We just cancelled funding for our Kickstarter campaign for Vuact Action Capture. The campaign didn’t take of despite pre-gauged interest from potential consumers and industry influencers. What did we learn, and what can you learn from us?
1. Whatever happens, you’ll save time
It’s a good thing to fail at Kickstarter if you’ve created a campaign to test the market. We spent time in testing the viability of the idea and in building a quick prototype, mostly in code and with off-the-shelf parts. Shooting a video and creating the marketing material took some time, too. In total, approximately two man-weeks over two months. Not a terrible investment for valuable information. Of course the core technology behind Vuact has been in development for a longer time and we greatly benefited from that.
2. Keep it simple
Action Capture failed at least at this. We had the combination of an app (Android first, iOS maybe), optional heart rate sensor strap and optional phone mounts for bikes. To add complexity, we even mentioned uploading privileges from the app limited to a certain number of videos (to our own cloud – but that was rather obtuse if you didn’t even get your head around the value proposition). The complexity also drove up the goal of the campaign, but we were so far behind by the time funding was cancelled, speculating on its effect is moot.
3. Have a clear audience
Related to the above. Our problem was that we were sort of wooing the biking audience, but with a quantified self angle, while keeping the door open towards car drivers and skiiers… you see the problem. Any message gets lost if you try to talk to multiple audiences at the same time.
4. Do not launch without media support / promotion
You might think “well, I’ll just try my luck even if I don’t get any press.” Unless you have an amazing and simple product or a heartbreaking story, you probably won’t make it. Postpone the campaign until you secure promotional partners, media support or an influencer who can get the word out. And of course the product or project should be amazing and simple anyway. We had lukewarm interest from a few large or very targeted media who we wanted to launch with, but none of those went through in the end.
5. Don’t buy the snake oil
You will get contacted by various companies and consultants offering PR help, press release distribution, and exposure to an interested audience. Don’t pay them. We used Backershub, GadgetFlow and one other service. They were all worthless in proportion. They likely work better if you fix parts 2-3 above, but it is highly unlikely they would turn the tide for you.
6. Treat it like a channel, not a marketplace
While KS and other crwodfunding marketplaces will give you some organic traffic and traction, you should not rely on it at all. There are tons of project vying for attention. This is like launching a product by submitting your website to Google. You haven’t even started your marketing. We didn’t limit our marketing to KS of course, but seeing the campaign in action was a good reminder of this.
7. Getting a campaign through may not be the only positive outcome
We would have loved to see the campaign succeed. Even while it failed, we’ve been approached by interesting potential partners and customers. The added exposure can be critical even when a value prop is still taking shape. The campaign was just one learning cycle.
For now Vuact continues to be offered in its web-based, audience-driven player, which helps you mark, find and share content inside of videos. You can create a free account here, or see the pricing for private and custom use cases here.