The first thing I did when looking around kickstarter was to try and find successful projects so I could glean some knowledge off of them.  I soon realized that there were a lot of iPhone accessory products, video games, CD production projects, and documentaries.  These products didn’t seem to really apply very much to my project so I decided to narrow my search to products in the outdoor gear industry.

I found everything from hammocks, to camp stoves, to a line of waterproof shoes.  Below I’ve analyzed 12 kickstarter campaigns from the outdoor industry.  As a way to wrap my mind around what it takes to create a successful campaign, I made notes according to various categories: product, video, rewards (high number of backers), rewards (low number of backers), funding asked for, funding received, number of backers, number of updates, number of Facebook Likes, and general notes I had about the project itself.  I really think I learned a lot from doing a deep dive into these projects and that it’ll help me better set my project up for success.

Here they are:

Kammok (successful)

• Product - Nylon Hammock (exactly like Eagles Nest Outfitters, aka ENO, except they’re in the UK not in the US)
• Video - 3:22 well produced video with a mixture of videos and pictures to show their product in use, describes who the various customers are, goes into detail about about the technical aspects of their product, sometimes very clear that they’re reading off a cue card so it seems less authentic but their product is obvious and popular so I’m not surprised they were well over-funded.
• Rewards (High) - 1367 backers at the $85 level for swag, Kammok, and attachment straps.
• Rewards (Low) – 0 backers at the $1200 level for Kammok pack and a limited edition painting.
• Funding Asked - $15,000
• Funding Received - $208,853  They clearly had a product that people wanted considering they got 13x more funding than they originally asked for, looks like they hit on a good market opportunity.
• # of Backers - 1909
• # of Updates - 24
• # of Facebook Likes - 2986
• My Notes - They had a simple product that 1300+ people paid $85 to get, that’s a fairly reasonable purchase for most people.  No one seemed to care about the painting option, likely because it had nothing to do with their project or the project’s success.  One high roller paid out $2000 for a trip with the Kammok Team so I guess I won’t expect that a lot of people will choose this option, the money maker seemed to be with the base product offering, i.e. we want to buy your hammock.

• Product - Ski Patrol Documentary
• Video - 2:03, excellent production value, gave me goosebumps and I would definitely watch this documentary.
• Rewards (High) - 80 backers at $50 for contributor credit in the film, 40 backers at $40 for a copy of the film, 35 backers at $100 for film, credit, and coffee mug.
• Rewards (Low)  - 0 backers at $10,000 for use of a vacation house, 1 backer at $5,000 for motion control time-lapse training, 1 backer at $1,000 for director’s chair and street photography workshop.
• Funding Asked - $22,450
• Funding Received - $24,884 (barely made it)
• # of Backers  - 234
• # of Updates - 17
• # of Facebook Likes - 2,519
• My Notes - They just squeezed by, finally reaching successful funding in the final days.  Their reward levels were very close together and didn’t seem cohesive to the goal they were trying to achieve even though the project itself is awesome and their video is epic, it just didn’t seem to translate into a lot of funding for some reason, perhaps they didn’t spread the word enough or get enough press on their project.

Back Country Boiler (successful)

• Product - A camp stove that does not use fossil fuels (sticks, cardboard, leaves, etc)
• Video - 3:22 immediately shows a product demo, no words for the whole first minute, talks about why it’s unique, the last two minutes is all him talking, talks about what the kickstarter funds will be used for.  I was intrigued but probably would have set the video up differently.
• Rewards (High) – 236 backers at $80 for 1 unit, 133 backers at $150 w/ your name laser engraved, 100 backers at $105 for 1 unit and a custom stuff sack
• Rewards (Low) – 11 backers at $600 for 6 boilers w/ a custom image or engraving, 16 backers at $60 for just the aluminum bits for DIY-ers who want to design their own contraption.
• Funding Asked -$20,000
• Funding Received - $60,642 (3x their goal)
• # of Backers -563
• # of Updates - 32
• # of Facebook Likes - 1856
• My Notes - “Make no demands on the investor/consumer”.  That was a quote from a graduate school professor of mine; make it as easy as possible for your investor/customer to understand you and to invest in or purchase your product.  The lowest pledge was the one where the investor had to do some DIY work to get any benefit out of the project.  I’m not sure how this reward level benefits the project itself.  All in all their rewards were simple to understand and the product you were getting was very clearly articulated.

