How to Raise $100k on Kickstarter - Building in Public Day 151

Key Takeaways

all guys so today I'm going to teach you how to launch a successful Kickstarter campaign and raise up to 100K on your first campaign um that's what we did for far in away and I'll talk about the steps required to do so um I've had friends raise millions and but we were only able to hit like about 100K and I'm going to talk about that today and like the work that's required and amount of um Capital needed to launch something like this uh but yeah let's let's get into it um first off let's get on the creatine I'm today I'm just going to eat this rock uh ah all right let's go all right so yesterday we did about nearly $4,300 in total revenue Amazon at 2,000 Medan mavan at nearly $1,100 ffield cell Health at $17 and fan only fans at about $1,100 decent day um one thing to note is Amazon's number I reported it incorrectly the day yesterday should have been low lower but um because I reported so late in the day Amazon already updated so the number I reported yesterday should have been for today but it's fine um I don't think anyone's even listening to this anymore anyways uh right if you guys like me talking about stuff that's not just normally SEO like but like online businesses in general similar to launching your own Kickstarter um just comment Kickstarter for the YouTube algorithm and then just let me know that in the comment section below all right anyways the order Revenue yesterday 38.1k again um I should have reported 33k from the day before but [ __ ] it whatever it ain't a big deal anyways um levanta yesterday was only $55 day before was7 day before that was 111 so downward trajectory but you know we'll we'll be fine uh yeah let's talk about today today's episode um by the way today you're probably going to want to sign up for the first link in the description get all the details of a Kickstarter campaign all right so before we get started um why am I qualified talk about this um I I I linked far and ways Kickstarter project we raised about 64k on Kickstarter another like [Music] 26k on um like on upsells and total to about 90k EUR which is about 100K us um why is Kickstarter one of the greatest um launch like launch methods for a DDC brand is because you can quickly make sure you have product Market fit and you don't need much Capital to get started um like you don't need to have any mqs you just need a sample to get started and also um you get the cash up front and then you can take that cash as like starting capital to put in yours so for example um we didn't have to spend well we probably spent like 5 to 10 grand on our video and then just went to the factory shot a bunch of videos and then launched on that and we took the 100K as pretty much our seed capital and then put that into inventory and then the rest was history um farway is now seven figure annual business and it's doing well right so what exactly goes into a Kickstarter campaign I think a lot of people struggle with this especially people who've never done Ecom before but um people in the Ecom space they know that this is one of the best methods ever because let's say you raise I don't know like a million dollars you get that million dollars right cash in your pocket and there's no like cash conversion cycle CU you already know the amount of orders you need to fulfill you just take that probably put some into put some into inventory put some I don't know dividend it out and yeah it's just gravy you know what I mean um you don't have to hold any inventory it's almost like Drop Shipping because people are happy to wait for a Kickstarter prod product to come out so anyways um how do we start you always have to go to the factory work with them design a prototype it could be sketches mockups renders nowadays and then you with that you have to create a promotional video so do not skimp out on this do not be a cheap ass with the promo video because that's the hardest selling point treat it as like a vssl like a uh like a sales letter right and then what we did was you know we hired a Nat Geo award-winning videographer we went around Portugal we went into the factories we talked to the owners interviewed them included all of that in our Kickstarter um video and uh yeah pretty much we built the landing page as well let me show you guys so the video is here you guys can take a look I linked it in the description you know it's nice looking [ __ ] uh all this we got to create in house some Factory workers great um look at this beautiful shot we really like this one and then you just talk about like your sourcing um Journey right and like how it works oh we got all of this done on Fiverr these buttons on canva this was canva we shot this with our videographer these are just stills from our video and then we just show like them getting packed that's it it was like pretty simple relatively simple a lot of work went into this mostly because we had to build it ourselves um this is me my business partner Albert and yeah I think you you need like a pricing uh list and a timeline that's it build a landing page and then with the landing page you go out to agencies so we probably think oh why do I have to pay agencies they're charging like 20 30% of Revenue like how I could probably do it myself no you can't all right I and I thought this you can't launch it on your own agencies are required why is that because they have such aged pixels for the kickstarter audience so what that means is because they're a Kickstarter agency their pixel list pretty