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IT WILL BE EXHILARATING
Indie Capitalism and Design Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century,
As Observed By Studio Neat
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FOREWORD
Te lure o the startup has been such a prominent part o the American story
in the last 20 years, even people who don’t read the business press have some
sense o how it’s done. First you have an idea, then you do some market re-
search, then you pitch the idea to raise money. I the idea gets unded, you
market it to the public en masse who mostly don’t care in order to nd the ew
that do, and then, nally, you get to sell your product or service to the resulting
customers.
Tis has been the story or startups creating everything rom ads on search en-
gines to artisanal soap, and it hasn’t changed much over the years. In dierent
eras, the diculty o raising money, advertising, or selling things has varied,
but the basic pipeline was the same, and because it was the same or so long,
businesses adapted. Te way products and services were developed shaped the
companies that developed them, and vice-versa: marketing became a depart-
ment, sales became a dierent department, and so on. It all came to seem sonormal that people assumed this was the way the business world should work
rather than simply being the way it happened to work.
Tis book is the story o a dierent way o starting a business. A really dierent
way. When om Gerhardt and Dan Provost wanted to und the development
o the Gli, their iPhone tripod mount, they didn’t think they were launching a
company, much less testing a new model or starting a company. Tey thought
they might raise enough money to make a couple hundred o their elegant littletripod mounts and sell them.
Using Kickstarter, they put out an appeal to adventurous consumers who
would take a yer on two designers who had a good idea—people whose desire
to own a good tripod mount dovetailed with their desire to see someone try-
ing something new. And it turned out that there were enough such people to
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support om and Dan’s work; they raised enough to make 500 Glis. Ten 600.
And then 800. 1000, 3000, 5000 Glis. By the time their Kickstarter campaign
ended, they’d raised well over ten times their initial goal.
Studio Neat was born because they discovered that the things that motivatedthem—well designed products people need but no one makes—had a much
bigger audience than they anticipated. Ten they did something remarkable—
they did it again with the Cosmonaut, their iPad stylus. Te Studio Neat way o
launching a product wasn’t just a uke.
All o this is wonderul or om and Dan, o course, wonderul or Studio Neat,
wonderul or their customers. But it’s wonderul or us as well because it shows
us how businesses can get started in our little corner o the 21st century.
om and Dan started with the animating idea o most businesses: “We want to
make something we think you might like.” But then, instead o spending time
assessing market demand, getting mired in Powerpoint, spreadsheets, bank-
ers, business plans, and so on, they sidestepped all o that. Instead, the key
relationship here was between them and us.
Tey came to us and said: “Here’s our idea. I you want it, we will make it”,
and that was enough. We wanted it, they made it. So what part o starting abusiness did their Kickstarter campaign help them with? Was the conversation
between us and them market research? Was it undraising? Maybe it was mar-
keting? Or sales? o which the answer is Yes. It was all o those things.
Te old pipeline—where nancial institutions demand approval at every
step—isn’t the only way to start a business anymore. It’s just a way, and com-
pared to sharing their vision directly with us, it’s not even a very good way.
In this book, om and Dan tell the story o the Gli and the Cosmonaut and
Studio Neat, but they also tell the story o how to take an idea and try it out
in a world that suddenly allows or such audacity. And they tell us what they
discovered along the way, which is that i you go directly to your customers, to
your audience, to us, motivation and clarity became essential.
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Tere is no recipe or passion, no 5-step guide to making your idea real, but
there is good, solid advice, and this book is lled with it. Tey speak rom real
experience when they tell us:
Don’t make a product because you want to quit your day job (that can be areason, but not the reason). Don’t make a product because you want to get rich.
Make something great because you care deeply about it. Make something be-
cause you stay awake at night thinking about it. Make something because you
eel invigorated when you work on it, and anxious when you don’t.
Te Studio Neat story is remarkable, but that’s not why they wrote this book.
Te obstacles between designers and customers are oundering, and there’s a
new premium on passion and clarity. What Studio Neat has learned can help
others create their own remarkable stories. Tere’s no monopoly on elegant de-
sign. Someone is going to have the next good idea. Could be you.
—Clay Shirky
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INTRODUCTION“I you add up all the trends under way today, I believe we are beginning to
see the start o something original, and perhaps wonderul.”
BRUCE NUSSBAUM
Tere is a sea change aoot.
In the past, i an individual had a great idea or a product or service they want-
ed to bring into the world, it was incredibly dicult to do so. Especially i their
plan was or that product to make them a living. Entrepreneurship has always
been a tenuous and risky pursuit, resulting in many ideas let buried and or-
gotten at the bottom o a desk drawer.
However, things are changing. We are now living in a world where those ideas
can come to ruition with a surprisingly minimal amount o riction.
Fundraising platorms like Kickstarter are part o the story, o course, but it’s
bigger than that. Designers, artists, writers, programmers, lmmakers, and
creative olks o all stripes are now empowered to make great stu with toolsand resources that didn’t exist ve years ago.
Furthermore, consumers have an appetite—rapidly becoming an expecta-
tion—to be connected directly with the creator(s) o the thing or service they’re
buying. Te need or the middlemen o the world is quickly vanishing.
Indie capitalism, a term coined by Bruce Nussbaum in an article or Fast Com-
pany, is the most succinct way to describe the product o this shit. It is dened
by a maker system o economics that is centered around the direct relationshipbetween creators and their customers.
What it all boils down to is this: it’s an exciting time to be making stu.
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WHO WE ARE
Studio Neat has two employees, om Gerhardt and Dan Provost (henceorth
reerred to as “we”). We met in high school in Round Rock, exas, and became
good riends when we went through the undergraduate architecture programat exas A&M University together. Ater graduating, we drove cross country to
New York City or grad school (om at NYU’s Interactive elecommunications
Program and Dan at Parsons’ Design and echnology program). Ater graduat-
ing (again) in 2009, we got jobs in New York; om worked as a sotware devel-
oper at Potion, and Dan as an interaction designer at rog.
During the summer o 2010, we began working on a product idea: a combina-
tion tripod mount and stand or the iPhone 4. Although the thought o gener-
ating some side income had crossed our minds, we mostly wanted to make it
because it ullled our own needs, and, simply, we love making things.
For the next couple o months in the evenings and on weekends, we sketched
out concepts, modeled them on the computer, and ordered several 3D printed
prototypes (more on this later). Ater countless iterations, we had an elegant
and simple design we were proud o, but one question remained: how the heck
would we make this thing? We knew mass-producing it would require a process
called injection molding, which takes a considerable upront investment. In the
past, this is where the story would have ended. Without the upront capital, or
the risk o taking a large bank loan, great ideas are abandoned. Fortunately,
this is no longer the case.
At the time, Kickstarter was only about a year old. We had seen it used suc-
cessully to und creative projects like books, lms, art projects, sotware, and
music, but examples o product design were ew and ar between. Nonethe-
less, we had a hunch Kickstarter could be the ideal way to launch our iPhonetripod mount, which we named the Gli, based on its unique shape resembling
a typographical “glyph.” On the evening o October 3rd, 2010, we launched our
campaign with a modest unding goal o $10,000. We hoped to sell 500 o them.
Within 12 hours o launching our campaign we had reached our unding goal,
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and by the end o the rst day we had raised over $25,000. By the end o the 30-
day campaign we had raised $137,417. Our pants were ocially peed.
Six months later, ater we had our business up and running on sales o the Gli,
we launched our second project on Kickstarter, a wide grip stylus or the iPadcalled the Cosmonaut. It raised $134,236 in less than a month. And a year later,
we released our rst piece o sotware with Frameographer, an iPhone app or
creating stop motion and time-lapse videos.
Te Gli, a tripod mount and stand or the iPhone, and the Cosmonaut, a wide grip
capacitive stylus.
Tough it may sound surprising, our story is becoming less and less unique
as more designers are nding creative ways to bring their ideas to lie. And
experience is not required. Beore the Gli, we had no industrial design, manu-
acturing, or retail experience; yet in the past two years we have released threehardware products (the Gli, Gli+ and the Cosmonaut), one piece o sotware
(Frameographer), and one book (you’re holding it).
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WHY A BOOK?
For makers o things, there is something unquestionably enticing about books
that document the creative process. Tey provide an opportunity to pull back
the curtain to see how innovative minds work. Stean Sagmeister’s Made YouLook and Hillman Curtis’s MIV are two o our avorite design books. Every-
thing published by A Book Apart, and 37signals’ Rework have been hugely in-
uential as well, or their brevity and clarity o ocus. We took this inspiration
and ollowed suit.
Tis book is about many things. It’s partly about our company, and how we
operate. It’s also an instructional textbook, and part o it takes a look at our
design process. Perhaps you’re interested in launching your rst Kickstarter
campaign, and you’d like some tips and pointers on how to make sure it goes
smoothly. Maybe you’re curious about starting your own company, and want to
see how attainable it is. Perhaps you already have a company and want to avoid
the pitalls we ell into. Or maybe you’re simply a an o design, and enjoy see-
ing how the seed o an idea is brought to ruition.
We’ve kept the book intentionally brie, ollowing our goals o simplicity and
clarity. You should be able to read it in one sitting so that you can get back to
making stu.
As a disclaimer, this story is told through the lens o our own experience; we
do not have decades o experience in the industry. We’re just two dudes who
had a pretty interesting thing happen to us, and we want to share it with you.
We’ve been ortunate in having ront row seats or a very exciting shit in the
consumer industry, and we’ve learned a lot in a short amount o time. We hope
you nd something here you can take and use.
Let’s get to it.
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PHILOSOPHY“Don’t hal-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing.”
RON SWANSON
Sometimes it eels as though we’re in business by accident. Our original inten-
tion was simply to make a useul product, little did we know that six months
later we would be quitting our jobs to ocus on Studio Neat ull time. As such,we’ve had to learn as we go, but we don’t think that’s such a bad thing.
Our design and business philosophy stems rom who we are as people, but it
also derives rom observing and ollowing people in design and business we ad-
mire and respect. None o what we discuss here is altogether new or revolution-
ary. It is simply what we believe in. ake what is useul to you and leave the rest.
SIMPLICITYSimplicity is ingrained in everything we do at Studio Neat.
First and oremost, we aim to design products that are simple. Simple prod-
ucts benet more than just our customers. Te act that the Gli was relatively
simple to manuacture meant we could deliver the product just over a month
ater the Kickstarter campaign ended with ew hiccups along the way.
Simplicity extends beyond the design o the products we make. Especially when
it comes to logistics and operations, we try very hard to keep things as simple
as possible, and as a result we’ve been able to remain a two-person shop even
though we’ve steadily expanded our product oerings.
Focus and simplicity go hand in hand. For a company as small as ours, it’s im-
perative to stay as ocused as possible. Not every idea, even an idea you’ve put a
1
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lot o work into already, is worth pursuing. aking a cue rom Apple, we are as
proud o the things we decide not to do, as we are o the things we decide to do.
