I think you may want to pull down the current IndieGogo campaign, and restart it under a different name. You'll likely need a couple weeks to properly prepare a better marketing presentation anyway. If you do go this route, make sure you capture your current list of funders, so you can jump start the new campaign with a bang.
A couple things you may want to consider:
- If you hit 25% of your funding in the first week, you are 5x more likely to get funding. So get all your friends and family involved *before* you even launch the campaign. Show them a mockup of your campaign page and ask them for feedback. How could you improve your pitch in a way that would make them consider donating? Maybe line up a few verbal commitments to support the campaign when it goes live. If you make a lot of progress in that first week, you may be able to hit the front page on IndieGogo and gain a lot more visibility. You've essentially already done most of this with your current campaign - just write it off as a dress rehearsal.
- If you have 4 or more people on your team, you'll raise 70% more funding than if you have one person. That team doesn't necessarily have to be the people doing the *research* - it's the team that helps you run the crowdfunding campaign. They can help you do all the necessary marketing legwork before the campaign goes live, use their own social networks to spread the word, talk to press and bloggers, answer questions, figure out the best way to send out rewards, etc. Maybe some of the people here on the DIYbio list would love to be associated with this project, just to see how a crowdfunding campaign works on the inside? Maybe add some scientific advisors - I'm listed as a scientific advisor on the Glowing Plant campaign, but I never expect to see a dime of that money.
- Talk to key bloggers and other journalists to line up a couple feature stories when your project goes live! If you hit one of the big blogs, others will likely pick it up as well, and that can easily multiply your visibility by orders of magnitude. Tim Ferris' Hacking Kickstarter article presents a very detailed strategy for how to target those kinds of people.
- Read Antony Evan's article on the Glowing Plant kickstarter in BioCoder, which covers a lot of these issues.
Patrik
On Wednesday, February 19, 2014 7:31:11 AM UTC-8, Cathal Garvey wrote:
-- A couple things you may want to consider:
- If you hit 25% of your funding in the first week, you are 5x more likely to get funding. So get all your friends and family involved *before* you even launch the campaign. Show them a mockup of your campaign page and ask them for feedback. How could you improve your pitch in a way that would make them consider donating? Maybe line up a few verbal commitments to support the campaign when it goes live. If you make a lot of progress in that first week, you may be able to hit the front page on IndieGogo and gain a lot more visibility. You've essentially already done most of this with your current campaign - just write it off as a dress rehearsal.
- If you have 4 or more people on your team, you'll raise 70% more funding than if you have one person. That team doesn't necessarily have to be the people doing the *research* - it's the team that helps you run the crowdfunding campaign. They can help you do all the necessary marketing legwork before the campaign goes live, use their own social networks to spread the word, talk to press and bloggers, answer questions, figure out the best way to send out rewards, etc. Maybe some of the people here on the DIYbio list would love to be associated with this project, just to see how a crowdfunding campaign works on the inside? Maybe add some scientific advisors - I'm listed as a scientific advisor on the Glowing Plant campaign, but I never expect to see a dime of that money.
- Talk to key bloggers and other journalists to line up a couple feature stories when your project goes live! If you hit one of the big blogs, others will likely pick it up as well, and that can easily multiply your visibility by orders of magnitude. Tim Ferris' Hacking Kickstarter article presents a very detailed strategy for how to target those kinds of people.
- Read Antony Evan's article on the Glowing Plant kickstarter in BioCoder, which covers a lot of these issues.
Patrik
On Wednesday, February 19, 2014 7:31:11 AM UTC-8, Cathal Garvey wrote:
Sadly the name can't be changed, but the main text of the body can be.
I chose "GMO" deliberately, to be provocative! As they say, any
publicity is good publicity, and it also helps to challenge the
narrative. A lot of people *only* see liars like Seralini "talking about
GMOs" because scientists don't use the word, so if they look around for
information on "GMOs" they only see lies. That's changing, but I figured
I'd use the word to reach out to people who don't yet use words like
"Synbio", "DNA Engineering" or even "Biotechnology".
Yea, probably a mistake.
Anyway, I'm looking to overhaul the front page before pulling a few
ace-cards v/v getting visitors to the page; hopefully then when people
*do* visit more of them will hang around.
I was troubled by the mix of people who wanted, effectively, to know
*less* (beginners who wanted only the salient details; what's this, why
do I want it, what does it do) and those who were accusing me of selling
nothing but GFP, indicating that they needed *more* technical detail on
what's different about this kit (a lot).
But as I related on the analysis, I figure the latter group wouldn't
contribute anyway, so I'm not going to bother. I'll have a link to a
blogpost on "technical details" for advanced readers, and the rest of
the IndieBB pitch will get rewritten for total n00bs; let's see how that
works!
