an easily-pronounceable positive name, and adequate legal protection.

3. Crowdfunding campaigners should set minimal funding goals (and consider “stretch” goals) while assembling rewards packages from their core product up to pricier options, each with persuasive descriptions, plus prices ending in 9; prices should accommodate production costs, platform fees, marketing costs, collection/transfer fees, data management, “free” packaging/shipping, returns, taxes, and the unexpected, along with both “early bird” and bulk discounts.

4. Crowdfunding campaigners should join Kickstarter and/or Indiegogo, familiarize themselves with these websites’ rules and features, back some projects, and plan to launch on Kickstarter if at all possible.

5. Crowdfunding campaigners should allow at least 2 months to prepare, avoid campaigning during either December or possibly August, expect unexpected delays, launch either in-season or when ready between Monday and Wednesday (except on major US holidays) while it’s still morning in the USA, campaign for 30-45 days, and finish between Wednesday and Friday before it becomes evening in the USA.

6. Crowdfunding campaigners should practice their “sales pitch” to perfection, appealing to both emotion and reason by showing-and-telling both features-and-benefits through plain honest conversational language friendly to a global audience, supported by positive reviews, and then translate that pitch into persuasive campaign media.

7. Crowdfunding campaigners should familiarize themselves with analytics, and arrange as many pledges as possible in advance from personal or business contacts, e-mail leads, social-media fans, social-media influencers, reporters, and others, while preparing to engage in post-launch marketing plus effective customer service.

✍️ Click here for this episode’s complete show notes!

----------------------------------------------------------------

👉 We want to help as many people as we can; so, if this podcast helps you, then we urge you to please...

• Subscribe to it on our website so that you don't miss an episode!

• Discuss it in our private Facebook group with us and fellow entrepreneurs! Join this group to network for success and to get personalized answers to all of your business questions!

• Review it on iTunes to help us reach more people who need it!

• And tell all of your associates who might benefit from it!

We rely on YOU to help spread the word!!!

Next Episode

Episode 0035 | Crowdfunding Suspensions & Re-Launches

In this episode, we’re going to revive the subject of what to do when your campaign goes wrong—in this case, so terribly wrong that you actually need to restart it. So, we’re going to talk all about the mechanics of re-launches, both voluntary and involuntary. So, if you ever receive one of those dreaded notices that your campaign has been suspended, then don’t panic—we’ve got your back! Let’s get started...

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⭐ During this episode, we detail these takeaways:

1. Creators should remember that failure is normal, avoid any irrational expectations, stay humble enough to progress, work hard, and resist discouragement.

2. Creators should solicit feedback from backers (and perhaps others) anytime campaigns are not performing ideally, and use it to determine how to improve.

3. Creators shouldn’t fear to re-launch campaigns whenever they need serious revisions in their product, timing, goal, and/or presentation—and, in doing so, creators should keep their backers fully informed and treat them similarly to pre-launch leads.

4. It’s important for crowdfunding campaigners to both know and follow the rules for their respective platforms, and to render it sufficiently obvious to reviewers that they’re doing so.

5. A campaign’s relative popularity statistically increases the likelihood that people will notice any rules-violations that merit suspension.

6. Kickstarter is notorious for sometimes suspending suspicious campaigns without either warning or explanation, and it will never reinstate suspended ones for any reason whatsoever—but it does make mistakes, and creators can sometimes negotiate with it to re-launch.

7. When faced with suspension, determine the reason, appeal this decision, inform your backers, preempt the cancellation if possible, re-launch on Kickstarter if possible, remobilize your backers upon re-launch, and then proceed as before.

✍️ Click here for this episode’s complete show notes!

----------------------------------------------------------------

👉 We want to help as many people as we can; so, if this podcast helps you, then we urge you to please...

• Subscribe to it on our website so that you don't miss an episode!

• Discuss it in our private Facebook group with us and fellow entrepreneurs! Join this group to network for success and to get personalized answers to all of your business questions!

• Review it on iTunes to help us reach more people who need it!

• And tell all of your associates who might benefit from it!

We rely on YOU to help spread the word!!!