KickstarterForum.org

This is a question as well as a discussion. I'd love to have feedback on this as I haven't used them myself but from what I have read this is a scenario on how I understand they operate cost wise and hence why all that glitters is not gold..

So Funded Today is it worth it?
yes and NO..

Ok so I’m a kickstarter campaign. I have my product Acme A

Acme A sells for $20 plus $2 shipping there's only one reward level and this is it.

Acme A costs me $5 to make plus packaging and shipping costs me $2


So my target is $10,000 and I’m two weeks into my campaign and I’ve raised $7500..not bad..

Funded today are employed to help reach my target and they do really well I mean really well and raise $100,000

Wow I’m happy I am really made up and I can now turn Acme A into a business with lots of capital behind me…

Well let’s just look a bit closer…

Kickstarter remove 10% of this total = $10,000

Funded Today take $3,500 plus I understand 35% of the total raised.
35% of 100,000 = $35,000

So how many Acme A products did I sell?
$100,000 /$ 20 = 5000 sales of Acme A

So 5000 items at $5 each that’s a cost of $25000

5000 sales means I have $10,000 in shipping costs.

So lets just tot this all up..

$10,000 Kickstarter fees
+ $3,500 Funded today fee
+ $35,000 Funded today commission
+ $25,000 Production cost
+ $10,000 Shipping costs

Total $83,500

Sales less costs = $16,500 (100,000 - 83,500)

So out of the $100,000 I’m left with 16.5% and of that $16,500 I’d already raised half of it…
In addition to which I have 5000 products to move for the extra $9000 instead of moving 825 products it’s the equivalent of (825 *$20 = $16,500)…

Now if my cost of Production were higher..
If my cost of production were 25% higher at $6.30 each Acme A product, then I would have just made the campaign total less all costs.. That would be a lot of work for nothing!

So when you see the headline figures it doesn’t always translate to the bottom line as increased value to you as a creator.


Am I right or wrong and what's your view, do you have actual experience of this company?
Sorry for the blonde moment with the incorrect name..

Nice set of calculations!

So you make say around 10% back if you use Funded Today and raise $100k, could be more or less depending on the costs.

- Doesn't seem like much ;/

No it isn't apart from bragging rights and some marketing?
But these are my calculations based on a hypothetical situation (It could easily cost someone more than they gain) from information I have gleaned from various posts etc on the internet.
Has anyone some experiences to share?

I have had the misfortune to work with both Funded Today and Command Partners. Funded Today required a 5k up front fee and a 35% campaign fee if successfully funded. However, I signed first with Command Partners because Funded Today was unwilling to negotiate on the %. Now that being said CP required a 10k fee plus 5k for advertising. I was pretty desperate and bought into the bag of goods. Now I'm out the 10k because they failed to deliver. What they did for 10k included creating professional photos, creating a basic landing page, and posting a few times a week to my Facebook and Twitter accounts. They also sent out a press release which did nothing for my campaign. They failed miserably at advertising. They weren't willing to even discuss how horrible the campaign was going. I couldn't get them on the phone. Needless to say my campaign failed. I ended up relaunching and signing with Funded Today. Now I had to pay 4K for advertising for a one week trial period. Another 4K gone and trial is over. They were able to get me one pledge for $32. That's what I paid 4K for. What a complete and utter waist of money. A lot of money!

My campaign is still running at: http://bit.ly/EPPFT

Thanks for the feedback confirming some costs.
Sorry you haven't had much luck.

This goes off topic now which I'd rather the thread doesn't diverge off too much. BUT..
I have to say and it may seem a little blunt.. But if you had spent the money on your project that you have spent on these marketing companies you wouldn't have needed to raise the $18k you are looking for.. with the amount you have raised you would have had the money your goal is.

$18k goal.

Spent $10k + $4k
Raised ~$3k

That's $17k near enough the money you required. Why would someone have faith backing you if those figures are correct you need only have raised $4k as a goal...?

Okay that's a fair assessment. However, going into this I needed to raise a lot more than 18k. The real figure is over 35k in order to reduce the overall cost to produce. If my project gets funded at just 18k I'm going to lose A LOT OF MONEY. I'm pretty much going to lose my @$$ on this. Which makes me question my own sanity each and every single day.

My product is made in the U.S. and most of the materials used to create the product are also made in the U.S. If you want to produce in the U.S. your going to pay a lot more.

In order for me to recoup the costs, I have to make well over the projections. Now what the marketing companies like Funded Today and Command Partners will tell you is that you have to set your project goal much lower. They talk their clients into a much lower number because once the project is funded they are hoping that it gains visibility/support and more people will get behind the project and back it.

Now it's a playing the odds game. That's what I have learned. I really thought I was buying services from people that knew exactly how to get me to my stretch goal. So I thought paying the 10k was worth it. Believe me I didn't hand over 10k without tremendous hesitation. I have thought about contacting an attorney to try to get some of the $$ back. They only worked on my 1st campaign for 14 days. I don't know if it is even worth it. I am only posting this here for other people. Buyer Beware. No one is going to care about your company or your product as much as you do.