On 19/02/14 15:22, Koeng wrote:
> I think the Tedx was good. Interesting talk, I think it probably helped for
> people to see the creator in a thing they know (Ted talks)
>
> Gotta sadly agree, crowdfunding works because it gets people excited. Heck,
> I think I remember a guy that raised over 6k to write random funny quotes
> in the sky.
> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/309790545/kurt- braunohlers-cloud-project
>
> The project was pretty pointed at DIYbio community. Hence the ton of early
> funding from the people in this community. Perhaps instead "Your first GMO"
> like "DNA engineering for everyone" because some people take GMO as bad.
>
> -Koeng
>
> On Wednesday, February 19, 2014 2:28:41 AM UTC-8, Cathal Garvey wrote:
>>
>> I'm getting that impression from the feedback, yes. It would appear that
>> I suck at selling stuff; I wish I could wear that as some sort of
>> scientific badge of purity, but the reality is without that skill I'm
>> kind of hosed in my current "career".
>>
>> I think I'll need to make an urgent pivot wrt the front-page pitch. I
>> welcome suggestions from people who don't suck.
>> Quick question on that score; is the TEDx talk any use? I never really
>> know if what I'm saying is welcomed based on raw enthusiasm or because
>> the message was delivered successfully. :P
>>
>> My mantra for today: don't qualify, don't cite, don't offer proof. I'll
>> just have a "further technical information" link at the foot of the
>> page, I think.
>>
>> This email failed to send prior to me writing a summary of the outcomes
>> of the survey so far, so I may as well link:
>>
>> http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/indiebb-your-first- gmo/x/4252296?c=activity
>>
>> On 19/02/14 09:54, Patrik D'haeseleer wrote:
>>> To be honest, I don't think the problem is with any of the issues in
>> your
>>> survey - I think your IndieGogo campaign just isn't flashy enough. Too
>> much
>>> hard science, not enough cheap-and-easy cool factor.
>>>
>>> The Frank N. Foode<
>> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/biofortified/bring- >frank-n-foodetm-to-life kickstarter
>> has almost reached its $10K goal, and that's just for a
>>> plushie! The Dino Pet<
>> https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/yonder/dino-pet-a- >projectliving-bioluminescent-night- light-pet
>> raised $168K, and all they're doing is designing a plastic bottle.
>>> The Glowing Plant project made half a million, not based on the strength
>> of
>>> the science behind the project (although that definitely helped), but
>>> because they got people excited.
>>>
>>> Obviously, the issue is not with the scientific content of your project,
>> or
>>> its open source nature or whatever - it's in the whole marketing angle
>> that
>>> you need for a successful crowdfunding project. Yes, I know, it rankles
>>> having to sell yourself that way - the project should speak for itself,
>>> blah, blah, blah. Welcome to crowdfunding reality...
>>>
>>> I love your project, and I'll keep trying to drum up more support for
>> it.
>>> But if worse comes to worst, you can always regroup and rerun the
>> campaign
>>> again some other time. That's actually a fairly common strategy on
>>> IndieGogo.
>>>
>>> Meanwhile, let me leave you with some resources on how to milk the most
>> out
>>> of a crowdfunding campaign:
>>>
>>> Slava Rubin of Indiegogo, offers advice for running a successful online
>>> crowdfunding campaign. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vNhNRaRPC8 >
>>>
>>> How We Crowd-funded $484k to Make Glowing Plants<
>> http://chimera.labs.oreilly.com/books/1234000001995/ch11. >html
>>>
>>> Hacking Kickstarter: How to Raise $100,000 in 10 Days (Includes
>> Successful
>>> Templates, E-mails, etc.)<
>> http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2012/12/18/hacking- >kickstarter-how-to-raise- 100000-in-10-days-includes- successful-templates-e-mails- etc/
>>
>>>
>>> Kickstarter School <https://www.kickstarter.com/help/school >
>>>
>>>
>>> IndieGogo Crowdfunding Tips for Campaigners<
>> http://www.indiegogo.com/crowdfunding-tips >
>>>
>>>
>>> Patrik
>>>
>>
>> --
>> Please help support my crowdfunding campaign, IndieBB: Currently at
>> 25.4% of funding goal, with 23 days left:
>> http://igg.me/at/yourfirstgmo/x/4252296
>> T: @onetruecathal, @IndieBBDNA
>> P: +3538763663185
>> W: http://indiebiotech.com
>>
>
--
Please help support my crowdfunding campaign, IndieBB: Currently at
25.4% of funding goal, with 23 days left:
http://igg.me/at/yourfirstgmo/x/4252296
T: @onetruecathal, @IndieBBDNA
P: +3538763663185
W: http://indiebiotech.com
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