much is all Kickstarter buyers and the percentage of repeat buyers is super high on Kickstarter because they love the like they love supporting like up and cominging projects right um so just just go with an agency uh there are really good ones and there are really shitty ones so what I would do is I would go into to your Niche find out the most recent successful campaigns and then hire those agencies all right anyways after you hire an agency do a pre-launch with them spend a couple Grand on ads with them and then you build a list and you pitch the kickstarter um staff editorial staff for projects we love which means like you get like a little stamp on the side we didn't get it for this campaign it would be somewhere like here projects we love um and it's just like an artificial boost on your listing and that's it and after you get included or you don't it's fine on your launch date you launch hard with paid like first day you should be spending the by far the most money you so the spend should go like the highest on the first and last days and everything in between will be like a scale down right it'll be like a u-shape spend um and uh the reason why you want to launch hard is because the kickstarter algorithm really Pro promotes like projects that just launched so they rank them really high in like I don't know for example under the design category [ __ ] like this do you see like projects we love here and uh yeah you just get a huge boost and it's pretty much like Google it's like an Amazon ranking algo like the more sales you have the higher you rank on Kickstarter and the higher you rank the more sales you get so pretty much what you want to do is you want to try to break even on ad spend and then you get the organic purchases on Kickstarter that's the whole like play you're going for and yeah I I hope that was like a good enough quick rundown of how to raise 100K on Kickstarter um if you like episodes like this let me know in the comment section below and I'm going to answer some questions now H jacking for Rank and rent projects do you init initially set up the website citations and backlinks before seeking a client or do you find a client first um I would try to look for a client first um and then just work from there because you know selling is the hardest part when you try to use your exact strategy for hvk study do you think it'll work for a local marketing agency brand or is it too competitive it's pretty competitive I probably wouldn't do that what Niche would you target um I don't know your financial situation it's really hard to suggest a niche like I don't know your skill level as well so sorry hi Jackie when building a rank and rent do you necessarily need to have a business already in mind yeah so similar question I guess um there's there's a couple ways to do it you could build it first and then sell or sell it and then build it um I prefer uh selling and then building so for example if you guys have any clients in a niche that's willing to rent um let's work together I'll do it in public we can make money together and we can split the profits hey Jackie can you tell something about getting clients for Rank and rent do email work best yeah email is the best um phone call is the best if you have an American accent and you speak the in the same accent as the person you're selling to um gracing you Achieve Financial Freedom and retiring early thank you how do you approach adding a second GMB to a website with a GMB already um subdirectory so for example uh there's two sub couple suburbs in Vancouver there's downtown Vancouver and then there's bernabe so I would be index.com downtown Vancouver index.com Burnaby [ __ ] like that new SEO if it's still reasonable to build info or Niche products if I want to make 1 to 2K a month 1 2K a month is low enough that a rent couple ranking rents will get you there that's probably easier right now Jackie you don't have to lie to us we accept you regardless if you're 11t 4T 111 keep killing it thanks Zan thanks for the video much appreciated good luck with the Google spam update appreciate it um maybe it's not the type of human content maybe you're writing for SEO purposes not for your user point of view no it's do you think so I mean I could try that and let you know I'm down to test it wter says for ranking rent without GMB can you just use a fake address yeah you can yeah try that I read that you raise funds for Kickstarter yeah yeah yeah so um are you drop shipping or white labeling what is your supplier man manufacturer located China um watch today's episode give the K my Kickstarter a read um because asking where my manufacturer is located shows that you didn't even look at my landing page so give it a look and then ask some better questions and uh after today's episode but I did the episode for you today grov so you owe me at least one month in advise no that's the camera Ang go I think makes you look shorter on stream unlucky on the Google spam update thank you do redirect still work out um no how much are you charging for local business for physio East Vancouver it's a freebie for from my friend creatin with Seltzer for the algorithm thank you there's no way you could retire privacy defense says for real zero shot thanks I guess um all right that's all the time out for today guys I got to hit the gym D I got to hit the conference because I'm already late it started about 45 minutes ago but it's all right um that's it for today guys comment Kickstarter for the YouTube algorithm and I'll catch you guys later