Simplicity is not easy. It takes a great deal o eort to try to arrive at the sim-
plest solution to a problem, and oten involves some level o sacrice or com-promise. Simplicity must be always on your mind, and something you are al-
ways intentionally striving to achieve. It’s easy or things to get “accidentally”
complex i you lose ocus on simplicity.
So why is simplicity a goal or Studio Neat? Don Norman, design and usability
guru, has said that “simplicity is highly overrated,” arguing that when aced
with a choice, consumers will choose the more complex, eature-packed version
o a product. In other words, simplicity is a nice enough design goal, but bad orbusiness. We take a dierent approach. Our goal is to design something that is
continually delightul to use, not something that looks ancy on the store shel
but rustrates in actual usage. We want customers to love our products, and to
become repeat customers and ans. Te pursuit o simplicity is how we aim to
achieve this.
Te most notable champion o this ideal, o course, is Apple. Here’s Jonathan
Ive, head o industrial design at Apple:
Simplicity is not the absence o clutter, that’s a consequence o simplicity. Sim-
plicity is somehow essentially describing the purpose and place o an object and
product. Te absence o clutter is just a clutter-ree product. Tat’s not simple.
Te quest or simplicity has to pervade every part o the process. It really is
undamental.
Tis is not to say a complex product cannot also be well-designed, but in our
experience, consumers value simplicity, and weigh it in their purchasing deci-
sion. Perhaps Einstein said it best: “Everything should be made as simple as
possible, but not simpler.”
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YOU CAN’T PLEASE EVERYONE
Our ability to achieve ocus and simplicity in our products comes rom an un-
derstanding that you can’t please everyone, and that it’s utile to try. Let’s take
the Gli as an example. Not only is it designed or a specic device (the iPhone4), but it requires that device to be completely naked, i.e., with neither case nor
screen protector. For many people, this is a nonstarter, as they reuse to carry
their phone around without a case, and don’t want the hassle o removing it
every time they want to use the Gli. We’re ok with that. We regret that we can’t
have them as a customer, o course, but making a tripod mount that accom-
modates all the varying cases dimensions would clutter the elegance or which
we were striving.
More recently, as we have stepped into the world o sotware with Frameogra-
pher, it is quite common to receive eature requests via email, witter, or App
Store reviews. Tis can be a glittering lure, but we always approach with cau-
tion. It takes a great deal o restraint to slow down, and consider how the addi-
tion o a eature would aect the app as a whole. I we can’t gure out a way to
incorporate a eature in an elegant way, we don’t add it.
INTENTIONALLY SMALL
We are big ans o the olks at 37signals, and as we mentioned earlier, consider
Rework to be one o our guiding lights. One o the key things we have gleaned
rom their philosophy is the idea that it’s OK to intentionally stay small. We
work hard to keep business operations as simple as possible, so even ater three
successul products and almost two years in business, we are still the only two
employees o Studio Neat.
Te advantages o working this way are numerous.
In “start-up” culture, there are basically two trajectories: become super success-
ul so you can become the next witter or Facebook, or aim to get acquired by a
larger company. Tere are very ew new start-ups that have the goals o staying
intentionally small, building great products that can be sold or a prot, and
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growing organically.
One o the more ascinating aspects o Indie Capitalism is that there is now a
middle ground. Instead o the “go big or go home” approach o most start-ups,
it is now easible to “go small and have complete autonomy over your productsand not work crazy unreasonable hours.” Tat’s probably a little too long to
catch on, but you get the idea.
SCRATCH YOUR OWN ITCH
A key component to the products we make is that we seek to scratch our own
itch(es). Everything we design ullls a need that we, ourselves, have. Te Gli
was born when we realized how awesome the iPhone 4 camera was, but didn’thave an ideal way to mount it to a tripod. Te Cosmonaut was born when the
two o us were sending design sketches back and orth to each other rom our
iPads, and none o the styli we tried elt great to use. Frameographer was born
out o our childlike desire to make neat little stop motion and time-lapse mov-
ies, and our corresponding inability to nd a simple, exquisite app or that.
A huge benet to designing things or yoursel is you are the perect judge o
whether it sucks or not. Better yet, the two o us have very high standards and
are not araid to poop (constructively) on each other’s ideas. Ater all, we want
things to be perect.
People sometimes ask us what kind o market research we did to determine the
price points or our products. Te answer is: very little. Instead, we think we are
pretty good judges o what the product “should” cost, i we were the consumers
considering a purchase. It’s really that simple.
Some might nd this approach irresponsible. Certainly we can’t make every decision on gut intuition, right? Tis is a air point, but staying small aords
us the opportunity to make decisions quickly and course correct as we go. We
trust that i we do something wrong, our customers will tell us. Tey, in a sense,
are our ocus group.
Tat said, it is important or us to execute decisions thoughtully and con-
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dently. It is very easy to be inuenced by a vocal minority o naysayers, but we
try to stay the course. I what we are making is truly valuable, it will nd an
audience.
TELL A STORY
“Storytelling is one o the most ecient communication methods we’ve devised. Its
eectiveness is why so much o the wisdom and insight about what it means to be hu-
man is wrapped up in ables and parables.”
FRANK CHIMERO
Everyone loves a good story. Humans have told and retold stories or as ar back
as we know. For some reason we seem hardwired to seek out, and tell, stories. Also it’s easier to connect with something on an emotional level i it reaches us
in the orm o a story.
For this reason, we try to tell a story with each o our products. Whether it’s
the story o how the product came into existence, how the product ts into our
little ecosystem, or how the product ts into the lives o our customers—the
story is important.
People want to know where things come rom and who is behind the design.
Products do not exist in a vacuum; they are designed and created by humans,
which we sometimes orget. On Kickstarter, project creators are able to put a
ace to their design via the project video. You, as the consumer, are not buying
a thing, you are buying a thing made by this person. Tis is a subtle but impor-
tant distinction.
PASSION
Don’t make a product because you want to quit your day job (that can be a rea-
son, but not the reason). Don’t make a product because you want to get rich.
Make something great because you care deeply about it. Make something be-
cause you stay awake at night thinking about it. Make something because you
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eel invigorated when you work on it, and anxious when you don’t.
As long as your goal is to create something great, everything else is cream
cheese. Maybe it will turn into a ull time business. Maybe it will just be a cool
side project that zzles out in six months. Te point is, wouldn’t you want tobe working on something you are passionate about, regardless o the outcome?
I you are as ortunate as we have been, and your passion project turns into a
ull time gig, the introduction o new business pressures will threaten to suck
the passion right out o you. Having a business changes the game, as every deci-
sion eels like it needs to be legitimized by its ability to make money. Fear and
anxiety can set in, and you might eel suocated, and like you’re no longer ree
to experiment. Te best way to overcome this eeling is to try to remember howyou ound success in the rst place: by working on something you love. You are
going to make mistakes, and you will create things that are unsuccessul, either
creatively or nancially. Don’t let it paralyze you. Instead, let your passion be
your guide.
MAKE THINGS
“Perhaps it sounds ridiculous, but the best thing that young lmmakers should do is to
get hold o a camera and some lm and make a movie o any kind at all.”
SANLEY KUBRICK
Tat’s good advice. When we launched the Gli on Kickstarter, we had no in-
dustrial design, manuacturing, or retail experience. But we had a good idea,
and the condence that we could gure it out as we went along. As we’ve said
(and will say again because it bears repeating), there are going to be missteps,
hiccups, and miscalculations—even the best-laid plans by experts never gosmoothly. Your idea is not doing anyone any good by remaining only an idea.
Tis is not carte blanche to simply throw stu out there with no research or
prior knowledge, but you’d be surprised how quickly you can learn something
when 5000 people are waiting or you to learn it. Jump o the cli and build
the plane on the way down.
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CROWD FUNDING“A good idea, well-crated and pursued with passion, doesn’t need a gate-
keeper’s stamp o approval to succeed.”
YANCEY STICKLER, CO-FOUNDER OF KICKSTARTER
On the evening o October 3, 2010, we launched our rst Kickstarter campaign,
or the Gli. As you may recall, we had a modest goal o $10,000, with the hope
that we could sell about 500 o them. wenty-our hours later, we had raised
twice that, and by the end o our 30-day campaign we had raised $137,417, over
10 times our goal.
Six months later, we launched our second Kickstarter campaign, this time or
the Cosmonaut, a wide grip stylus or touch screen devices (like the iPad). For
the rst two days o the campaign we tried something unique, oering a “pay-
what-you-want” model, raising nearly $50,000 in that 48-hour period. We ul-
timately opened up more traditional tiers, and by the end o the campaign we
had raised $134,236, and in the process, became the rst project creators on
Kickstarter to raise over $100,000 on two separate projects.
In running these two campaigns, and in studying countless other projects,
we have learned a tremendous amount about the do’s and don’ts o running a
successul Kickstarter project. Our personal experience alls in the hardware/
industrial design category, but we think the lessons we learned can be applied
across the spectrum.
WHAT IS KICKSTARTER?
For the uninitiated, Kickstarter is “the world’s largest unding platorm or
creative projects.” Te concept is simple: a person has an idea or a creative proj-
2
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ect, but does not have the money to make it. By using Kickstarter, that person
can try to get “pledges” rom “backers” on the internet. Tis is known as crowd
unding. A pledge is kind o like a monetary donation, but with most projects,
the backer receives something tangible in return or their pledge, known as a
“reward.” Te important twist is that every project on Kickstarter has a und-
ing goal, i.e., how much money is needed or the project to be able to be carried
out. I the goal is not met, the project does not move orward and nobody’s
credit cards are charged. I the goal is met, everyone’s credit card is charged, the
money is transerred to the project creator, the project creator is able to make
the creative project, the backers get cool rewards, and there is much rejoicing
throughout the land.
Kickstarter has helped und projects o all shapes and sizes. Te range o proj-
ect types is quite extraordinary, including music albums, lms, video games,
dance videos, and pretty much anything that is considered a creative project.
Te only real rules are that you can’t have a project that raises money or char-
ity, and you can’t have a project that oers equity in the creation o a business.
Kickstarter represents an exciting new way to bootstrap ideas. Rather than
seeking outside unding or a bank loan, Kickstarter allows you to collect money
rom individuals that believe in what you’re doing and want to support it. It’salso a great way to test the viability o your idea. People vote with their dollars.
I the project ails, the only real downside is sadness, but at least you didn’t in-
vest a huge amount o your own time and money to execute a project that didn’t
have legs to begin with. And on the upside, you may learn why people weren’t
interested, and how you can make improvements in the uture.
In some ways, Kickstarter is the poster child or Indie Capitalism. Te essence
o the platorm—connecting creators and consumers, directly—gets to theroot o this new movement.
IS KICKSTARTER RIGHT FOR YOU?
Kickstarter is one o the main reasons, i not the reason, Studio Neat is in busi-
ness today. It’s an incredible platorm that continues to explode in popularity,
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and there is a great variety in the types o projects eatured on the site. Tat
does not mean Kickstarter is or everyone, however; not all ideas make sense
as a Kickstarter project.
