5 ms·

From Zero To Kickstarter In $5k

80 points by j0ncc 13y ago

thirdtruck 13y ago
Thanks! I sent my own Kickstarter out for official review just last night (http://planetoz.net/kickstarter http://planetoz.net/kickstarter) but I'm going to give this a deep read as soon as I can. Also, who provided that character art in the animated example?
- marshallhaas 13y ago
  That was an illustrator from Mino Monsters. We filmed in their office.
  - thirdtruck 13y ago
    Thanks!
jqueryin 13y ago
I really like your discovery that "paying for a Facebook ad that links to another page on Facebook was much cheaper than linking to something off site." Very clever way to test your idea on the cheap.
NKCSS 13y ago
Fun to read :) I love these 'startup journey' pieces.
fmitchell0 13y ago
great insight into the process.
silverlight 13y ago
Just backed. I actually love this idea. I often jot things down on notebooks when planning an app or just need to work through something. I don't always need to refer back to it, but usually when I do it's a month or two down the road and I can never find it in my stack of notebooks. This will be great for that purpose, and I don't really need to keep the old notebooks anyway. Hope you get funded!
hlfshell 13y ago
While they do the syncing for you, I'd have good success with Whitelines. You can buy their notebooks off of Amazon, they have an Android and iOS app, and sync to Dropbox, Gmail, and Evernote pretty nicely. http://whitelines.se/ http://whitelines.se/ I still see the benefit in this, and wish them luck.
- robbfitzsimmons 13y ago
  +1 for Whitelines (though I've had a bit of crash trouble with their iOS app of late). Frankly, I don't think I'd love to have notes leave my physical possession, if are important enough to pay for scanning in the first place.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
sblawrie 13y ago
Neat story. Do you run the notebooks through some sort of OCR, like you mentioned in your Gchat conversation, or did you scrap that?
hfourm 13y ago
Could also consider an environmental approach recycling the old notebooks sent back in?
- marshallhaas 13y ago
  They are recycled :-)
dmyler 13y ago
The realization that a new notebook is on the way in a month would probably prompt me to write more, just to use up the notebook. That would be a great way to force me away from my little glowing screens for a little decompression time.
swedev 13y ago
Awesome idea, I hope you're able to bring it to other countries soon. I like to keep notes and drafts on paper every now and then but not enough to fill a full notebook a month. It would be great with an infrequent alternative where I receive 2 books and one return envelope in the first batch. When I'm done with the first one I return it and continue with the second book. And when you receive my book you'll scan it and send me a new notebook and return envelope and charge me for it. Basically the same as now but I can keep notes in my own pace.
DanBC 13y ago
> "we do some OCR shit so it's searchable" That's a great idea. I've seen the author's handwriting in the post and OCR may be trickier than they think. It seems like a neat idea, and I really like this insight into their KickStarter campaign. It feels gently wasteful; I don't think most people are going to do anything like 60 pages per month. I wonder what's going to happen to all the blank pages? (Perhaps this is just my perception though.) And notebooks sometimes contain historically important bits of information. I'm not sure how the future people will feel about having a scan of the notebook that someone used to design some important thing, versus having the actual notebook.
dsugarman 13y ago
i feel like people, especially designers, would want their originals. could you offer to send back the notebooks with the next package you send out?
- daok 13y ago
  It's written in their page FAQ that they cannot because they take off the spine of the notebook to scan.
  - euphemize 13y ago
    I agree with previous comment. I understand they need to take off the spine but I'd be ready to pay more even just for the unbound pages. Great idea!
pa5tabear 13y ago
I would instantly buy into this sort of thing for notetaking in university classes. Is there an option for three notebooks over three months, rather than one notebook each month?
megamark16 13y ago
From the FAQs: > "Can you send the notebook back to me after you've scanned it?" > Currently our scanning process isn't setup for this yet. Unfortunately our notebooks are cut on the spine as part of the scanning process, so we can’t send the physical copies back. We will send you the digital copies which you can keep forever though! Returning your physical notebook after scanning is something we're looking into adding in the future. " So, some folks would pay more to have you rebind their notebooks using spiral binding or something, even the cheap plastic binding that school teachers use to turn kids writings into little books.
- nknighthb 13y ago
  Even absent rebinding, I'm at a loss as to why the loose pages can't simply be sent back in an envelope. The loss of the spine is unfortunate, but it doesn't necessarily render the originals useless. (And I can imagine cases where it might even be preferable.)
  - jdash 13y ago
    My understanding from a different question I asked on KS is that it's because their scanning partner is setup for scanning business documents and the process builds in proper disposal of the papers afterword (which if you don't want your papers back is a good thing, I wouldn't want my private thoughts floating around for anyone there to read).