Capture Camera Clip System (successful)

• Product - clip your SLR camera to your waist belt with this simple, light, and well-designed device
• Video - 3:33 outstanding video, I would absolutely give him money for this project. He talks about the need for such a device and why it’s better than the competition and also does a product demo with up close shots of it working.  I’ve experienced this problem before and his product looks like a great, simple solution.  At the end he thanks the people watching the video.
• Rewards (High) – 3372 backers at $50 for one unit, 1594 backers at $75 for one unit and more,
• Rewards (Low) -
• Funding Asked - $10,000
• Funding Received -$364,698 (wow 36x their goal)
• # of Backers - 5,258
• # of Updates - 21
• # of Facebook Likes - 13,756
• My Notes - He only had pledges up to $100 and he limited the number at that level to 100 (i.e. limited supply) and he sold all 100.  He had a simple product that apparently a lot of people wanted so it was an easy sell.  I wonder why he only asked for $10,000 up front.

Magnetic Top Waterbottle (successful)

• Product - Magnetic topped water bottle
• Video - 2:56 shows a product demo, uses voice, music, and picture combinations, definitely too long with way too many shots of his waterbottle.  It’s a pretty easy concept, I get it, thanks.
• Rewards (High) – 96 backers at $20 for one water bottle, 45 backers at $40 for two water bottles
• Rewards (Low) – 0 backers at $725 and $1,400 for 48 bottles and 100 bottles respectively
• Funding Asked - $5,000
• Funding Received - $10,344 (2x their goal)
• # of Backers - 209
• # of Updates - 12
• # of Facebook Likes - 172
• My Notes - Their top tier rewards didn’t seem compelling enough to be worth spending the money on them, they simply added more units for higher pledges.  What is an investor going to do with 100 water bottles?  The lower rewards worked well because it was simple, if I give you $20 then I get a waterbottle, not much different than going to the store so it’s a no-brainer.

Underfuse (successful)

• Product - Iron on gear pocket for running, working out, and travel
• Video - 2:42 did a good job at showing how his product would be used and why it’s better than the competition.  He also does a product demonstration in the video, mentioning his background, and what the kickstarter funds would be used for.  Then he talks about each reward level (not excited about his rewards because he seems to be just selling his product, not using kickstarter to advance his idea because his idea is already there).
• Rewards (High) – 150 backers at $20 for 3 units of their product, 52 backers for 1 unit of their product, 41 backers for a 10-pack of their product
• Rewards (Low) – 5 backers at $150 for a 30-pack
• Funding Asked - $11,500
• Funding Received -$12,808 (just squeezed by)
• # of Backers - 274
• # of Updates - 19
• # of Facebook Likes - 454
• My Notes - All in all I thought this was a great simple idea, I’m glad it was funded.  They didn’t have shipping costs built into their rewards price which I found to be unnecessary confusion, i.e. if you wanted to donate at the $20 level you had to add extra money for shipping, I feel like this would be easier if it were just built into the reward cost.  Make no demands on the customer!

PowerPot (successful)

• Product - a portable electric generator that doubles as a cooking pot, it generates electricity as you boil water, then you plug in your USB device
• Video - 3:39 it was very clear that both of these guys were engineers (being one myself it’s pretty obvious).  They spent a lot of time using technical language to describe their product but failed to mention why it was better than the alternative? I understand that the product works and you can charge your USB devices while you’re cooking dinner, great, but does anyone really want to do that or would they rather just use the small solar panels on the market?  Just because you CAN do something doesn’t mean you should.
• Rewards (High) – 294 backers at $125 for preordering the pot, 235 backers at $150 (not much different than $125)
• Rewards (Low) – 3 backers at $350 you get a product and one is donated for you, 3 backers at $500 for the higher wattage version and one to donate, 3 backers at $1000 for 3 products and 2 to donate
• Funding Asked - $50,000
• Funding Received - $126,204 (>2x their goal)
• # of Backers - 1047
• # of Updates - 7
• # of Facebook Likes - 7,447
• My Notes - I’m an engineer and I still thought there was too much technical jargon.  Although I like the donation idea, I think it made things more confusing, it seemed like a majority of the donors just wanted one for themselves.  They were trying to replicate the TOMS shoes model which is maybe not appropriate for an early stage idea (but that’s just my personal opinion).