Kickstarter may not be right or you simply because o the type o project you’reworking on. I you have a big, sprawling concept that involves building up a
large social network, or lots o upront work to make a proo-o-concept, seek-
ing outside investment or venture capital unding may indeed be the better
path. Kickstarter works well with smaller, sel-contained ideas. On that note, i
you make handmade, bespoke items, a platorm like the wonderul Etsy might
be a better choice. Quirky , the crowdsourcing design platorm, is a better t i
you have a great idea but no idea o how to execute. In all likelihood, it will be
airly obvious i Kickstarter is the right way to go or not.
Te most important thing you need to do beore deciding to launch on Kick-
starter is to determine i your project is even easible. A napkin sketch is not
nearly enough (and will likely get rejected by Kickstarter, or your own good).
I you are making a physical piece o hardware, a working prototype is a must.
Also, it’s important to start conversations with manuacturers beorehand to
make sure your design is not impossible (or extremely dicult) to manuac-
ture. Our general impression is that projects that are successully unded butail to deliver are a result o not doing the necessary legwork up ront.
ESTIMATING COST
One o the rst things you will need to do is estimate the cost o your project.
Tis can be tricky, especially i it’s in an area outside o your expertise (e.g.,
manuacturing). alk to as many people as you can beore starting your cam-
paign to make sure you have reasonable expectations o how much things willcost.
Kickstarter collects 5% o your unding total, and Amazon grabs another 3% as
the payment gateway. Also, actor in about 5% dropped backers, meaning back-
ers whose credit cards are denied when the campaign ends.
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One o the biggest “gotchas” rom our rst campaign was how much it costs
to ship things worldwide. We nd that project creators consistently underes-
timate this cost. We will discuss shipping costs more in the next chapter, but
be sure to keep this is mind as you shape your reward tiers and unding goal.
Lastly, be mindul o Uncle Sam. Any money you raise on Kickstarter is con-
sidered taxable income or the calendar year in which your project is unded.
Te money you sink back into the project (like manuacturing and ulllment
costs) can help reduce your tax burden, but everything else is taxable. As with
things o this nature, speak to an expert.
With all that in mind, it is a good idea to overestimate your unding goal, as
there will be plenty o little unexpected costs, and maybe a ew bigger ones,along the way.
FORMATTING YOUR CAMPAIGN
I you’ve made it this ar, you’ve decided to go orth and create a Kickstarter
campaign. Well done. You are about to embark on a journey both strange and
wonderul.
Opinion varies on the ideal length o time or the campaign. Conventional wis-dom would deem the longer the better, allowing more days to receive unds.
However, this line o thinking is not necessarily true, and we have ound that
shorter is actually better: the campaign stays resh and relevant, and doesn’t
appear to drag on orever. Remember, people have short attention spans on
the internet. Tirty days seems to be the sweet spot or campaign unding du-
ration, but plenty o projects have ound success with even shorter unding
periods.
In setting up reward tiers, simplicity is key. I possible, include the cost o ship-
ping in the pledge amount (or physical rewards); it becomes conusing or
backers to need to calculate and add in the shipping themselves. We made this
mistake on our Gli campaign, and it was a pain in the ass to try to collect
shipping costs ater the campaign ended. Also, it’s going to be tempting, but
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don’t get carried away with too many reward tiers. Variety is nice, but don’t
overwhelm your potential supporters with too many options, otherwise the
burden o choice might deter them rom backing your project altogether. Tat
said, don’t be araid to have some un with your reward tiers. Ze Frank is the
poster child or this (love that $69 reward tier), although taking the tiers to
that extreme is usually better suited or projects o great whimsy.
For the Cosmonaut campaign, we decided to try something dierent. Rather
than launching with traditional tiers, we instituted a “pay-what-you-want” sys-
tem, inspired by how Radiohead released In Rainbows. ongue rmly in cheek,
we also liked the socialism tie-in with the Cosmonaut branding (“pay what-
ever you can aord!”). Tere was a key distinction between our campaign and
other pay-what-you-want projects, however. We had a unding goal ($50,000)
and a limited number o slots (3000). Tis created a natural tension that was
quite ascinating to observe. I too many people “under-pledged,” the unding
goal would not be met, and no one would receive a Cosmonaut. People who had
pledged a “air” amount had to decide either to pledge more, or use the com-
ments page to coax/harass the under-pledgers into giving more.
Initially we sold out o the 3000 slots within the rst 48 hours, and were about
$5000 shy o the $50,000 unding goal. Ater some brie deliberation, we de-cided to open up new, unlimited tiers, to ensure the unding goal was met and
make sure everyone who wanted a Cosmonaut could get one. Te nal product
was more important than our game theory experiment, ater all.
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Te pledge distribution across the rst 3000 backers o the Cosmonaut
campaign. Each bar is segmented into the dollar amounts in each range,
increasing light to dark.
At the end o the day, was the pay-what-you-want experiment worth it? We
think so, although that doesn’t mean we would do it again, nor would we neces-
sarily recommend it. It was a tool to generate some great press and excitement
or the project, but we don’t see it as a sustainable unding method on Kick-
starter.
It’s a good idea to look at other successul campaigns or products that are simi-
lar to yours, and see what they did right. Checking out unsuccessul projects to
learn rom their mistakes can be helpul as well.
VIDEO
Te most important aspect o a Kickstarter campaign, besides a great product,
is the video. Video is the language o Kickstarter. It is generally the rst im-
pression a potential backer will have when they view your project.
So, what makes a good video? Kickstarter videos vary widely, but they all con-
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tain some key elements. Here is what we have ound to work well:
1) Keep it short. Your video should be 2 minutes or less, and should show the
project you are pitching within the rst 15 seconds. Be as economical with
time as possible; people have short attention spans on the internet.
2) Be personal. Share your story. Nearly all successul Kickstarter videos ea-
ture the project creator(s) speaking directly to the camera, and there is a rea-
son or this. People want to see your passion or the project, and this is the
most direct way to do that. I you are not comortable in ront o a camera, it
can be incredibly dicult, but it’s necessary. We ound that taking a couple
shots o whiskey helps take the edge o. Keep the camera rolling and do sev-
eral takes, eventually the passion and excitement (and booze) will overcomethe awkwardness.
3) Be honest. You are not a huge corporation, so don’t make a ancy video that
tries to imitate one. Speak directly to the viewer/potential backer, and let
your passion or the project shine though. By all means, your video should be
polished and well crated, but keep your audience in mind. Don’t use hyper-
bolic language or marketing terms, just be clear, concise, and honest.
Our two project videos have been like a Pixies song: sot, loud, sot. We startwith a quick talking head o us introducing the product, quickly cut to a mon-
tage o the product in action, demonstrating various use cases, and then close
the video with another talking head, this time addressing why we need the
unding. It’s a ormat that has worked well or us, but your mileage may vary.
Don’t be araid to try something new.
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View our project videos or the Gli and the Cosmonaut.
Here are some o our avorite Kickstarter videos. As you will see, they run the
gamut in terms o content and style, but the traits outlined above are present.
Jay Silver - MaKey MaKey
Frank Chimero - Te Shape o Design
im Schaeer - Double Fine Adventure
Roman Mars - 99% Invisible
PROMOTION
Many people make the mistake o thinking that once their project launches on
Kickstarter, their work is done, and they can sit back as the money rolls in. Tiscouldn’t be urther rom the truth. In reality, launching a project is the moment
the real work begins.
Kickstarter has a ew ways to eature projects, namely on their homepage or in
their weekly email newsletter. However, these shouldn’t be relied on. It’s your
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responsibility to get people to discover your project, not Kickstarter’s.
Tere are a variety o ways to drum up excitement or your project. We discuss
project promotion in-depth in Chapter Five.
CAMPAIGN UPDATES
Ater the video, project updates are the second most important aspect o any
successully run Kickstarter campaign. Te majority o backers did not just buy
in to a product idea, they want to be along or the ride, and it’s your job to pro-
vide that experience. Tis is what makes Kickstarter a unique consumer expe-
rience: everyone is let in on the “behind the scenes” action. Amazingly, people
actually do want to see how the sausage is made.We love to create “making o” videos or our products. Aside rom the act that
they are a blast to make, they are a polished and concise way to present the
creation o a product. We created a couple or our Gli campaign, and they were
our most popular updates or that project. Likewise, our Mr. Rogers Cosmo-
naut video was a big hit. Te underrated genius o the Double Fine Adventure
campaign was that they embedded a “making-o” documentary as part o the
project itsel.
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View our videos or making the Gli and making the Cosmonaut.
One tricky part o updates is nding the right cadence. I you send too many it
becomes spammy and they are largely ignored. Send too ew, and backers be-
come anxious. We generally like to wait until we have a lot o things to report,
and then bundle them up into a meaty update. Keep in mind, the update is sent
to every backers’ email inbox, so be mindul and respectul o the number o
updates you are sending.
MANAGING EXPECTATIONS
Having 5000 backers is a git. It is, however, like having 5000 bosses. Tey are
not literal investors, but a strange relationship is created between a project cre-
ator and the backers.
Our Gli campaign went astoundingly well, especially in hindsight. Funding
ended on November 2nd, 2010, and backers began receiving their Glis in the
mail a little over a month later, in time or the holidays. We skated through
the production process unscathed; all o our material choices and tolerances
were right on the money, so nothing needed to be redone. Part o that is to our
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credit or intentionally designing a very simple product, but beginner’s luck
must have been a actor as well. Unortunately, we used up all our luck on the
Gli project, leaving little or our next project, the Cosmonaut.
We learned a lot rom the Cosmonaut project, specically when it came to man-aging expectations. Te campaign launched in late March, and we set an initial
goal o delivery in June, which seemed totally reasonable based on our expe-
rience with the Gli. Ater several manuacturing delays too painul to go in
to, June turned to “late summer,” which turned to “all,” and we ultimately
delivered at the beginning o December. We cringed each time we had to send
a project update to the backers notiying them o the delay, but obviously it’s
better to bite the bullet and be honest than to leave backers in the dark.
Tere still needs to be more widespread understanding about what Kickstarter
is, exactly. Tis isn’t surprising, given that it’s a new platorm with an uncon-
ventional mix o commerce and patronage. One thing we noticed in running
our Cosmonaut campaign was that there seemed to be a real split among our
backers. Te majority “got” Kickstarter, and totally understood that delays and
manuacturing complications were all part o the process (and rankly, one o
the selling points o backing projects, in that you get to observe how a product
is made, warts and all). A vocal minority, however, expected a more traditional, Amazon-style experience. When delays occurred, they would get upset, and
even demand reunds. People are always going to be upset about delays, but
hopeully with time, the Kickstarter platorm will be better understood by the
general population, and expectations will be set accordingly.
