KickstarterForum.org

[ToyRocketStudios]

Good evening everyone, I wanted to start out my post with how my Kickstarter came to be, I realize it is on my page... but I wanted to share it personally with the community.

My business partner Mike began creating ornate paper snowflakes in 2004, nearly 10 years later he approached me with an idea. He was inspired the stickers used to help people carve pumpkins. He wanted to create a product that would help people to easily create beautiful paper snowflakes. I honestly thought he was joking at first, but he cut out an amazing snowflake with snowmen and ice crystals, free-handed, right in the middle of the big-box-retailer where we worked.

We met after work to discuss ideas, and settled on a die-cut craft book and then spent weeks researching other paper snowflake books on the market, making sure that ours could be unique and new (I even bought some of the potential competition on Amazon!)

Mike and I spent 9 months working around full-time jobs (my freelance clients) and spending time with our growing families. We both welcomed daughters into our families in the middle of SNO's development! In spring of 2014 we officially launched our company, Toy Rocket Studios.

We developed each "snoflake" by drawing a sketch or even just folding and cutting. Next we drew multiple versions on a template that I developed, and refined each design from there. Between the two of us, Mike and I cut out literally hundreds of variations. We made sure that each one was balanced, and that the designs were not merely just themed, but the interior "felt" like a snowflake as well as reflected the exterior designs.

While Mike handled the majority of creating the snowflakes (my skills pale in comparison), I created the die-cut page idea and managed the design aspects of the books: typography, color and fonts, as well as digitized the snoflakes. Having launched a Kickstarter Campaign in the past (Super Mario Go Fish! as 8BitAurum), which was shut down by a kind lawyer on behalf of Nintendo, I had a pretty good handle on how work generate a Kickstarter campaign.

We spent nearly 40 hours over 4 days shooting the video, the night shots had to be filmed from 10pm to 2am; currently it does not get dark in Ohio until around 10pm! We spent an entire day syncing the music and cutting the video, only to realize that a pesky Macy's bag was in the background of one of our shots. The next day we re-filmed the scene and re-synced the video to our music track.

Mike and I believed so much in our project that we have invested nearly $5,000 into the project to date: forming an LLC, registering for a patent on our process, printing prototypes, buying web domains and hosting and of course all of the physical media used to create our designs.

Finally it was launch time; we submitted everything through Kickstarter and eagerly awaited for 4 long days until approval. Then launch. I had read what I thought was everything I needed to know about promoting a campaign: I had created twitter and Facebook 30 days prior to launch and teased the project for 1 week leading up. I sent out a passive letter to all of my 90 FB friends, Mike to his 150.

To date we have raised 5% of our goal, all from Facebook. Funding has slowed (with 26 days) remaining in our campaign and we are beginning to get anxious. I have spent the last few days combing the internet for ideas on how to generate support and found this blog which directed me to the really helpful article on CrowdCrux. I also came across several blogs for improving your page. Thanks you to everyone for this great resource!

[ToyRocketStudios]

It has been several days since launch and as I said in my main post; I am beginning to get anxious about our project. I wanted to reach out to the community for any feedback you can give on my project (or maybe some support/publicity ) Thank you to everyone in advance who takes the time to provide a constructive critique our project with the points below; or with any I may have missed. I look forward to hearing back from you!

1. Any feedback on our video would be great; does it tell the story and keep your interest well? If it were yours what would you change?

2. Is the Kickstarter page clear and interesting to look at? Should there be more visuals about the products/tiers with pictures showing what comes with which? Are there any questions about the books that I have not answered on the page

3. Are there too many variants in the pledge levels? Are their names clear? Are they reasonable in price? (keep in mind they do include free shipping within the US)

4. What about the products we are offering? Do you like the idea of two books; a full and sample, or should we have focused on just one?

5. What are your thoughts about the mission patch add-on?

6. What are your thoughts on the SNO Paper add-on?

7. Is it too far from the holidays for people to care about this project?

[sbriggman]

I'll help start this off.

"Any feedback on our video would be great; does it tell the story and keep your interest well? If it were yours what would you change"

I actually really like the video. If I were you though, I would just focus on the Sno booklet, not the miniature one. It will cut your costs and I'm not sure I see the appeal of the smaller booklet (just my thoughts).

So - I can see value in this product as a gift/getting it for your kid. I can also see it retailing well around holiday time either at a bookstore (by checkout) or arts and craft store. When do you think you would be able to produce the rewards by or how long would it take you to make the books assuming you receive funds.

[ToyRocketStudios]

Thank you for the reply!

The idea behind the smaller booklet was to give people a "stocking stuffer" model, where they could try the idea before buying the full book. I agree though, we could cut the cost of the Kickstarter down by removing the smaller book (and the mission patch).

We should be able to produce the rewards (especially if it is solely the large book) within a month of receiving funds, the plan is to relaunch in October if unsuccessful this time around- I wondered if we were launching too early in the year.