- arjie 13y ago
  One dollar scan will send it back for twenty bucks more. I suppose a similar cost is why these guys chose not to do that.
pseudometa 13y ago
This is great user experience thinking... "We also made them the exact size of the iPad mini, as a lot of people will probably be carrying these things together anyway."
- lesinski 13y ago
  Hm... I like that tactic because Apple probably tested tablet sizes like crazy, so they can expect their size to be comfortable. Why does it matter what people will be carrying it with and how many of their notebook-loving customers really have iPad minis?
- jseliger 13y ago
  I asked if they can make notebooks the size of a normal Moleskine (3.5 x 5.5") or, even better, A7 sized (about 2.7" x 4.2"). Unfortunately, they said that they'll "probably eventually expand to more size options if this goes well," which implies that a smaller size isn't on the table at the moment. Nonetheless I think it's a cool idea and "backed" the project.
xsace 13y ago
So if you want to succeed your crowdfunding campaign you have to basically spend money first. I mean, this whole post is about how they happilly spend $5k to get in a position where they can raise money.. So what's next? Crowdfunding the kickstarter campaign?
- MPetitt 13y ago
  Russian nesting campaigns.
- AJ007 13y ago
  Its a positive thing that someone publishing a crowdfunding project has a personal stake in it. If they spend money great, if they have a working prototype or have an existing business even better.
- lesinski 13y ago
  Ha! Great point. One perspective might be that you'll get more bang out of your Kickstarter if you show the backers that you've done some work first. I'm more likely to contribute when I see prototypes than vague ideas.
- egypturnash 13y ago
  This is nothing new. I do comics and publish them through Kickstarter; my working method is 1. spend a year drawing a graphic novel 2. do a Kickstarter campaign 3. profit? I've spent money on hosting, and hundreds of hours of my time drawing. I've also looked at a bunch of failed Kickstarter campaigns; one thing common to a lot of them is that most of them show no proof of having done any work beforehand beyond making the video. You can only pull a Double Fine on Kickstarter if you have the reputation and fanbase of a Tim Schafer. If you're just Some Gal, then yeah - do some work, get your thing to the stage where everything is set up for you to tell your remote factory how many copies of your thing you want made, THEN launch the campaign.
  - surfaceTensi0n 13y ago
    It may not work for graphic novel length works, but have you looked into patreon[0] at all? For comics (or any recurring works) it seems like it might be a better business model than repeated KicksStarter campaigns. [0] - http://www.patreon.com/ http://www.patreon.com/
delinka 13y ago
Didn't Evernote and Moleskine team up to do exactly this? How does Draft compare to the E&M offering? How does Draft expect to compete with E&M?
- neiled 13y ago
  Kind of, with the moleskine partnership it's still up to you to take the photos yourself.
jdash 13y ago
My issue on this one, and I emailed them a question about it on KS, is the privacy issues I see here. Before I'm going to trust sending a notebook full of private thoughts or business related content to an unknown company I need a pretty ironclad guarantee that the content is going to be handled appropriately. I love the thought of being able to refer back to my content digitally over time, but I don't dig the thought of some stranger getting their hands on my personal thoughts and being able to blackmail me with it down the road. They said that their scanning partner is built with security/privacy in mind, but I need details before I'd just stick a private notebook in an envelope and mail it to some strangers, never to be seen again.
- pkfrank 13y ago
  I don't think this product is really tailored to a privacy-conscious consumer. Even if they're safely disposing (recycling) the books, uploading them in an encrypted manner, etc., you're still losing control of your "private thoughts." I see it as more fitting for sketches, random thoughts, (non-crazy-private) journals, etc.
egypturnash 13y ago
I love the idea but nnnngh, some of the screenshots of the scanned results from light pencil sketches? There's a lot of data being lost there.
j_s 13y ago
An online course in preparation for future Kickstarters: https://www.udemy.com/reaching-your-kickstarter-goals https://www.udemy.com/reaching-your-kickstarter-goals (free preview) https://www.udemy.com/surpassing-your-kickstarter-goals https://www.udemy.com/surpassing-your-kickstarter-goals ($29 course) I backed one of the instructor's early projects; right now he's doing a GPS tracker. Take a look to verify his credibility: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/richardhaberkern/gps-cookie-leaving-crumbs-wherever-it-goes http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/richardhaberkern/gps-coo...
SteveLivesInSLO 13y ago
LiveScribe: A pen that writes on paper and saves a digital copy of everything. Also, records audio. You touch your pen to your writing and it will play back the audio that was occurring at the moment you were writing that word. You can use the digital copy of your writing in OneNote or EverNote and it can read your handwriting allowing you to search.
- mcmire 13y ago
  I was going to say... this already exists...

