Episode #043: Use Kickstarter To Launch A Product with Kate Hansen

Blog Title: Culinesco

Social Media:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/ergospout/

FB: https://www.facebook.com/ergospout

About: Kate and her husband Bryce developed the world’s first ergonomic spout and handle for mason jars called the Ergo Spout and launched it on Kickstarter in July 2018. They met their initial funding goal in 14 hours and went on to raise over $40,000 for more than 1,000 backers. After using their funds to manufacture the Ergo Spout they have continued to build a brand of kitchen products focused on helping cooks create and use their pantry items. They hope to ensure that “pantry to table” becomes the new cooking movement.

Notes from Episode #043: Learning To Use Kickstarter For Launching Business Products

• Fun fact: Plays Pokemon GO together with her 11 year old son and even plays by herself!

• Kate is a food blogging fan and enjoys cooking too. She made homemade maple syrup and needed a container for it. 

• While many are familiar with Kickstarter as a platform, it has changed a lot in 10 years. It remains a great place for product and market validation and done right is an excellent launching pad for physical products and movement based projects. I would love to share how food bloggers might use Kickstarter to launch a physical product, a hard bound book or even a movement based project.

  • Kickstarter is a rewards based platform.  If you are looking to simply raise $ then maybe Go Fund Me would work.  Kickstarter backers will expect something in exchange for their pledge.

  • Kickstarter has traditionally been a male dominated realm, a place that a lot of men have launched products. But statistics have shown that women created based projects are more likely to fund and receive more money per backer. So this tells us It’s a great place for women to fund.

  • The product has to be developed before you can start a campaign. You need a physical prototype that’s functional.

  • Physical products work best.  These can be uniquely designed inventions or simply products that require a bit of investment to recreate–such nicely bound cookbook.

    • What does a food blogger want in their kitchen? What do I need in my kitchen so I can cook the way I love? Solve your own problems so you can offer that to someone else. That’s how you brainstorm a project.

  • Projects that have a cause can also be successful.  I have know someone who lauched a campaign for a zero waste store and another that wanted to open a pie shop.  Both offered physical rewards for contributions.

  • Other successful campaigns have been videos, albums, educational videos.

  • Board games are HUGE on Kickstarter.

  • Advantages KS offers –

    • They offer an out. You set a goal of what you want to raise. If you don’t make the goal, you don’t have to commit to the project. 

    • People don’t get charged for their backing until the goal is met. So whether a project gets funded at day 3 of 30 or on day 30, the users aren’t charged until the funds are raised.

  • You have to communicate with people about the manufacturing of your project. Kickstarter offers a platform to email the backers in a formal way in one place so you aren’t struggling to relay information.

  • Users – Two ways to come to Kickstarter.

    • Bring your own audience with you. Kate and her husband wanted 5000 people on a list before even starting on Kickstarter. The faster you fund, the better for the algorithm. You can things like hold a facebook live session to share your idea and answer questions, send out preliminary emails. Offer a presale, educate your own audience.

    • Kickstarter can open you up to a new audience too. People can find you on Kickstarter. The algorithm is more likely to show your project to people if you fund quickly and when people donate. You’ll gather an audience this way.

    • One downside – Kickstarter takes a percentage of what you raise – about 5%. You won’t pay if your project doesn’t fund though. 

    • You also have to pay swipe fees too (credit card processing)

    • You could incur other fees but those are optional – such as marketing support, etc.

    • Budget carefully. You might have to find other means to supplement the funds so you can complete your project. Do your research ahead to be prepared and not be surprised. 

    • Take your dream and find a way to do it!

    • Take your idea and bring it to life. 

    • Kate partnered with women’s networking group. They want women to be financially independent. Kate created an e-course that walks you through what you need to do to launch a successful Kickstarter campaign. 

    • If people are interested in creating a product, they can reach out to Kate if they have questions. 

    • Kate’s advice: make your product come to life, it needs to be physical in some way. Use materials like cardboard, play dough or whatever you need to make it real. 

    • The neat thing about Kickstarter is you can go on Google or the site itself to see previous successful campaigns and those that didn’t get off the ground. You’ll be able to see how their campaign was launched. This will give you inspiration and great ideas and what to avoid doing.

    • Favorite quote: “Destroy the idea that you have to be constantly working or grinding in order to be successful. Embrace the concept that rest, recovery and reflection are essential parts of the progress towards a successful and ultimately happy life.”Ask yourself, is there something I would like to make if I had the $?

Helpful references from the episode:

I will be launching an e-course on Kickstarter campaigns in conjunction with Braid Workshops, a Utah based group that helps women attain economic independence. It launches in October 2019.