Based on our own experience as well as observations o other Kickstarter proj-
ects, rewards tend to be delivered late. Delays and snags are inevitable, and
rst-time project creators seem to set ambitious (and perhaps naïve) delivery schedules. However long you think the project will take to complete, you may
do well to simply double that estimate. Ater all, it’s better to overestimate and
exceed expectations, rather than the opposite.
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CAPTURE ATTENTION
When your Kickstarter campaign ends, you will obviously no longer be accept-
ing pledges rom people interested in your project, but you should nd a way to
capture the people that missed out on the campaign but are still interested inwhat you’re doing.
We did this by setting up a simple webpage with a orm eld, which allowed the
user to enter their email address so that they could be notied when the prod-
uct became available or general sale. Creating witter and Facebook proles is
another wise move. Tis may seem obvious, but you want to make it as easy as
possible or interested people to connect with you.
DELIVERING
Tere is nothing quite like the satisaction o nally delivering your project to
your backers.
Tat said, the handling o address collection or reward ulllment is one o
Kickstarter’s only weaknesses. Tis is done through a survey that can gener-
ally only be sent once via email, cannot be linked to, and allows users only a
short window to edit their inormation ater submission. I you are ortunateenough to have backers numbering in the thousands, this can be a real head-
ache, but it appears that Kickstarter is continually working to improve their
system. Tankully, once all o the survey results are in, you can easily export
all the results as a spreadsheet, which can then be used as a checklist i you are
ullling orders manually, or uploaded directly to your ulllment service i
you take that route (more on this in the next chapter).
We recommend holding o on sending the backer survey till as late in the game
as you can. Ideally, just a ew weeks beore you are ready to start shipping. I
you send it too early, some people will inevitably move and manually managing
address changes can get quite cumbersome. Also, don’t annoy backers with ad-
ditional, unnecessary questions on the survey, e.g., “What do you plan on using
Product X or?!” Save that or a dierent and optional survey. Te Kickstarter
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survey should be about the brass tacks, such as getting the backer’s shipping
inormation and reward preerences.
As with all things related to Kickstarter, communication with your backers is
key. Keep them up to date on delivery schedules. I you need to send the re-wards out in batches rather than all at once, communicate that, ideally in a
way that properly sets the expectations or when backers should receive their
reward. With both the Gli and Cosmonaut campaigns, we were able to send all
o the rewards out at once, which is great i you’re able to swing it.
When everything has been delivered, take a deep breath. You have run a suc-
cessul campaign, and you should eel pretty chued. Tere are going to be
some stragglers who never lled in the survey, so be prepared to handle thosead hoc or the next year or so (seriously) ater the initial delivery. Aside rom
that, have a drink. You deserve it.
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HARDWARE“I love the idea that we live in a world now where two guys
can just decide to make hardware.”
JOHN GRUBER
In an article written or Wired magazine in 2010, Chris Anderson, editor-in-
chie at Wired , claimed that “atoms are the new bits.” In his words:
ransormative change happens when industries democratize, when they’re
ripped rom the sole domain o companies, governments, and other institutions
and handed over to regular olks. Te Internet democratized publishing, broad-
casting, and communications, and the consequence was a massive increase in
the range o both participation and participants in everything digital—the
long tail o bits.
Now the same is happening to manuacturing—the long tail o things.
We’ve been ortunate enough to experience this rst hand. Services and tech-
nologies that did not even exist ve years ago are lowering the barrier or any-
one to start making hardware, and this trend will continue as technologies
prolierate and decrease in cost. Manuacturing a physical object will never be
quite as easy as starting a blog or posting a video to Youube, but it’s getting
closer.
PROTOTYPING
One o the key advancements that made both the Gli and Cosmonaut proj-
ects possible is easily accessible and cheap 3D printing. In the crudest possible
terms, 3D printing is an additive manuacturing technique that takes a digital
3D model and “prints” thin layers o plastic on top o one another until you end
3
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up with a solid plastic part. Until just recently, the only option industrial de-
signers had was to hire someone to make a cast or carve o their design, which
o course was very time-consuming and expensive. Now, with companies like
Shapeways and Ponoko, designers can order 3D prints over the internet and
have them arrive in 1–2 weeks. Amazing.
We went through about 10 iterations o the Gli beore we settled on the nal
design. Each iteration was 3D printed, and we were able to learn a tremendous
amount about what was and wasn’t working with a design by being able to hold
the physical object in our hands, and test the t on an iPhone.
Some o the various 3D printed prototypes or the Gli.
Beyond the 3D printing tools we’ve used to design our products, indie entrepre-
neurs have a whole host o prototyping tools that have only recently become
available. Arduino, the open-sourced electronics platorm, enables tinkerers to
prototype their ideas with motors, sensors, computer chips and screens. Web-
sites like eMachineShop give us access to proessional-level machine shops so
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we can create custom metal parts rom our desks.
Basically, a high school kid in the middle o nowhere can now make almost any-
thing with just his or her imagination, the internet, and a ew bucks.
FINDING A MANUFACTURER
When we reached our unding goal or our Gli Kickstarter campaign in one
day, we knew the scale o our project was growing much bigger than we ex-
pected. Our next order o business was to nd a manuacturer that could
handle that quantity. We were initially planning on using a company we ound
through Google called Protomold, which specializes in low run injection mold-
ing. When we realized the quantities were going to be much higher than wewere anticipating, and higher than Protomold could accommodate, we had to
start looking elsewhere.
We wish we had a silver bullet or magic piece o advice or nding the perect
manuacturer or your product, but it’s really pretty boring: lots o Googling
and lots o cold calls. For the Gli we called dozens o manuacturers, and end-
ed up getting quotes rom six o them. We ultimately chose Premier Source, a
small company located in Brookings, South Dakota, because they understood
what we were ater, and shared our enthusiasm or the project.
I you are planning on running a Kickstarter campaign or a physical object
that needs to be manuactured, we strongly advise you to speak with, and ide-
ally select, a manuacturer beore you launch the campaign. It is o upmost
importance to make sure your concept can even be manuactured in a cost
eective way, and some design tweaks may need to occur beore you launch.
Tis was something we learned the hard way with the Cosmonaut campaign.
Although we did have a manuacturer selected and a build process outlined, it
ended up being ar more complicated then we had bargained or, and we ulti-
mately had to hire three separate vendors to get it made.
What i you have no idea what manuacturing process you should be using?
Tere are a lot o great resources out there to amiliarize yoursel with vari-
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ous processes. Making It: Manuacturing echniques or Product Design, by Christ
Leteri, is an excellent place to start and describes common production meth-
ods in straightorward language.
MADE IN THE USA
Want to help create jobs in a country that seems to be orever lingering in a re-
cession? Want to help bring that country back to its hey day as a manuacturing
power? Make your stu in America.
Tere are many more intelligent and well inormed people who can speak to
the advantages o manuacturing overseas, but in our experience these are
shrinking, and manuacturing stateside oers some signicant advantages,especially or a company as small as ours. Just because Apple makes their stu
in Shenzen doesn’t mean we have to.
For starters, it has been a boon to be able to easily visit our manuacturers in
South Dakota. We love being directly involved with the manuacturing process,
and this is especially easy when the plant is located in the States. O course it
is not impossible to travel to China, but it is certainly more dicult and expen-
sive.
As two young guys with no manuacturing experience, we were susceptible to
all kinds o rookie mistakes, but thankully Premier Source was ready and will-
ing to guide us through the whole process. Tey immediately understood our
objectives and design goals, and were able to help us make smart design deci-
sions that would improve the manuacturing side o things. We doubt we would
have gotten that kind o attention i we tried to outsource overseas.
Perhaps most importantly, it eels right. Tere is no way we could be doing whatwe are doing i not or the opportunities presented to us by living in this coun-
try. Sure, it might cost a little more to manuacture in America, but we think
it’s more than worth it.
Obviously, or huge companies like Apple, manuacturing anywhere other than
Asia simply doesn’t make nancial sense. But what about or smaller compa-
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nies, like ours? For the answer to that, we turn to our riends Che-Wei Wang
and aylor Levy o CW&, a duo that launched their awesome and rugged Pen
ype-A on Kickstarter, and raised $281,989. Tey manuactured their product
in China, so we decided to ask them about their experience:
Our Kickstarter campaign ended mid-August 2012. Like Studio Neat with the
Gli, we were blown away by the amount o pre-orders we received rom back-
ers. Our original goal was to make 50 pens and we ended up with over 5,500
pre-orders.
We chose to manuacture Pen ype-A at the same actory in China where our
prototypes were made. We were happy with them, and assumed that i they
could make our prototypes, then they could make several thousand. We otenwork with China when we make prototypes, but we had never tested a medium
scale abrication run. We were curious to see i it was possible.
Over the course o a year, we worked with and red two dierent Chinese ac-
tories. Early on, they both told us that they could meet the specications and
manuacture our pens without a problem. We red the rst actory ater a
week. o make a very long story short, they simply were not equipped with the
machines or expertise required to make the pens. We learned a lot, but we were
happy to cut our losses. Working with the second actory was a much dierent
experience. It was owned and operated by two engineers, one American and
the other Chinese, who were riends rom a prominent US business school. Tis
actory actually managed to ulll most o our order, but only ater problems
with quality control, meeting specications, price increases, signicant delays,
misleading us about how the pens were being made, lawyers getting involved
and oh! we had to remake 30% o one o the parts in America. It was a grueling
process.
Pen ype-A requires 4 parts to be precision machined out o stainless steel. It’s
not the easiest material to work with, but it’s certainly not unusual. One o the
biggest challenges o working in China is that anything that can be made by
hand, is made by hand. Even when we were assured parts were being made on a
CNC (computer numerically controlled) machine, we ound plenty o inconsis-
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tencies as a result o manual labor.
Another big challenge was communication. Language wasn’t the problem, but
communicating how crucial it was to have products that met our specications
precisely was incredibly dicult. Our abricator would oten qualiy substan-dard parts as “good enough” in an attempt to sidestep specications. o give
China the benet o the doubt, we are extremely nit-picky. And I think it’s air
to assume that i you are reading this book, you probably are too. Our rst pri-
ority is to be proud o what we’re making, and we demand quality that meets
our expectations. Good manuacturers would never sidestep specications. I
something turns out to be harder than expected they will suggest alternatives
that oten improve the design while solving manuacturing issues.
Small studios should take a long hard look at where they have stu made. Sure,
plenty o garment and electronics brands pull o manuacturing in China on-
time and in-budget with great quality. But, unlike a giant corporation, we don’t
have the leverage o multi-million dollar contracts. As a two-person team, we
bear the ull responsibility o delivering products to our customers. We are the
customer support hotline, R&D, PR, accounting, etc. Te last thing we need is
extra demands clouding our super valuable creative time.
We now work with a manuacturer in Vermont that shares our attention to
detail and has standards o quality that surpass any actory we’ve ever seen.
