Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 150 posts

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#71

Post by dfox »

drabie wrote: post #45
zkirill wrote: post #40

Is it a good idea to sell your first small batch of functional prototypes as-is while still in the market research stage to get user feedback?

Depends on what you are trying to prove. If there are questions as to whether people will pay for your product, then yes, proving that that is the case with a functional prototype will go a long ways. If, however, you are trying to get feedback, build up brand evangelists and learn, then selling your prototype is not hugely important.

By selling few our of prototype units we got both meaningful feedback and evangelists (not consumer, as the thing itself is mostly useful for government institutions).

On the other hand we also got interesting support headaches, as the final production version includes all the feedback and thus is completely different in overall architecture, hardware and software and thus probably only thing that is compatible are pinouts of I/O connectors (and voltage levels on them are only mostly compatible).

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#72

Post by Hykso »

cfederico wrote: post #67

Hi Guys, we are a hardware startup developing a smart LED lamp. We plan to launch a Kickstarter campaign late Q3 and now we are testing the product with our early adopters. - What is the best way to get traction on the product before launching the campaign? - How much money you need to set up a good marketing Kickstarter campaign ? Is it needed to use a good PR agency ? (Any suggestions about a good PR agency ? ) Tha…

Build an email list! And try to pump up the subscriptions with different sales channels - you'll be able to know which ones work best for your business before launching your campaign

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#74

Post by liseman »

cfederico wrote: post #67

Hi Guys, we are a hardware startup developing a smart LED lamp. We plan to launch a Kickstarter campaign late Q3 and now we are testing the product with our early adopters. - What is the best way to get traction on the product before launching the campaign? - How much money you need to set up a good marketing Kickstarter campaign ? Is it needed to use a good PR agency ? (Any suggestions about a good PR agency ? ) Tha…

Hire a PR agency halfway through your campaign when you're so overwhelmed with backers and attention that you can't handle it yourself. Until then, DIY:)

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#75

Post by thirru »

Hykso wrote: post #72
cfederico wrote: post #67

Hi Guys, we are a hardware startup developing a smart LED lamp. We plan to launch a Kickstarter campaign late Q3 and now we are testing the product with our early adopters. - What is the best way to get traction on the product before launching the campaign? - How much money you need to set up a good marketing Kickstarter campaign ? Is it needed to use a good PR agency ? (Any suggestions about a good PR agency ? ) Tha…

Build an email list! And try to pump up the subscriptions with different sales channels - you'll be able to know which ones work best for your business before launching your campaign

What was the best way for you guys to grow your email list (aside from paid ads)? Did you use Queue?

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#76

Post by Hykso »

thirru wrote: post #73

I have a question for Hykso: You guys had a progress bar of units sold. Did you see that this was creating urgency? Also did you find it hard to create traffic to your own site? What was your strategy? And why Shopify over Tilt/Celery?

No we did not see it had much of an impact. But what we saw had the biggest impact is our website! We refined it a lot based on customer interviews to make sure to convey the worth of the product (which was lacking in the previous version). Also customers had a lot of questions, which is not good for sales. As soon as we put the new website up, sales increased!

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#77

Post by pwinter28 »

gabsong wrote: post #70

During crowdfunding, we're busy taking orders, talking to press, making sure we update our users with marketing campaigns, etc. How do you manage customer care during the time of the campaign?

It's really important to have a plan for this. We were not prepared and got blindsided and it took basically the whole teams effort for a couple of days before we systematized it.

Here is a direct quote from the guy who set up and manages our customer service system "be meticulous but also efficient".

The best platform we've used is "Front" also a YC company. Clean and super fast interface.

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#78

Post by Hykso »

thirru wrote: post #75
Hykso wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Build an email list! And try to pump up the subscriptions with different sales channels - you'll be able to know which ones work best for your business before launching your campaign

What was the best way for you guys to grow your email list (aside from paid ads)? Did you use Queue?

We created a lot of content and spread it guerilla way aka bombarding facebook groups that were relevant. On the other hand we through all of our network as word of month is still one of the best way to market your company.

PR helped but did not make the whole difference.

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#79

Post by thirru »

Hey Martin from ShapeScale (S15) here.

Did any of you attempt any influencer marketing? (celebrities or connectors on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat)

If so, how well did it work and did you pay them (if so what was the model, commission, or up-front payment). Would you do it again?

Re: Ask Us Anything: Y Combinator Hardware Companies Crowdfunding

#80

Post by gabsong »

pwinter28 wrote: post #77
gabsong wrote: post #70

During crowdfunding, we're busy taking orders, talking to press, making sure we update our users with marketing campaigns, etc. How do you manage customer care during the time of the campaign?

It's really important to have a plan for this. We were not prepared and got blindsided and it took basically the whole teams effort for a couple of days before we systematized it. Here is a direct quote from the guy who set up and manages our customer service system "be meticulous but also efficient". The best platform we've used is "Front" also a YC company. Clean and super fast interface.

That's great. Thanks for the sound advice -- we'll also look into it :)
Post reply on HN