Why We Cancelled Our Kickstarter And Funded It Ourselves • Hacker News Board

Re: Why We Cancelled Our Kickstarter And Funded It Ourselves

#31

Post by drakaal » Tue, Mar 18, 2014, 6:55 PM UTC

Kickstarter takes a lot of money for basically delivering hype. I think KS really should have rules/terms that prevent you from canceling after certain things happen.

Press like covering KickStarter. It is a validation that the product is "obtainable" as opposed to a pie in the sky press release from a company that something might come out someday. KS takes a big cut for what they deliver, but they do deliver it, so they should protect that model more fiercely than they do.

That said... If I were shipping a physical thing I would just use Amazon and do Pre-orders instead. Doing a KickStarter can preclude you from many retail stores, and Home Shopping. If your product is awesome you'd likely be better to be in those places instead. If your product kind of sucks, making a splash on KS can get you easy money early. I can think of several products that this has happened with (a talking bear, a video game console...)

But what it all boils down to is you have to decide if hype is what you need, or distribution. If you have a solid product you don't need hype.

Re: Why We Cancelled Our Kickstarter And Funded It Ourselves

#32

Post by tg3 » Tue, Mar 18, 2014, 6:58 PM UTC

thehooplehead wrote: post #25

josefresco wrote: post #19

Is there a HN thread where we can discuss this service and ask questions/debate the merits? I'd do it here but it feels inappropriate as the thread is more about Kickstarter and not the core product/service.

Ditto. How about in this thread? I was watched the video waiting for some big reveal, but was sort of let down by the offering. The site says more about the notebook's quality than the OCR/digitization, which is what I was more interested in.

It's probably pretty difficult to do OCR/digitization for a bunch of different types of notebooks efficiently, but I totally agree. I personally use Field Notes because of their soft backs and small form factor, but I would love to get them digitized and put in my Dropbox.

Instead they're just sitting in a drawer. I don't want to have to use Mod Notebooks just to keep paper notes forever.

Re: Why We Cancelled Our Kickstarter And Funded It Ourselves

#33

Post by incision » Tue, Mar 18, 2014, 7:02 PM UTC

>"We’d kill the subscription model..."

I tend to be wary of any service with ongoing running costs sold as a one-time fee.

As long as new sales exceed the cost of servicing the existing population everything is fine. Once that relationship reverses all bets are off.

That said, I like this idea and $25 is a better price point that I would have expected.

Re: Why We Cancelled Our Kickstarter And Funded It Ourselves

#34

Post by mkenyon » Tue, Mar 18, 2014, 7:08 PM UTC

tolmark12 wrote: post #29

herbig wrote: post #4

Get all of the hype and exposure that a Kickstarter campaign gives without having to pay them their cut. Makes sense.

Also, the article states that Fundizer did the PR work for a 7% cut of whatever funds where raised... Seems disingenuous to back out after Fundizer did their-work unless they paid them 7% of what they would have raised.

> Fundzinger had a clause in their contract that if you for any reason cancel the project before the end of the campaign, they would bill you at their hourly rate.

> For Fundzinger, we got on the phone with them and explained the situation in detail. They were more than understanding, and offered a deal that worked for us.

Re: Why We Cancelled Our Kickstarter And Funded It Ourselves

#35

Post by protomyth » Tue, Mar 18, 2014, 7:13 PM UTC

incision wrote: post #33

>"We’d kill the subscription model..." I tend to be wary of any service with ongoing running costs sold as a one-time fee. As long as new sales exceed the cost of servicing the existing population everything is fine. Once that relationship reverses all bets are off. That said, I like this idea and $25 is a better price point that I would have expected.

> I tend to be wary of any service with ongoing running costs sold as a one-time fee

Well, they aren't really charging a one time fee, they're charging per notebook.

Re: Why We Cancelled Our Kickstarter And Funded It Ourselves

#36

Post by avenger123 » Tue, Mar 18, 2014, 7:15 PM UTC

I wonder if the notebooks are stripped to bare sheets, scanned and then re-built as a new notebook with proper bindings for sending back.

I don't see any other way of doing this that would keep it efficient.

Re: Why We Cancelled Our Kickstarter And Funded It Ourselves

#37

Post by saraid216 » Tue, Mar 18, 2014, 7:17 PM UTC

avenger123 wrote: post #36

I wonder if the notebooks are stripped to bare sheets, scanned and then re-built as a new notebook with proper bindings for sending back. I don't see any other way of doing this that would keep it efficient.

The article does cover this.

Re: Why We Cancelled Our Kickstarter And Funded It Ourselves

#38

Post by aestra » Tue, Mar 18, 2014, 7:22 PM UTC

chris_mahan wrote: post #21

I use notebooks, notepads, blanks sheets of paper, Japanese A5 and A5 notepads, and Pilot Frixion erasable pens. I do mostly writing, and also diagramming (I'm a software developer) with the odd doodle and 3-d house. I'm very picky about pens, very picky about paper. I also definitely want to keep my notebooks. I do not want all this stuff digitized. At all. What I do digitize, I convert carefully, taking care to cra…

I am very sorry for down voting you, it was a complete accident, my mouse slipped, and now I can't undo my action.

Re: Why We Cancelled Our Kickstarter And Funded It Ourselves

#39

Post by aestra » Tue, Mar 18, 2014, 7:25 PM UTC

incision wrote: post #33

>"We’d kill the subscription model..." I tend to be wary of any service with ongoing running costs sold as a one-time fee. As long as new sales exceed the cost of servicing the existing population everything is fine. Once that relationship reverses all bets are off. That said, I like this idea and $25 is a better price point that I would have expected.

The solution is obviously to have 2 tiers, a subscription model for heavy users and a per book model for light users.

Re: Why We Cancelled Our Kickstarter And Funded It Ourselves

#40

Post by GFischer » Tue, Mar 18, 2014, 7:29 PM UTC

avalaunch wrote: post #28

unreal37 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it was premeditated either, but after reading the article it seems it worked out great for them being able to get Mashable and Verge articles, collect 2,000 emails from Kickstarter backers, and then not have to pay Kickstarter a dime. I'm sure the PR company wasn't too thrilled at losing their 7% cut of the proceeds either. But on the whole, it seems they have a really cool product and will do well. Goo…

From the article it doesn't sound like the PR company completely let them off the hook. It says Fundzinger "offered a deal that worked for us." As an aside, has anyone else worked with Fundzinger? Sounds like an interesting business model.

I didn't know what Fudzinger was, so I looked it up and there are several links saying they had a negative experience with them, for example:

boardgamegeek.com/thread/1119213/fundzinger-do-not-use

They apparently did do their bit (write a Press Release), but not to the campaign creators' satisfaction, and he was very annoyed about their using him as a success story.