We visit them oten to see how they operate and to talk to machinists on the
foor, ace to ace. Tere’s nothing more reassuring than a machinist who tells
us how uneasy it makes him when a part comes out measuring 1 thousandth o
an inch o when the specications show a tolerance o 5 thousandths (that’s
0.001” vs 0.005”). Quality is ensured by the culture o the entire operation, not
just a quality control department that has to sit through thousands o parts to pick out and reject bad parts.
We can only speak rom our experience, but or us, the benets o working with
a domestic manuacturer greatly outweigh the benets o manuacturing in
China. We say that now, and you’ll probably hear it over and over again. In
the ace o comparing quotes that are a raction o another, it might be hard to
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swallow, we know.
Instead o debating the pros and cons, our advice is to test it or yoursel. Pick
a ew US shops and a ew overseas. Have each o them make a small sample
production. Budget that into your project, and evaluate the results or yoursel. An important thing we learned is that no two manuacturing projects are ever
the same. Regardless o a abricator’s experience, surprises are inevitable.
Manuacturing is hard. Tere are no shortcuts. Regardless o where something
is made, you get what you pay or. No magic, no secrets, and always lots o
surprises.
Many o CW&’s insights apply beyond just manuacturing in China. It is al-
ways a good idea to seek out several options, or anything, in order to make an
inormed decision. And o course, as they said, you get what you pay or.
PACKAGING
I you are in the game o making and selling hardware products, packaging is
an integral component. Te packaging is a way to make that all-important rst
impression on the customer, a chance to surprise and delight them.
Like everything we do, we strive or simplicity in our packaging. We are in a
unique position, selling essentially online only, so we don’t need to make our
packaging “retail riendly.” Tere are other considerations to keep in mind
when something is being shipped through the mail, certainly, but it is nice to
not have to worry about how it will look when sitting on a store shel.
Coming up with packaging ideas and prototyping them is lots o un, at least
or us. It harkens back to our model making days in architecture school. Like
architectural models, we nd it most productive to grab an Exacto knie and
some cardboard (we use cereal boxes) and dig in. It’s also un to seek out dier-
ent types o packaging or inspiration.
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Packaging or the Gli, Gli+ and Cosmonaut.
For the Gli, we went as minimal as possible: black ink printed on krat board,with a simple die cut to house the Gli. Te shape o the Gli allowed it to stay
in place, suspended in the middle o the card, without any additional reinorce-
ment needed.
When we expanded the Gli line to include the Gli+, we wanted to try some-
thing a little cheeky. In the spirit o “using every bit o the bualo,” we designed
the packaging to turn into a mini tripod (technically a bipod). It’s not particu-
larly practical, but could be used in a pinch.
Our most well received packaging, by ar, was or the Cosmonaut. It’s our most
traditional package, a simple box, tray, and sleeve, but when you slide the box
out o the sleeve it reveals the Cosmonaut, with little rocket ns printed on the
side o the tray. Ready or take o.
All o our packaging is printed on recyclable krat material. Again, because it is
not meant or a retail space, we have an easier time nding a more eco-riendly
solution.
Finding a printer was a process similar to that o nding a manuacturer; we
used Google to do our research. Printers are usually happy to send various
packaging samples; take advantage o this to evaluate what their work is like.
We ended up going with Keystone Folding Box Co., located in New Jersey, and
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they’ve been great.
ORDER FULFILLMENT
With our pre-launch goal o selling 500 Glis, we had planned to spend a week-end or two stung envelopes, and mailing everything ourselves with a ew
trips to the post oce. When our project blew up beyond our expectations, shit
got real.
We didn’t know anything about order ulllment services, and we had to learn,
quickly, i we wanted any chance o getting the Glis into backers’ hands beore
the holidays. We wanted the Gli to be neatly tucked underneath the Christmas
tree alongside Nintendo 64s and Super Soakers (wait, what year is it?).First, let’s take a step back. What is an “order ulllment service?” Remember
watching late night V ads where the product would cost X dollars plus Ship-
ping and Handling? Order ulllment is the Handling part o that equation.
You send a ulllment company your inventory, bulk packed rom your manu-
acturer. Tey stock your inventory, and when an order comes in (typically rom
your ecommerce site) they process it, pack it up, and ship it to the customer.
I you are making and selling a physical product that needs to be shipped to acustomer, using an order ulllment service is not necessarily a given. Tread-
less, the popular crowd voting t-shirt company, began by ullling orders
themselves, and as they grew, so did their warehouse space. attly , the designy
temporary tattoo company ounded by ina Roth Eisenberg, ullls its orders
in-house as well. I you have just succeeded in getting unding or your Kick-
starter campaign, and you have a relatively modest number o backers, ulll-
ing the orders yoursel will be the most cost eective option.
However, in some circumstances, hiring a ulllment service is necessary, and
awesome. It is one o the chie reasons the two o us are still the only two em-
ployees o Studio Neat. We have warehouses stocking our inventory in Los An-
geles, Philadelphia, and the United Kingdom. Orders made at www.studioneat.
com are sent directly to our ulllment center, and they take care o the “Ship-
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ping and Handling.” At this point, it’s a airly hands-o process or us.
We decided to use Shipwire, and they’ve been a antastic partner. Tey have
six warehouses across the world (we stock inventory in three o them), which
makes it easy to grow without inordinate complication and headache. Depend-ing on the quantity shipped per month, Shipwire takes around $2 per item
shipped plus the cost o the packing materials and shipping. Tis is a pretty
standard rate or ulllment services. Tey also charge a small monthly ee or
renting space or your inventory in their warehouse.
One operational problem that continues to vex us is maintaining proper inven-
tory levels. im Cooks, we are not. Ideally, the minimum amount o inventory
should be maintained to satisy demand, but this is tricky when unexpectedspikes and lulls occur. Our current method is to build up several months o
inventory, and hope the rug doesn’t get pulled out rom under us.
SELLING ONLINE
99% percent o our business is selling products online. People are oten sur-
prised when they learn that we don’t pursue physical retail opportunities. Tis
may seem obvious, but we eel the population likely to seek products like ours
has reached a point where they are totally comortable shopping online, and it
is clearly possible or a company to exist with an online-only presence.
We use Shopiy as our ecommerce platorm o choice. It’s secure, reliable, and
interaces beautiully with Shipwire, our order ulllment service. It is also ul-
ly customizable; our storeront is a unique, non-templated design. Shopiy also
has several options or payment gateways. We use Braintree (or credit cards)
and Paypal, but there are many more options as well.
Aside rom Shopiy, we also sell our products on Amazon.com. Tis has been,
in a word, awesome. Amazon unctions like a combination o Shopiy and Ship-
wire in that they act as the ecommerce platorm and the ulllment company.
Creating a listing on Amazon is straightorward, and they make it easy to send
inventory to them by providing prepaid, printable UPS labels. We make slightly
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less money on a product sold on Amazon versus on our website, but the conve-
nience o having our products on Amazon (or us and the customer) makes it
worth it. Amazon also handles the customer service or items sold on their site,
so that helps deray the cost as well.
WHOLESALE
When our manuacturer packages our inventory, we have them pack 50 items
into a smallish box, and then pack our o those smallish boxes into a larger
box. Te reason we take this extra step is simple: wholesale.
Wholesale is a way or people who have stores o their own (either online or re-
tail) to sell our products. ypically, those interested in our products have pho-tography, gadget, or Apple centric stores.
We oer all o our products at wholesale prices to anyone interested. All it is,
essentially, is a discount or purchasing a large quantity o our stu. We pack
the items in the smaller boxes o 50, which is a reasonable starting quantity or
resellers.
It sounds airly simple, but be wary, as selling wholesale can add a lot o compli-
cation to your business. Resellers will sometimes ask or exclusivity contracts(exclusive rights to sell in a specic country or region), drop ship arrangements
(they make the sale but we are responsible or shipping the order), or net 30
payment terms (a 30 day window to make payment ater the order has been
shipped). While none o these are unreasonable requests, it can become a chore
to maintain those relationships.
We ultimately decided to streamline our terms. Essentially, when you buy
wholesale rom us, you are simply getting a discount or purchasing a largequantity at once. We don’t oer exclusivity, and you have to pay or the order
beore it ships, just as any customer would. Some resellers could balk at those
terms, and we may lose some resellers as a result, but i the end result is a dra-
matically simplied way o maintaining that aspect o our business, the trade
o is worth it.
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RETAIL
We’ve gone back and orth when it comes to getting our products into brick
and mortar stores. On one hand, it would be quite satisying to see the Gli
in Apple Stores, side by side with the product that inspired its design. On theother hand, we’ve heard that retail can be an absolute bitch, with slim margins,
and lots o people in the middle taking small bites out o your prot every step
along the way. Additionally, the retail store will oten have strict guidelines
about packaging, pricing, etc. And some stores will heap all o the risk on to
you, meaning, i your product doesn’t sell, you are orced to buy it back rom
them. Sounds like a great deal, eh?
Tere seem to be two games at play. With retail, you have low margins, less con-
trol over the presentation o the product, and little direct customer interaction,
but you have the potential to make it up with quantity sold. By selling direct
online, you cut out all middlemen, have complete control over the product, and
get to interact directly with your customers. You may not sell as well, but the
margins will be much higher. For us, the choice was easy. We started indie, so
we’ve decided to stay that way.
For some products, pursuing retail makes a lot o sense. I you design an inno-
vative new kitchen utensil, or example, you might have much greater success i
shoppers “discover” it in the right retail store, rather than hoping they stumble
upon it online. Furthermore, you may simply have a product that is dicult to
ship through the mail, or something that needs to be touched or elt to be ully
appreciated. We are ortunate to have products ideally suited or an online au-
dience, but this is not the case or everyone.
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SOFTWARE“Most people make the mistake o thinking design is what it looks like.
People think it’s this veneer—that the designers are handed this box and
told, ‘Make it look good!’ That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just
what it looks like and eels like. Design is how it works.”
STEVE JOBS
Beore leaving our jobs to pursue Studio Neat ull time, om worked as a sot-
ware developer and Dan worked as an interaction designer, so it’s a bit unny it
took us until our third product to make an iOS app.
Our rst app, Frameographer, was released in March o 2012. It is a simple
(surprise, surprise) app or creating stop motion and time-lapse videos on the
iPhone. Our goal was to create something easy enough or anyone to pick up
and use, yet capable enough to satisy most users. Perhaps more importantly
though, we wanted the app to be un to use. Our physical products bend to-wards utilitarianism, so making our rst piece o sotware oered some great
opportunities to delight our customers in new ways.
AN ECOSYSTEM
Ecosystem is a word that gets tossed around a lot, especially in the tech world.
In this context, an ecosystem reers to the various products, services, and con-
tent oered by a single company, meant to play o one another. Companieslike Apple and Amazon have thriving ecosystems, and by buying into one you
essentially get “locked in” to that platorm.
On a smaller scale (like how we operate), an ecosystem is not designed to lock
in customers, but to create a sense o cohesion between products. Everything
appears to be cut rom the same cloth, as it were.