80 points by j0ncc 13y ago

Thanks! I sent my own Kickstarter out for official review just last night (http://planetoz.net/kickstarter http://planetoz.net/kickstarter) but I'm going to give this a deep read as soon as I can. Also, who provided that character art in the animated example?

marshallhaas 13y ago
That was an illustrator from Mino Monsters. We filmed in their office.
- thirdtruck 13y ago
  Thanks!

jqueryin 13y ago

I really like your discovery that "paying for a Facebook ad that links to another page on Facebook was much cheaper than linking to something off site." Very clever way to test your idea on the cheap.

NKCSS 13y ago

Fun to read :) I love these 'startup journey' pieces.

fmitchell0 13y ago

great insight into the process.

silverlight 13y ago

Just backed. I actually love this idea. I often jot things down on notebooks when planning an app or just need to work through something. I don't always need to refer back to it, but usually when I do it's a month or two down the road and I can never find it in my stack of notebooks. This will be great for that purpose, and I don't really need to keep the old notebooks anyway. Hope you get funded!

hlfshell 13y ago

While they do the syncing for you, I'd have good success with Whitelines. You can buy their notebooks off of Amazon, they have an Android and iOS app, and sync to Dropbox, Gmail, and Evernote pretty nicely. http://whitelines.se/ http://whitelines.se/ I still see the benefit in this, and wish them luck.

robbfitzsimmons 13y ago
+1 for Whitelines (though I've had a bit of crash trouble with their iOS app of late). Frankly, I don't think I'd love to have notes leave my physical possession, if are important enough to pay for scanning in the first place.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

sblawrie 13y ago

Neat story. Do you run the notebooks through some sort of OCR, like you mentioned in your Gchat conversation, or did you scrap that?

hfourm 13y ago

Could also consider an environmental approach recycling the old notebooks sent back in?

marshallhaas 13y ago
They are recycled :-)

dmyler 13y ago

The realization that a new notebook is on the way in a month would probably prompt me to write more, just to use up the notebook. That would be a great way to force me away from my little glowing screens for a little decompression time.

swedev 13y ago

Awesome idea, I hope you're able to bring it to other countries soon. I like to keep notes and drafts on paper every now and then but not enough to fill a full notebook a month. It would be great with an infrequent alternative where I receive 2 books and one return envelope in the first batch. When I'm done with the first one I return it and continue with the second book. And when you receive my book you'll scan it and send me a new notebook and return envelope and charge me for it. Basically the same as now but I can keep notes in my own pace.

DanBC 13y ago

> "we do some OCR shit so it's searchable" That's a great idea. I've seen the author's handwriting in the post and OCR may be trickier than they think. It seems like a neat idea, and I really like this insight into their KickStarter campaign. It feels gently wasteful; I don't think most people are going to do anything like 60 pages per month. I wonder what's going to happen to all the blank pages? (Perhaps this is just my perception though.) And notebooks sometimes contain historically important bits of information. I'm not sure how the future people will feel about having a scan of the notebook that someone used to design some important thing, versus having the actual notebook.

dsugarman 13y ago

i feel like people, especially designers, would want their originals. could you offer to send back the notebooks with the next package you send out?

daok 13y ago
It's written in their page FAQ that they cannot because they take off the spine of the notebook to scan.
- euphemize 13y ago
  I agree with previous comment. I understand they need to take off the spine but I'd be ready to pay more even just for the unbound pages. Great idea!

pa5tabear 13y ago

I would instantly buy into this sort of thing for notetaking in university classes. Is there an option for three notebooks over three months, rather than one notebook each month?

megamark16 13y ago

From the FAQs: > "Can you send the notebook back to me after you've scanned it?" > Currently our scanning process isn't setup for this yet. Unfortunately our notebooks are cut on the spine as part of the scanning process, so we can’t send the physical copies back. We will send you the digital copies which you can keep forever though! Returning your physical notebook after scanning is something we're looking into adding in the future. " So, some folks would pay more to have you rebind their notebooks using spiral binding or something, even the cheap plastic binding that school teachers use to turn kids writings into little books.

nknighthb 13y ago
Even absent rebinding, I'm at a loss as to why the loose pages can't simply be sent back in an envelope. The loss of the spine is unfortunate, but it doesn't necessarily render the originals useless. (And I can imagine cases where it might even be preferable.)
- jdash 13y ago
  My understanding from a different question I asked on KS is that it's because their scanning partner is setup for scanning business documents and the process builds in proper disposal of the papers afterword (which if you don't want your papers back is a good thing, I wouldn't want my private thoughts floating around for anyone there to read).
arjie 13y ago
One dollar scan will send it back for twenty bucks more. I suppose a similar cost is why these guys chose not to do that.

