Sharka Bosakova's 3D / OVA Kinetic Jewellery Now Funded on Kickstarter!

Thanks to a lot of hustling by Sharka, her 100% Plant-Based, Sustainable 3D Jewellery Kickstarter got funded! By the time this post goes up, there should be just under 48 hours to go on the campaign. So if you want a Thorn earring, like the one I am wearing, you should back the campaign now!

It’s been an interesting experience being on the other side of a Kickstarter campaign. My involvement with the campaign was as follows;

• Initial idea and encouragement

• Helping Sharka with setting up the campaign

• Copywriting for the campaign page

• Helping with the layout, the look and feel of the campaign

• Seeking feedback from r/Kickstarter on Reddit while Sharka got advise from her network

• Writing the press release and putting it out on free press wires

• Setting up and launching a Facebook Ad campaign

• General technical support and assistance with community engagement

• Setting up Mailchimp and helping with Mailchimp campaigns

The marketing campaign was not effective and really hammered home how much more I have to improve my sales and marketing skillsets to be an effective entrepreneur and business owner. I had success with Facebook Ads before, but I forgot that the algorithm changes all the time, and so what worked last year would not work this year! There is a reason why digital marketing agencies exist.

That said, I was shocked by how expansive marketing packages are for Kickstarter campaigns. Like you have to pay a fee upfront to get the marketing material, and then some even took a cut of the money raised! It’s prohibitively expansive for small projects, and there are so many agencies that it’s hard to tell who is worth it and who is not.

As this was the first Kickstarter campaign for both myself and Sharka, although Sharka has previous experience crowdfunding through GoFundMe for her Madagascar Project, I think it was good to do or attempt to do everything ourselves as we went through the Make 100 small project track. But perhaps in the future, I’ll look more into marketing agencies.

I am glad I got to see behind the curtain. I have learnt a lot, and I am hopeful that we’ll finish strong. So please back us today and get your own sustainable modular jewellery!

Antonia Saint NY: Destined for Fuck Up Night?

Fuck Up Night is a thing and the next one in Brisbane will be held on the 22nd of May. I hadn't heard of Fuck Up Night before this weekend. But I am happy to know something like this exists. Because if you only hear about the success, not only do you get a skewed view of the world. You also don't get the whole picture. Not to mention miss out on important lessons. Unfortunately, Antonia Saint New York, a product design Kickstarter I backed, might be a startup heading towards a spot future Fuck Up Night.

I wrote about these shoes before, when I measured my foot using their app. I complained at the time that the app was somewhat difficult to use. But I thought they got the sizing about right because my final show size was 8.5. However, now that the shoes have arrived, I can categorically say that they are the worst fitted shoes I have ever worn and I have worn some pretty ill-fitted but pretty shoes!

I have multiple problems with the shoes. The biggest being that it's extremely tight around the toe box. The shoes also don't hug my feet as they should. It's too wide around the middle and thus leaves the gap. There is also a slight issue with the heel area but compared to the toe box, its nothing!

Now here's the problem. I am not the only person who is having huge issues with the fit. Their Kickstarter comment section is full of women complaining about the fit. I don't know if this was an app issue or I simply got shipped the wrong pair. I mean, it's not like my names on the shoes. Whatever it is, I have to return them because my shoes are bad enough that I can't even wear them while just sitting still.

Antonia Saint NY has already had to waive their "return within 30 days" policy and moved the request for return labels from email to a Google Survey. But as a customer, this is all very worrying.

Because while the shoes are expansive, they price isn't all that high when you take into account the fact that these are supposed to be custom made shoes, manufactured in Brooklyn. I.e. the labour costs are likely to be fairly high. So forget long term success, I am not even sure if the company is going to be able to exchange all the ill fitted shoes! It's worrying but that is the risk of Kickstarter. All that said, I am hopeful that I will get a better fitted pair of shoes eventually. Also that the company will go on. Because comfy shoes are important!

My Kickstarter arrived - After four years and eight months

I was late to the Kickstarter party. In fact, I was late to the whole crowdfunding party and did not hear about Kickstarter until 2013. Considering that the site started in 2008, that’s pretty late. I became aware of the site when the claimed video game composer Jeremy Soule decided to crowdfund the first solo project.

I enjoy the work of Jeremy Soule and so in April 2013, I backed his project. On December 23, 2017, I finally received the album I played a small part to kick start. Obviously, this seemed like the perfect time to me to think back on all the projects I backed through Kickstarter!

If you are interested in reading about the lessons I have learnt backing campaigns on Kickstarter, you can read the article on Medium right now!

Nura Headphones: Personalised Sound!

Back in July 2016, I backed Nura Headphones on Kickstarter. I finally got my headphones and I love it! I have never been much of an audiophile and strangely, that's why I was attracted to these headphones. I mean, the best pair of headphones I had before Nura were SoundMAGIC E30 in-ear headphone. They were great but I always wondered if I was getting the best sound possible out of them because I suck at equalization. I usually just go with presets but I also don't bother changing the presets. Finally, I was concerned about hearing degradation as I aged. Nura seemed to be a great answer to all my concerns.

Nura uses a frequency based test to map my ear and then provides me with a personalised hearing profile that is designed to help me hear as much of the music as possible. So I don't have to worry about equalization and in theory, if I run the test annually, I can keep hearing well even as my ears change with age. So for me, it was a good buy at the Kickstarter price. Especially since I didn't already have expansive high-end Headphones. The SoundMAGIC E30, while highly rated, ultimately a pair of budget headphones that come in under $50.

However, the professional reviews for Nura have been more mixed. A lot of people prefer the build in equalization of other high-end headphones to Nura's personal profile. Some people also prefered other people's profiles to their own. I can understand to an extent. I tried listening using my mom's hearing profile and the music was louder. I know that when I couldn't decide what sounded best, I just went with whichever equalization setting sounded louder. My brother also got a pair of Nura and I would be keen to see how music sounds with his and my sister-in-law's sound profile.

As for the sound profiles, I ran the test on my phone ears three times and while the colouring changed, the overall shape of my hearing graph was consistent. It was also different from those of my mom, brother and sister-in-law. Other Nura owners have posted their profiles on Twitter. The variety of profiles is quite something.

Overall, I love the headphones and they were the right buy for me. For others, the price might not be worth it. Alternatively, they might already have high-end headphones that they already like. But I am glad I backed Nura Headphones!

Scanning my foot!

I don't talk a lot about projects I back on Kickstarter here. That's probably a mistake, and I should review some of the technology projects I back. Of course, my Kickstarter backer profile is much more diverse than just technology. For example, I backed Antonia Saint heels, which fall under design. However, there was a strong technological element to the project, because the shoes are supposed to be tailored to your feet, with an app being used to scan and measure your feet.

Essentially, it is a high-tech return to the days when cobblers fitted your shoe to the exact dimensions of your feet. Until I get the shoes, I won't know for sure, how good the app is but I have to admit, it was somewhat difficult to use the app. Especially the socked photo section of the app because I couldn't work out how to take the photo per the instruction. Also, they asked a few questions about my heels and ankles that I found a bit confusing to answer. But it did force me to look at my feet very closely. I never realised that my heels wore down the way they do because of the shape of my foot. I always thought I walked weird.

Overall, I am looking forward to the shoes. I just wish I could have gotten them in red instead of "nude". But you can't have everything.