4
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When we created the Gli, we knew that making stop motion and time-lapse
movies was going to be a popular use or our handy little tripod mount. Tese
two techniques require a still, motionless camera, so the Gli was an obvious
t. What we also realized is that while there were plenty o apps in the App
Store or creating time-lapse and stop motion movies, none o them were that
great. Tey typically suered rom one o two problems: needlessly cluttered
and complex, or lacking certain eatures and export quality. We hoped to hit
the sweet spot: an easy-to-use and capable creative tool.
Te project view in Frameographer.
DESIGNING THE APP
Te rst step o any new design project is to check to make sure a antastic solu-
tion to our problem didn’t already exist. We surveyed the scene in the App Store
to check out what was available or making stop motion and time-lapse movies.
I there was already an awesome app or that in the store, we would not build
one. We have limited time and resources, so we only move orward on projects
where we eel we can make a signicant contribution to the space.
We should probably mention, we chose iOS as the platorm without even a sec-
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ond thought. Tis might seem smug or arrogant to ans o Android, but they
can go stick it (only kidding). Tere are our main reasons we chose iOS:
1) Ecosystem. Te Gli is designed specically or the iPhone 4/4S, and Fram-
eographer was meant to compliment our hardware, so it wouldn’t make senseto design it or a dierent device.
2) Fragmentation. Android is more ragmented than iOS, meaning it is spread
across several dierent device types, with various screen sizes and internal
specs. With the limited resources we have (only the two o us), it made sense
to design or the OS that reaches the most people with the least amount o
(re)design work. Te “bang or your buck” actor, i you will. We even cut
down on the ragmentation urther by allowing Frameographer to run ononly Retina display devices.
3) Monetization. Anecdotal evidence has shown that iOS users are more willing
to pay or apps than Android users. Tis may not remain true orever, but it
seems to be the case at present.
4) Familiarity. We have been using iOS since its inception, and we believe a-
miliarity with a platorm leads to better design. We’ve become intimately
amiliar with the UI (user interace) conventions simply by using our phoneseveryday.
Te app we designed comprises three main screens: Home, Capture, and Proj-
ect. We decided on this organizational structure early on, but each screen went
through countless iterations. We also went straight rom sketches to pixel-
perect mock-ups. I you’ve ever worked at a design rm it might seem bizarre
to skip the wirerame stage, but that’s one o the advantages o making an app
with just two people. We don’t have various stages o “approval,” so we can skipsome steps.
For an in-depth look at the making o Frameographer, you can read this blog
post we put together.
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ANIMATED WALKTHROUGH
One unique approach we took in designing the app was creating a ully ani-
mated, pixel-perect UI walkthrough video. We initially did this because we
planned to hand the design o to other developers, but it still proved to beuseul ater we decided against that plan and om took over coding responsi-
bilities.
In iOS apps, and in our app especially, animation is a key part o the user ex-
perience. Screens slide in and out o transitions, things moves when you touch
them, and objects have a sense o physics to them that is hard to convey in a
mockup or wirerame. Creating a UI walkthrough video is denitely time con-
suming, but it can be a useul tool. We actually consider the walkthrough video
our rst prototype, and showed it to a handul o people to make sure the ows
and interactions made sense.
It’s interesting to look back now at the walkthrough video to compare the orig-
inal vision or the app with what we ultimately ended up making. Although
some things remained in place, the nal app is dramatically simplied and im-
proved rom the walkthrough video, a testament to the iterative design pro-
cess. Te walkthrough video can be viewed here.
HIRING OUTSIDE HELP VS. DOING IT YOURSELF
When we rst started designing the app, neither o us were procient in iOS
development, so our initial plan was to hire outside developers. At the time
we were ocusing our eorts on getting the Cosmonaut manuactured, so we
gured we could ully design the app, and then ofoad the development work
to a couple riends who run a small app development studio.
Long story short: it didn’t work.
Our experience is too specic to make any sweeping generalizations about hir-
ing riends to do development work, or hiring outside help at all. But speaking
anecdotally, we have been much happier doing everything in-house, and think
the product is better as a result.
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Initially, the creation o the app was happening in two very discrete phases:
design and development. We designed the entire user experience, provided pix-
el-perect, layered Photoshop les, and created an animated UI walkthrough
video to demonstrate the ow and animations. All o this was then passed o
to the developers, who began building our design. Tis kind o compartmental-
ized, segmented design process is not uncommon in many design agencies, but
rom our limited experience, we think the product suers when ollowing that
process.
Design and development are intertwined, and they eed o one another. Sep-
arating the two prevents serendipitous discoveries rom occurring. Further-
more, it is simplistic to assume a piece o sotware can be ully designed, and
then sent o to a land o magical development where all your app dreams come
true. Questions will arise, technical challenges will occur, and the back and
orth between design and development is critical to working through these.
Ultimately, om learned Objective-C and we brought the project back in-house.
Te biggest advantage o this, o course, was the tight melding o design and
development. We were able to uss over every tiny detail, and quickly iterate
new ideas.
What we’ve learned rom this is that it’s best to do things yoursel whenever
you can. Even i it requires learning a new skill, in the end it will be worth it. It
might seem like a big deal that om picked up Objective-C, and it kind o was,
but it was something that was within reach. Tere is generally no harm in tak-
ing the time to learn something new, and oten times it will pay o handsomely
in the uture.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
Naming products can be a un exercise. New projects start to eel tangible and
“real” when they are given a proper title. Te importance o a good product
name is obvious, but in time any meaning ades away and it simply becomes
a symbol or the product. ake the iPad, or example. Remember how many
people hated the name when it was introduced? “It sounds like a eminine hy-
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giene product!” (kids can be so cruel). Fast orward a couple years, and no one
thinks twice about it.
For our iPhone app, we settled on the name “Frames” quickly. It sounded nice,
spoke equally to time-lapse and stop motion techniques, and had a style that tnicely alongside other Apple apps (e.g., Numbers, Pages).
wo days ater launching the app, we received an email rom the CEO o a com-
pany called ech4Learning, which makes Windows and Mac sotware or the
educational sector. Incidentally, they too had an app called Frames, which is
or—you’ll never guess—creating stop motion animations. It had been around
since 2006.
Hearing about the existence o this app, although in a dierent domain, was a
real punch in the gut. We were backed into a corner, and it was completely our
ault. Although we did our due diligence in checking the Apple App Store, we
ailed to consider the reach o trademark across domains. A simple trademark
search would have revealed that “Frames” was already taken.
Ater some hemming and hawing, we realized that the only reasonable course
o action was to change the app name. So, ater even more deliberation, we
picked “Frameographer.” Although we really loved “Frames,” we have grown tolove “Frameographer” as well. Te act that it is a unique, invented word also o-
ers some advantages, including our ability to “own” it, in a matter o speaking.
Obviously it’s not ideal to change the name o a product ater it’s out in the
wild, but in this case we didn’t have much o a choice. Fortunately, we learned
that this change wasn’t as big o a deal as we eared.
THE ICON
Te design o an app icon is one o the most important parts o the app. Not
only does it occupy a prominent chunk o real estate on the user’s home screen,
it is the primary way an app is represented in the App Store. Te easiest way to
signal to a potential customer, “hey, this app is high quality,” is to have a well
designed, high quality icon.
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We went through dozens o iterations beore we nally arrived at a design that
made us happy. It was the part o the app we were ussiest about, and nearly
lead to the dissolution o Studio Neat (not really).
We started o by having a graphic designer riend take a pass at the icon. Wedidn’t give too much direction, other than showing her the UI o the app and
giving her a ew napkin sketches o icon ideas. We liked where we ultimately
ended up, but ater sitting with it or a ew weeks we thought we might be able
to improve upon it, so we both continued sketching our own ideas. Ater being
unsatised with where that netted out, we decided to bring in the big guns
and hired Te Iconactory . When everything was said and done we’d produced
about 50 dierent icons.
Some o the Frameographer icon designs. Final design is on the right.
It might seem silly to spend this much time and attention on a 114x114 pixelsquare, but as stated beore, the app icon is incredibly important. I you don’t
eel comortable making the app icon, hire a graphic designer to make it or
you. People do judge the book by the cover, so make a nice cover.
NUMBERS
So, how did we do? We thought it would be interesting to reveal our app sales
numbers, to give an idea o how an app like ours, with the publicity it received,
does in the App Store.
We sold 9,179 copies o Frameographer in the rst week, 2,457 on the rst day
alone. We received some great press on the rst day, including posts rom
UAW, Macstories, Shawn Blanc, and Benjamin Brooks. At its peak, Frameog-
rapher reached #55 in the overall Paid rankings, and #5 in the Photography
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section. Four days ater we launched, our app was eatured by Apple in the New
and Noteworthy section o the App Store, and was moved to What’s Hot the
ollowing week.
Our second week netted 4,488 sales, and the week ater we had 1,775 sales. As you can see rom the graph, our sales continued along this classic long tail
shape.
Frameographer sales in the App Store.
Another interesting (and perhaps unsurprising) tidbit we learned: keywords in
the app title matter. For the 1.3 update, as an experiment, we changed the app
name rom “Frameographer” to “Frameographer - Stop Motion & ime-Lapse.”
In the search results or “stop motion,” we jumped in ranking rom 31st to 1st;
likewise, a search or “time-lapse” jumped us rom 25th to 5th. As a result, our
sales eectively doubled, although this bump in sales was also a result o someoutside press. It also appears that the algorithm Apple uses or search ranking
is constantly being tweaked, as our ranking tends to uctuate.
By numbers alone, these sales look great, but our app is only $2.99 (which is
actually high by App Store standards). Subtract Apple’s 30% cut, and Frameog-
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rapher alone would not be enough income or the two o us to live on i it was
our only source o revenue. In our case, that wasn’t our goal or intention, but
it should be kept in mind i you are an aspiring app developer with dollar signs
in your eyes. Obviously, results may vary, as all apps are unique and beautiul
snowakes. Tese numbers are simply provided as a reerence point.
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PROMOTION“The biggest myth ever perpetuated in the design feld is that
good design sells itsel.”
MIKE MONTEIRO
Someone smarter than us said that the enemy o those who create things is
not piracy, it’s obscurity. Very ew people will discover your products serendipi-
tously; it is up to you to put them in ront o their eyes.
Both o our Kickstarter projects went o without a dime spent on advertising.
We were ortunate enough to get some antastic blog coverage, and both proj-
ects spread virally across the web.
Having a Kickstarter project is a lot like having an app in the App Store: that
act, in itsel, does not make it interesting. Te novelty o both has or the most
part worn o, and the quality and originality o the product is what needs tostand out.
Tis chapter will discuss methods or promoting your product. When you are
running a Kickstarter campaign, it’s a bit weird to be spending money on adver-
tising when you are trying to raise it to make your thing, but there are plenty o
ways to get “ree” publicity. Te paid examples in this chapter apply to products
that are already established.