pseudometa 13y ago

This is great user experience thinking... "We also made them the exact size of the iPad mini, as a lot of people will probably be carrying these things together anyway."

lesinski 13y ago
Hm... I like that tactic because Apple probably tested tablet sizes like crazy, so they can expect their size to be comfortable. Why does it matter what people will be carrying it with and how many of their notebook-loving customers really have iPad minis?
jseliger 13y ago
I asked if they can make notebooks the size of a normal Moleskine (3.5 x 5.5") or, even better, A7 sized (about 2.7" x 4.2"). Unfortunately, they said that they'll "probably eventually expand to more size options if this goes well," which implies that a smaller size isn't on the table at the moment. Nonetheless I think it's a cool idea and "backed" the project.

xsace 13y ago

So if you want to succeed your crowdfunding campaign you have to basically spend money first. I mean, this whole post is about how they happilly spend $5k to get in a position where they can raise money.. So what's next? Crowdfunding the kickstarter campaign?

MPetitt 13y ago
Russian nesting campaigns.
AJ007 13y ago
Its a positive thing that someone publishing a crowdfunding project has a personal stake in it. If they spend money great, if they have a working prototype or have an existing business even better.
lesinski 13y ago
Ha! Great point. One perspective might be that you'll get more bang out of your Kickstarter if you show the backers that you've done some work first. I'm more likely to contribute when I see prototypes than vague ideas.
egypturnash 13y ago
This is nothing new. I do comics and publish them through Kickstarter; my working method is 1. spend a year drawing a graphic novel 2. do a Kickstarter campaign 3. profit? I've spent money on hosting, and hundreds of hours of my time drawing. I've also looked at a bunch of failed Kickstarter campaigns; one thing common to a lot of them is that most of them show no proof of having done any work beforehand beyond making the video. You can only pull a Double Fine on Kickstarter if you have the reputation and fanbase of a Tim Schafer. If you're just Some Gal, then yeah - do some work, get your thing to the stage where everything is set up for you to tell your remote factory how many copies of your thing you want made, THEN launch the campaign.
- surfaceTensi0n 13y ago
  It may not work for graphic novel length works, but have you looked into patreon[0] at all? For comics (or any recurring works) it seems like it might be a better business model than repeated KicksStarter campaigns. [0] - http://www.patreon.com/ http://www.patreon.com/

delinka 13y ago

Didn't Evernote and Moleskine team up to do exactly this? How does Draft compare to the E&M offering? How does Draft expect to compete with E&M?

neiled 13y ago
Kind of, with the moleskine partnership it's still up to you to take the photos yourself.

jdash 13y ago

My issue on this one, and I emailed them a question about it on KS, is the privacy issues I see here. Before I'm going to trust sending a notebook full of private thoughts or business related content to an unknown company I need a pretty ironclad guarantee that the content is going to be handled appropriately. I love the thought of being able to refer back to my content digitally over time, but I don't dig the thought of some stranger getting their hands on my personal thoughts and being able to blackmail me with it down the road. They said that their scanning partner is built with security/privacy in mind, but I need details before I'd just stick a private notebook in an envelope and mail it to some strangers, never to be seen again.

pkfrank 13y ago
I don't think this product is really tailored to a privacy-conscious consumer. Even if they're safely disposing (recycling) the books, uploading them in an encrypted manner, etc., you're still losing control of your "private thoughts." I see it as more fitting for sketches, random thoughts, (non-crazy-private) journals, etc.

egypturnash 13y ago

I love the idea but nnnngh, some of the screenshots of the scanned results from light pencil sketches? There's a lot of data being lost there.

j_s 13y ago

An online course in preparation for future Kickstarters: https://www.udemy.com/reaching-your-kickstarter-goals https://www.udemy.com/reaching-your-kickstarter-goals (free preview) https://www.udemy.com/surpassing-your-kickstarter-goals https://www.udemy.com/surpassing-your-kickstarter-goals ($29 course) I backed one of the instructor's early projects; right now he's doing a GPS tracker. Take a look to verify his credibility: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/richardhaberkern/gps-cookie-leaving-crumbs-wherever-it-goes http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/richardhaberkern/gps-coo...

SteveLivesInSLO 13y ago

LiveScribe: A pen that writes on paper and saves a digital copy of everything. Also, records audio. You touch your pen to your writing and it will play back the audio that was occurring at the moment you were writing that word. You can use the digital copy of your writing in OneNote or EverNote and it can read your handwriting allowing you to search.

mcmire 13y ago
I was going to say... this already exists...