Hiya Instant Green Tea (successful)

• Product - freshly brewed tea bag (cold)
• Video - 3:06 talks about why it’s better than the current options, product demo, identifies the team and why they’re right for the job, briefly mentions the rewards. I bought into their story, their product, and why they’ll succeed.
• Rewards (High) – 221 backers at $5 for 6 tea bags, 205 backers for 30 tea bags, 212 backers at $52 for a water bottle and 60 tea bags,
• Rewards (Low) – 19 backers at $150 for 180 tea bags and 5 water bottles (probably pricey for most tea drinkers but they still got 19 backers so that’s pretty decent)
• Funding Asked -$3,500
• Funding Received - $24,478 (8x their goal)
• # of Backers - 694
• # of Updates - 16
• # of Facebook Likes - 522
• My Notes - the rewards were extremely straight forward, fairly priced, and there weren’t too many rewards to choose from (i.e. you give us money and we give you tea that you can’t yet buy on the market).

Bob Marshall Wilderness Map (successful)

• Product - User friendly outdoor recreation maps for the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana.
• Video - 1:13 a very simple video with just pictures, music, and text to describe their project.  They make sure to mention why they need the money and that their rewards are worthwhile to make their project successful.  It was by far the simplest and shortest Kickstarter video I’ve seen so it gives me hope that mine might make the cut for quality.
• Rewards (High) -58 backers at $25 for one map, 10 backers at $50 for a signed copy of the map
• Rewards (Low) – 3 backers at $500, this was their highest reward level so it is not surprising that there were so few backers at this level, not bad all things considered.
• Funding Asked - $5,000
• Funding Received - $5,704 (barely made it by $704)
• # of Backers - 103
• # of Updates - 6
• # of Facebook Likes - 186 (not nearly enough)
• My Notes - the project seemed very doable and worthwhile.  I don’t live in Montana so I likely wouldn’t have supported his project but had someone in New England proposed a similar project I absolutely would have funded it.

HexaPot (unsuccessful)

• Product - a paper pot you can boil water in
• Video - 2:09 mostly music and video of the paper pot cooking food, why is this better than what’s currently out there? (this wasn’t addressed), there were no words in the entire video, no explanation as to its benefits, just like your normal metal pot only worse.
• Rewards (High) – 51 backers at $25 for 12 paper cooking pots
• Rewards (Low) – 2 backers at $75
• Funding Asked - $25,000 (why do you need $25k for a paper pot?  this wasn’t explained and I wasn’t bought into the necessity of it)
• Funding Received - $3,653 (really tanked this one ~8x less than asked)
• # of Backers - 116
• # of Updates - 7
• # of Facebook Likes - 211 (not nearly enough)
• My Notes - I’m not convinced there’s really a need for this product, I’m sure this went unfunded because no one thought it was a good idea.  Again it’s the whole argument of just because you CAN do something (i.e. boil water in a paper pot) doesn’t mean that you should.

CaveSim (successful)

• Product - built a cave for rescuers to practice, if you bump the sides or a stalactite then it registers on computer software and you’re docked points
• Video - 4:09 pretty decent video, poor audio quality but he gets hits point across, he built a successful cave simulator but needed to move it from Colorado to Virginia but didn’t have the funds.  So it was very clear why he needed the money.
• Rewards (High) – 13 backers at $35 for a t-shirt
• Rewards (Low) – 0 backers at $200, $300, $400, $500, $9950 for a birthday party at the cave for 30 people, a set of magnetic cave formations to use under your table, take you out to dinner, or all the materials to build your own cave
• Funding Asked - $1900
• Funding Received - $5,652 (~3x their goal)
• # of Backers - 83
• # of Updates - 8
• # of Facebook Likes - 196
• My Notes - $75 was the highest pledge amount.  I think their rewards were good but I think it’s just that not that many kickstarter backers are into caving.