It took me well over a year to perfect my prototype, line up sourcing, manufacturing, and fulfillment services. File for a patent and try to develop my brand. For everyone out there that has ever gone down this road it is fraught with every hurdle you could possibly imagine. I was super excited when my first batch from the factory arrived and when my patent was finally filed. All milestones for sure and for the most part I did this by myself with no guidance from anyone.

Now when it comes to marketing I knew I needed help I just wasn't sure who I could trust. Perhaps it is more timing than anything. They say you have to have a good product but timing is everything for launching a new product. December might not be the optimal time to launch an outdoors product.

racgarcia1 wrote:No one is going to care about your company or your product as much as you do.

Nearly always true. We're all only human.

racgarcia1 wrote:Perhaps it is more timing than anything. They say you have to have a good product but timing is everything for launching a new product. December might not be the optimal time to launch an outdoors product.

Quite possible. Coolest Cooler was a flop when it initially launched in the wintertime. When it re-launched at the beginning of summer, it was a hit---in fact, it became one of Kickstarter's most-funded projects ever. Seasonality can be a big factor in some products.

I don't want to needlessly offend anyone, but one of the secrets to marketing is that it's not magical, and that a LOT depends on the product.

There's an old marketing joke about a dog food company executive who is wondering why, with the best ads and slickest packaging, et cetera, his dog food is still not selling well, to which one brave person responds that... the d*** dogs just don't like it. Humor often conveys truth.

Put another way... If your product is a figurative Edsel, then you can design the best showroom that money can buy (and staff it well), and hire the best marketing gurus in the business to bring the right people to visit it, but it'll still ultimately fail to catch on, which doesn't necessarily mean that the salesmanship wasn't top-notch. But, if you have a figurative Mustang, then it'll tend to sell itself, and skilled presentation and/or promotion will only enhance that fact. Entrepreneurs almost always believe that they've developed a figurative Mustang, or else they won't devote so much time to bringing it to market---but, once it's finally out there, the market doesn't always agree, and (again) it's not necessarily the marketers' fault. Marketers are hired to do a job, and they (hopefully) do it as best as they can, but they're not magicians and they can't change the fundamental nature of what customers and/or products/services are. Hopefully, entrepreneurs don't spend too much money on marketing before they realize that their Mustang is actually an Edsel, learn from their experience, and then return to the figurative drawing board to try anew---and, hopefully, build the best "car" ever next time. And, by the way, please don't ever give up on a dream except to the extent that you find yourself on the wrong track---persistence is one of the main keys to ultimate success.

Funded Today has a reputation among many for being the best in the business for the last few years, and I personally believe that this reputation is well-earned. Even if it doesn't work miracles for every single project that it's hired to market. That's just my figurative two-cents' worth, for whatever it may actually be worth.

Wow thanks for the heads up on this. I haven't been able to afford them on any campaigns yet, but it's good to know that the community is looking out for me.

Can I use this breakdown on my Crowdfunding Agency page? It's still a work in progress, but I think it's pretty useful so far:

https://www.hyperstarter.com/crowdfunding-agency

RFIDsecur wrote:This is a question as well as a discussion. I'd love to have feedback on this as I haven't used them myself but from what I have read this is a scenario on how I understand they operate cost wise and hence why all that glitters is not gold..

So Funded Today is it worth it?
yes and NO..

Ok so I’m a kickstarter campaign. I have my product Acme A

Acme A sells for $20 plus $2 shipping there's only one reward level and this is it.

Acme A costs me $5 to make plus packaging and shipping costs me $2


So my target is $10,000 and I’m two weeks into my campaign and I’ve raised $7500..not bad..

Funded today are employed to help reach my target and they do really well I mean really well and raise $100,000

Wow I’m happy I am really made up and I can now turn Acme A into a business with lots of capital behind me…

Well let’s just look a bit closer…

Kickstarter remove 10% of this total = $10,000

Funded Today take $3,500 plus I understand 35% of the total raised.
35% of 100,000 = $35,000

So how many Acme A products did I sell?
$100,000 /$ 20 = 5000 sales of Acme A

So 5000 items at $5 each that’s a cost of $25000

5000 sales means I have $10,000 in shipping costs.

So lets just tot this all up..

$10,000 Kickstarter fees
+ $3,500 Funded today fee
+ $35,000 Funded today commission
+ $25,000 Production cost
+ $10,000 Shipping costs

Total $83,500

Sales less costs = $16,500 (100,000 - 83,500)

So out of the $100,000 I’m left with 16.5% and of that $16,500 I’d already raised half of it…
In addition to which I have 5000 products to move for the extra $9000 instead of moving 825 products it’s the equivalent of (825 *$20 = $16,500)…

Now if my cost of Production were higher..
If my cost of production were 25% higher at $6.30 each Acme A product, then I would have just made the campaign total less all costs.. That would be a lot of work for nothing!

So when you see the headline figures it doesn’t always translate to the bottom line as increased value to you as a creator.


Am I right or wrong and what's your view, do you have actual experience of this company?
Sorry for the blonde moment with the incorrect name..