Description

Sean talks about launching his product, EmotiBit, on Kickstarter. EmotiBit is a wearable biometric sensor used for research, engineering, and maker projects.

Julio discusses what types of products do well in crowdfunding campaigns. For the most part, business-to-consumer, physical products with a price range of $50-$300 do the best.

Shawn asks if crowdfunding should be seen as a way to fund research and development or more of a pre-order system. Sean mentions that he is using Kickstarter to reach a funding goal in order to meet minimum quantity orders for manufacturing. However, Julio talks about how many companies in recent years are using crowdfunding as a launch campaign to sell pre-orders. In addition, he mentions that using it to fund research or development (without a manufacturing plan) does not generally work well.

Julio talks about how small companies should build a community long before launching a crowdfunding campaign, which can involve publicly sharing the project or product being worked on.

Harris sums up how well Sean has learned from and worked within the biometrics community. He mentions that it often takes years of learning and community building to create a successful product and business.

Shawn and Julio provide an overview of the major crowdfunding platforms:

Kickstarter - Consumer electronics, software, board games
Indiegogo - Fashion, film
CrowdSupply - Electronics (dev boards, etc.)
GroupGets - Electronics (dev boards, etc.)

Sponsor

We want to thank Twilio for sponsoring this episode! Twilio is a cloud platform that helps developers automate phone calls, text messages, and other communications through their web API. Check out twilio.com/go/helloblink for more information about using Twilio for automated messaging and IOT applications.

List of Resources

Website - Launch Studio

Website - EmotiBit

Kickstarter Campaign - EmotiBit

Guest Information

Julio helped build the Design and Technology Community Outreach team at Kickstarter. For several years, he led Kickstarter's efforts to search the globe for designers and entrepreneurs working on innovative and noteworthy products and help those creators successfully launch their creations. While at Kickstarter, Julio worked with hundreds of creators and developed a deep understanding of the crowdfunding ecosystem. Currently, Julio serves as the CEO of Launch Studio.

Sean is the founder of EmotiBit, a wearable bio-metric sensor platform to democratize sensing signals from the body. After finishing his Ph.D. in Neuroscience, Sean created Connected Future Labs, an agile R&D engineering group utilizing research methodologies combined with emerging technology to create 21st century solutions.

Guest Contact Information

Launch Studio

EmotiBit

LinkedIn - Julio Terra

LinkedIn - Sean Montgomery

Twitter - EmotiBit

Instagram - EmotiBit

Host Contact Information

shawnhymel.com

kennyconsultinggroup.com

LinkedIn - Shawn Hymel

LinkedIn - Harris Kenny

Twitter - Shawn Hymel

Twitter - Harris Kenny

License Information

“Hello Blink Show” by Kenny Consulting Group, LLC and Skal Risa, LLC is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Intro and outro song is “Routine” by Amine Maxwell is licensed under CC BY 3.0

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