INTERNET FAMOUS
One o the most valuable (and humorous) classes Dan took while in grad school
at Parsons was called Internet Famous. It was taught by Jamie Wilkenson,
James Powderly, and Evan Roth, no strangers to the Internet ame game. Te
goal o the class was simple: to try to get noticed on the Internet. As silly and
5
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narcissistic as that sounds, it provided an invaluable exercise in attempting to
understand what makes the web tick, and more specically, how to get trac
without spending money. Te key lesson, in a nut shell, is to be proactive. Te
bloggers will rarely come to you; it is your task to make their job easier by seek-
ing them out and providing the pertinent inormation.
I you are looking to promote your project, it likely alls into a niche category
that is covered by an inuential blogger, and you probably already ollow and
are huge ans o them. Send them an email, but not just a blanket, copy and
pasted PR statement. Write to them directly. Make it personal. Keep it short
and sweet, but try to convey why you think that writer, specically, might be
interested in your project. It is oten a good idea to reerence something they
have posted in the past, by way o explaining why your project is a good t or
their blog. Some bloggers also like or you to include a handul o screen resolu-
tion images, thus saving them some legwork.
I a writer posts a link to your project, send them a short note o thanks. Use
those manners your mother taught you.
THE GRUBER EFFECT
John Gruber is a man o exquisite taste who writes or Daring Fireball, a web-
site ocusing on technology and design through the lens o Apple products. He
has an enormous ollowing; anyone with more than a passing interest in Apple
likely subscribes to his RSS eed. Remember back in the 90’s when Oprah would
add a book to her Book Club and it would immediately become a best seller?
Gruber has that type o inuence in the tech community.
We had the good ortune o having a modest rapport with John, as he had
linked to Dan’s blog a couple o times in the past. Te day we launched the Gli
campaign, we sent him an email with a link to the project page, and oered to
send him a prototype to check it out early.
On the morning o October 4th, 2010, John Gruber linked to our Kickstarter
campaign on Daring Fireball. Te post was innocent enough, only 167 charac-
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ters. 1 hour and 25 minutes ater the post went live, we surpassed our unding
goal o $10,000, and nished the day with over $25,000.
Te 167 characters that eectively launched Studio Neat.
Te point o this anecdote is not to tell you to email John Gruber so your proj-ect will be successul. Don’t do that, in act, as we’re sure he’s inundated with
Kickstarter related emails at this point. Te point is, communities oten have
“tastemakers” that set the conversation. Malcolm Gladwell reers to these peo-
ple as “Mavens.” For all things Apple, that person is John Gruber, but there is
likely someone similar or the community to which your product belongs. Tese
individuals are oten more inuential, in this context, than larger publications
like Te New York imes. Tree cheers or the Internet being the great equalizer.
WEB ADS
raditional web ads are oten seen as the bane o the internet. Several browser
plug-ins exist to block obnoxious and obtrusive ads, and services like Insta-
paper are created partially to remove such clutter. However, there are some
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examples o web ads being tasteully done, notably Te Deck Network, run by
Coudal Partners. Tis ad network has a highly curated selection o webpages
that your ad will appear on (some o the best websites on the web), and only
one ad is ever displayed on any o these webpages at once. Other ad networks,
such as Fusion and Carbon Ads, use this same method. We tried Te Deck or
a month to advertise the Gli, and liked the results we saw, although it can be
hard to gauge the value o an “impression.” Google Analytics cannot track how
many brains subconsciously absorbed the content o the ad. Yet.
We have only run a couple small ad campaigns, so our sample size is small. But
our impression is that it is simply not as eective as other advertising methods
we have tried.
Tat’s not to say it won’t work or you, especially i your product is better suited
or this type o advertising. Our goal or the ads is to make a direct sale, rather
than simple brand building, so one explanation or the tepid response is our
ads were shown in places where people are not in a “buying” mindset.
As an experiment, we also tried a short Google Adwords campaign, but the
results were disappointing. We have learned to trust much more targeted ap-
proaches.
EMAIL CAMPAIGN
As part o the Kickstarter survey we sent out to obtain our backers’ mailing
addresses, we included an option or backers to add their email address to our
mailing list. Likewise, we oer this option as part o the checkout process in
our online store (opt-in, not out). Having a mailing list is not a new concept by
any stretch, but we have ound it to be a very useul platorm or announcing
new products, so it’s worth mentioning. It’s the most direct way to announce
something to your most dedicated ans, shy o calling them on the phone or
visiting their homes, which we strongly advise against. We use Mailchimp or
our email campaigns and we’ve been happy with them.
Also, always make your mailing lists opt-in (the “checkbox” should be un-
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checked by deault). C’mon, don’t be a dick.
SPONSORSHIP
Tis is our avorite method o advertising. Essentially, popular blogs oer theopportunity or a company to sponsor their blog or one week or a set ee. In
most cases, a post about your company will go up at the beginning o the week
and will be seen by the site’s RSS subscribers, generally the most loyal readers
o the site. Daring Fireball, Swiss Miss, Te Loop, and many other blogs, large and
small, employ this type o sponsorship. I you are a bit gun shy, try sponsoring
a smaller blog, which will only set you back a couple Benjamins.
We love this method o advertising because it targets a very specic audiencewe are going ater: tech enthusiasts, designers, people who know what RSS is,
etc. It’s the best bang or your buck. Even i your product is not tech related,
you always want to be targeting the most dedicated and passionate subset o
any group.
Podcast sponsorships have been surprisingly eective as well. We sponsored
Dan Benjamin’s antastic podcast network 5by5 earlier this year, and were
blown away with the results. We assumed podcast sponsorship would not be
as eective as blog sponsorship, given that people oten listen when it is not
exactly convenient to buy a product (like in a car or on the subway). What we
didn’t account or, however, was the human element. Having your ad read out
loud is quite dierent than having it displayed as text on a webpage. It also
helps when a guy like Dan Benjamin is reading your spot—he’s an excellent
pitchman.
We are ortunate that our products ll a niche that is easy to target with spon-
sorship advertising. What i your product has more o a mainstream appeal?
Tat’s a bit out o our wheelhouse, but we think the strategies discussed here
are still sound. arget the most passionate, early adopters, and they will be-
come the evangelists or your product.
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DEAL SITES
Daily deal sites are another potential avenue to promote your product. We have
limited experience in this area, but we did do a 3-day ash sale or the Gli on
Fab.com.
Fab is an invite-only ash sale website that hosts well made, “designy” prod-
ucts. Te products are oered at a generous discount, and the sales typically
last 24 to 72 hours. Fab collects the orders and then passes along the mailing
inormation or each buyer when the sale ends. Te seller is responsible or or-
der ulllment; this arrangement is known as a drop shipment. You determine
a set quantity to sell in advance, and a lot o the times the product will sell out
beore the sale ends.
Te buyers on Fab were denitely the kind o people we want to target, but we
question the useulness o utilizing the site as a promotional technique. Our
sale went well and we sold out o our allotted inventory, but we are unsure i
the amount o people who discovered the product as a result o the sale made
up or the steep discount at which it was sold. Tat said, we certainly didn’t lose
money on the deal, so there’s no harm in experimenting with your own product
to see how it goes.
TRADE SHOWS
We have attended the Macworld Expo (now known as Macworld | iWorld) or
the past 2 years. As the name implies, this is a conerence or those interested
in all things Apple. We rent a tiny booth that sits in the “Indie Showcase” sec-
tion, a small area in the back reserved or independent developers.
Tere are various reasons people set up a booth at a conerence. A lot o times it
is to promote a product and to be introduced to various resellers and distribu-
tors who might be interested in selling that product in their stores. We take a
slightly dierent approach and consider Macworld a great way to set up a little
retail shop or 3 days. We pride ourselves on keeping our operation small and
doing things ourselves, and it’s a nice opportunity to meet our customers ace
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to ace.
Running a booth at a conerence like Macworld takes quite a bit o preparation.
Te booth itsel needs to be designed, ater all. Last year we used a gridded tile
design, which made assembly and teardown pretty painless. We also screenprinted Studio Neat shirts or ourselves and printed business cards to hand
out.
I you plan on selling directly on the show oor, you’ll need to ship the invento-
ry in advance, and have a plan or what to do with unsold inventory. Some sell-
ers intentionally bring an amount o inventory they know they will sell out o,
so they don’t have to worry about that. We like to make sure we have more than
enough, and then ship the unsold inventory back to our warehouses. You willalso need to obtain a seller’s permit or whichever state you’ll be in. Also impor-
tant, you’ll need to gure out how you will accept payments. We use Square or
credit card payments, and it works wonderully. We also accept cash, o course.
Our booth at Macworld in 2011 and 2012, respectively.
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Conerences are a great opportunity to meet bloggers, press, witter riends,
etc. in person. It’s always nice to connect a name to the ace. We were able to
meet John Gruber in person when we rst attended Macworld, and it was nice
to be able to thank him or essentially launching Studio Neat (he’s a tall drink
o water, in case you’re wondering).
o that end, we also attended WWDC (Apple’s Worldwide Developer Coner-
ence) this year. Te keynote and inormational sessions at WWDC were worth-
while, but the true value o the conerence is the chance to hob nob with no-
table people in the Apple community, and to meet all o the people whose work
we greatly admire. We will denitely be back next year.
SIDE PROJECTS
We saved the best or last. Sometimes the best way to promote your products
and your company is to simply be active online. Do stu. Make things. Say
things.
Here’s one example. 37Signals runs a company blog called Signal vs. Noise. Tis
blog is not simply a PR machine or their products; rather, it’s a place to talk
about things they’ve learned, behind the scenes insight on products they are
working on, and general links to cool things on the web. It’s open and honest;
the language is conversational rather than stilted and PR-y.
Additionally, they have published two books, Getting Real and Rework, which
are both short and punchy takes on unconventional ways to run a business,
gleaned rom their own experience. Te books certainly generate revenue, but
more importantly, they are great promotional tools or the company, and a
great way or customers to learn more about, and as a result, eel more con-
nected to the company and its products. Hmm, writing a book about how your
company operates. Tat’s not a bad idea.
Another example is Marco Arment, who created Instapaper, an iOS app and
website or bookmarking things you encounter on the web to read at a later
date. On the side, he writes a blog at Marco.org, and does a podcast with Dan
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Benjamin on the aorementioned 5by5 network. As a result o these two things,
Marco has built quite a ollowing. o a lot o people, Instapaper is now more
than just another aceless service, it’s an app with a real human behind it. Peo-
ple eel a connection and relationship with the service.
We try to maintain side projects as well. Our blog, Te Russians Used a Pencil,
began as Dan’s blog about simplicity. While it maintains that same spirit, it’s
now positioned in a similar manner as the Signal Vs. Noise blog. We use it to
experiment with ideas, and to share interesting things we nd. Te impetus or
the Cosmonaut design actually started out as a blog post, exploring the right
eel or an iPad stylus. Our most viewed video to date, with over 400,000 views,
was a little Smart Cover hack or the iPad 1 that we did or un one weekend.
