KickstarterForum.org

Hello!

I am a creative technologist and I have developed a new kind of crafts-puzzle-DIY-kit. I hand-made and sold them in local design and crafts markets for 8-9 months and people actually liked (and purchased!) them.

• Things I did well: talking to people, getting feedback, improving the product with the feedback that I got
• Things that I did not well: keep a mailing list of people interested in the product

So, to get funds to scale production, I have been preparing a kickstarter campaign for a few weeks already to launch on October. I am ready for hard work promoting it, but I feel like I start from less than scratch...

So I have been thinking about a strategy and I would like to hear your opinion on it:

• I make a "raw" kickstarter "Alpha Campaign" before the "Real Campaign" only using my means and with no ads investment
• In the Alpha campaign, I only want to get funds to craft 50 - 100 units = $2,500 - $5,000

My objectives are:

• I'll have already a campaign under my belt ("backers like that, right?")
• To get a list of e-mails of people interested in the product (useful to generate a similar audience for Facebook Ads and useful to launch the second campaign)
  
• Analytics of the product online performance or "virality" factor

... and in October-November, I would launch the "Real Campaign" aimed to get actual funds to scale production, actually investing in video production, photos, ads, ...

What do you think of this strategy? How wrong am I? Can you tell me reasons to not to do it?

Thanks!

Marc