Forsake (unsuccessful)

• Product - Waterproof Outdoor Sneakers
• Video - 2:57 showed video of where their shoes would be worn, did a good job at showing why they are different, poor audio, didn’t show why they needed the Kickstarter funds.
• Rewards (High) - 520 backers at the $75 level which included one pair of Foresake shoes
• Rewards (Low)  - 0 backers at $750 for a commemorative wooden shoe box, 0 backers at $1000 for hand delivering shoes and a trip to their favorite shoe store, 1 backer at $2000 for dinner with the founders, and 2 backers for shoe laces, and stickers.
• Funding Asked - $225,000 (didn’t explain why they needed almost a quarter of a million dollars, this amount of funding seems more like they need an investor not a Kickstarter campaign)
• Funding Received - $66,350 (3.5x below their goal)
• # of Backers - 673
• # of Updates - 4
• # of Facebook Likes - 1632
• My Notes - the rewards seemed disjointed from the product, unprofessionally written, not compelling, and complicated (adding money if you want multiple items).  It didn’t seem like the kickstarter campaign was really helping them reach their goals, they needed $225k so it seems they really just need an actual investor in their company.  They seem to be already manufacturing shoes and the kickstarter campaign is just a way to preorder them which is largely uninspiring as a member of the Kickstarter community.

Recap Thoughts:

• Product  - the product is your bread and butter, people will give you money if they think your product is awesome but it needs to be clearly articulated in a short, punchy, to the point video.  They will give you more money if your rewards are closely tied to the product itself.
• Video  - talks about the need for such a product, why it’s better than the current state of the art, shows a product demo, a mixture of pictures and video, talks about how the kickstarter funds will be used (how the funds will “kickstart” their project), ends with a huge thank you
• Rewards (High) – the biggest money-makers for people are the product itself, the number of backers are overwhelmingly in favor of the product itself, everything else seems secondary.  Most rewards seemed to be tiered in that each subsequent reward included the previous rewards as well so if you pledge more then you get more.  Add more money for international backers.
• Rewards (Low) – it seems clear that rewards need to include something related to your product.  In the Kammok example, zero backers went for the original painting reward level while 1300+ went for the Kammok product itself.  Also the highest funding amounts always achieved the lowest number of backers.  While this seems obvious, it’s still worth saying, “Don’t rely on your high ticket rewards to bring the bulk of your funding”.  The actual product itself is the real money-maker.
• Funding Asked - no major thoughts here
• Funding Received  - no major thoughts here
• # of Backers - there didn’t seem to be much of a correlation between a high number of backers and a large amount of funding.  Some people reached their goals with only 83 backers and some didn’t reach their goal with almost 700 backers.  I think it’s really just all about having a good reward system where infrequent users would still be willing to donate $20 to get something cool and help your project but the frequent users are willing to pay extra to get the product first before it goes on the market.
• # of Updates - the updates ranged from 4 (unsuccessful project) to 32 with an average of 14.  This shows me that I need to be consistent with my updates throughout the life of the project as well as after the project has been funded.  Successful projects engage their backers with their progress so I have to make sure that I’m cognizant of that.
• # of Facebook Likes - the hyper-successful projects had well over 1,000 Facebook Likes (anywhere from 3,000 to 13,000).  It seems that the way to achieve this is to have a great video, a great product, and a great social media marketing campaign.  More Facebook likes never hurts so I’m going to shoot for at least 1000 likes but hopefully get closer to 3,000.
• My Notes - I’m excited to start my campaign and I think this research really helped to frame how to develop a successful kickstarter project with an outdoor industry product.