What all o this really comes down to is building a an base. By putting things
out there, consistently, you can orm a relationship with your customers. It
allows them to see the person behind the products. You are not a aceless cor-
poration, so why act like one?
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BUSINESS“People always ask me what my business model is, and it’s very disap-
pointingly simple to them. It’s ‘I sell something or money.’”
MARCO ARMENT
We did not set out to create a business. When we were designing the Gli back
in 2010, it was a un side project, a design challenge to answer our own needs.
Ater the Gli ’s unexpected popularity, Studio Neat LLC was ormed. Still, it
took us six months to summon the courage to quit our jobs and ocus on Studio
Neat ull time.
ina Roth Eisenberg (aka Swissmiss) oten talks about the importance o side
projects. She is sometimes reerred to as the Queen o Accidental Businesses,
in that several o her side projects have come to generate revenue without that
being her original intention. Tis is an important lesson. Te starting point
should always be to make something great. Start something on the side, see i
it turns into anything.
Our ocus, rst and oremost, is to make great products. Walt Disney said it
best: “We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more
movies.” Tat said, now that Studio Neat is our ull time occupation, it is im-
perative that we generate revenue, so that we can eat ood and have clothing
and be sheltered. Tis chapter discusses how we do that.
BOOTSTRAPPED
I you’ve been ollowing the tech sector on the internet o late (and we know
you have been), you’ll know that there has been a urry o discussion about
money. Specically, how all o these tech start-ups are supposed to make it.
6
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With the acquisition o Instagram (a company that generated $0 o revenue) by
Facebook or one billion dollars, many people are let scratching their heads.
Is this some kind o new, super secret orm o capitalism that only an elite ew
are privy too? Make zero dollars or two years, and then one handshake later,
you’re a billionaire?
Tough the Instagram buyout is an extreme example, the model is actually not
uncommon among start-ups. Te plan is to take investments and VC unding,
and then build up a user base as quickly as possible by oering a great product
or ree. Te end game is to either a) get acquired, or b) gure out a way to make
money later, typically either with ads or a reemium (ree to try with paid up-
grades) model.
It is not air to criticize all start-ups that operate this way, nor does it make
sense to. For many start-ups, the only way they ever have a chance at succeed-
ing is to grow very quickly. Social networks are a good example o this.
We hope people realize, however, that this is not the only way. Tere seems to
be a swing back in the other direction, where olks are embracing more tradi-
tional orms o business. Put simply, they create something o value and then
sell it to customers. Starting a business without taking any outside investment
unding is called bootstrapping, and there are more tools then ever or taking
this approach.
Tis is the path we have taken. It might not be the sexiest, and we will never be
acquired or one billion dollars, but we’re incredibly happy. We get to do what
we love, set our own rules, and don’t have to answer to investors.
PEOPLE MAKING STUFF, PEOPLE BUYING STUFF
One o the most satisying trends we have observed in the last ew years is the
closing o the gap between people making stu and people buying that stu.
One o the more striking examples is happening in the world o comedy.
In late 2011 Louis C.K., a hilarious and established comedian, oered his new-
est stand up special on his website or $5. Now, stand up specials are a com-
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mon ormat in the comedy world, and they are typically unded by a television
network like Comedy Central or HBO, who gain the rights to show the special
on their network while paying the comedian a lump sum. Louis C.K., however,
cut out the middleman. He unded the lming and production o the special
himsel (using the money he made rom the ticket sales rom the show that was
lmed), edited it himsel, and made it available to purchase, directly and DRM
(digital rights management) ree, on his website. He created something, then
made it easy, convenient, and aordable or people to buy it directly rom him.
Other comedians, like Aziz Ansari and Jim Gagan, have smartly ollowed
suit by oering their own specials or direct sale online.
All o the comedians mentioned above are established practitioners o their
crat, but as we’ve discussed, this direct connection between creators and con-
sumers is happening at all levels. Kickstarter, o course, oers this same kind
o satisaction. It’s more than simply getting the unding to bring an idea to
market, it’s about connecting project creators to the patrons. While the Kick-
starter projects that raise millions o dollars get all the headlines, people—
project creators and consumers alike—are drawn to the platorm because o
its ability to connect makers with users. Tat connection is just as integral to
Kickstarter’s success as are the headline-grabbing projects.
1,000 TRUE FANS
Kevin Kelly, the ounding executive editor o Wired magazine, wrote a compel-
ling piece back in 2008 called 1,000 rue Fans. Te gist o the piece is stated as
such:
A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, cratsperson, perormer,
animator, designer, videomaker, or author—in other words, anyone producing works o art—needs to acquire only 1,000 rue Fans to make a living.
A creator with 1,000 rue Fans sits at a sweet spot on the classic long tail graph:
not quite into smash blockbuster success territory, but saely out o the obscu-
rity o the long tail. A middle ground, i you will, where you connect directly
with your niche audience. Kelly again:
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Te point o this strategy is to say that you don’t need a hit to survive. You don’t
need to aim or the short head o best-sellerdom to escape the long tail. Tere
is a place in the middle, that is not very ar away rom the tail, where you can
at least make a living. Tat mid-way haven is called 1,000 rue Fans. It is an
alternate destination or an artist to aim or.
In a lot o ways, Kelly predicted the success o a platorm like Kickstarter, and
in act in his article he mentions Fundable, which appears to be a precursor to
Kickstarter. While Kickstarter does have some smash success projects making
millions o dollars (Pebble, anyone?) the vast majority o projects that are suc-
cessully unded nd small, loyal, enthusiastic audiences. Te perect ounda-
tion upon which to build a lasting business.
WORKING REMOTELY
During our rst year working at Studio Neat ull time, the two o us lived in
dierent cities (Dan in New York City and om in Durham, North Carolina). At
rst blush it seemed like this would be damaging to our business, but working
remotely turned out to be antastic. In act, now that om is back to New York
City, we still work as i remote. We typically meet via Faceime over breakast
in the morning to see what the other is up to that day, and then will IM or emailthroughout the day as needed. We use Basecamp to keep things organized, and
Dropbox to share les.
Working in dierent cities does have disadvantages o course. It makes it much
harder to shoot a demo video, or example. On the whole though, we’ve ound
being apart can be great or long, ocused work sessions. I we were together
we’d probably get distracted and end up playing Donkey Kong Country all day.
37Signals backs this up in their writings, espousing the virtues o remote work-
ing. Furthermore, their new oce in Chicago was designed to eel like a library,
a quiet place or individuals to get some work done.
Te opposing view is a set up like Studiomates, a working environment popu-
lated by some o the big guns o tech and design. Tis workspace osters col-
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laboration, and many creative projects have sprung out o Studiomates as a
result. Likewise, the main Pixar building was designed to have a large central
atrium that encourages serendipitous meetings among employees.
Clearly, both sorts o environments seem to work swimmingly. Te moral o the story is, experiment and nd what works or you. It might be dierent than
what you initially expected.
PATENTS
Obtaining patents or our products is something that at rst seemed like a
good idea.
As with things o this nature, make sure you contact an expert rather than re-lying solely on the advice rom two dudes with no legal expertise. However, it is
our understanding that the path to obtaining a patent is a black hole that sucks
up money and spits out sadness. Many people seem to have the misconception
that patents are magical things that act like a orce eld around your product,
preventing anyone rom ever ripping it o. Sadly, this is not how they work.
Here are a ew things we’ve learned about patents:
• Tey are very expensive.
• Tere are dierent varieties of patents. A design patent, which is the
“easiest” to obtain, only protects the visual ornamentation o an object,
not its unction. A classic example o this is the glass Coca Cola bottle.
Tey can patent the specic shape and design o the bottle, but obviously
they don’t have a patent on a “container that holds liquid.” Utility patents,
which do include the unction, are much more dicult (and sometimes
impossible) to obtain.
• Most patents only protect infringement within the United States. Tere
are international patents, but these are even more dicult to obtain.
• Patents do nothing to prevent people from stealing your idea. All they
do is give you the legal authority to take action i you believe someone is
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inringing. You would still need to hire a lawyer to take the perp to court.
Tis point may seem obvious, but it’s easy to overlook the cost o pursuing
legal action, on top o the cost o the patent itsel.
Ultimately, we have realized that patents are basically designed to protect largecorporations, and the idea o a small company o two people obtaining a patent
is airly ridiculous. We decided to pass.
o put things in perspective, since launching the Gli, there have been a ew di-
rect imitations that have cropped up, out o Germany and aiwan. Tere is not
much we can do, other than shrug our shoulders and carry on. Let’s imagine
or a moment we did have a heavy-duty international utility patent. How would
that change things? Would we really be willing to sink the time and money intogoing ater them? Our guess is no. We’d rather just spend that time design-
ing more great products. As long as our brand remains strong, customers will
choose the real deal versus the knocko.
BOOKKEEPING AND ACCOUNTING
Bookkeeping and Accounting are two things we have hired people to do or us,
and we think it was a wise move. Tese are two tasks that we could conceiv-
ably do ourselves, but all it would achieve is sucking our time away rom more
important things, like designing products. For the minimal cost o having a
bookkeeper and accountant, we think it’s a no brainer.
So what do these people do? A bookkeeper tracks the ow o money in and out
o your company. Tey can also make sure you pay vendors on time, make sure
people are paying you on time, etc. At rst we relied solely on reports rom
Shopiy and Google Analytics to keep us up to speed on how our sales were
doing, but once it came time to pay taxes, things got hairy. Te IRS and banks
speak a special language o “prot & loss” reports and “balance sheets;” book-
keepers help you speak that language.
An accountant does your taxes. Individuals with a normal, steady income can
usually get away with ring up the ol’ urboax and doing it themselves, but or
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anything more complex or unusual, having an accountant is a godsend. Tey
can also give advice on how to save on taxes. For example, we’re ling as an
S Corp instead o an LLC next year, a tax saving trick we never would have
thought to do ourselves.
We ound our bookkeeper and accountant with a combination o Google and
asking riends or recommendations. Otentimes it makes sense to hire some-
one local so you can visit in person, but it is not a requirement.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
Our credo rom the outset has been to run the kind o company that we would
want to do business with. You can learn a lot about a company by how it treatsits customers.
We love our customers. A lot. Plain and simple, they are the reason we have a
business to begin with. Tis may surprise many people, especially those with
ancy business degrees, but there is a direct correlation between having cus-
tomers and having a business.
o that end, we are astidious about answering customer emails. Customers
are oten shocked by and thankul or how quickly we reply to their questionsand concerns. We personally respond to every email that comes in, although
we can see this policy becoming untenable in the uture. I we end up hiring
someone to help with customer service, you can bet email response time will
be a top priority.
We also monitor what people are saying on witter, and consider that a great
place to communicate with customers. It’s also where we go to eel our hearts
explode with joy when viewing all the creative stu people have made with ourproducts.
GROWTH
So, where do we go rom here? What is our vision or the uture o Studio Neat?
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Matt Linderman at 37signals once asked the readers o their blog to help come
up with a term to describe a certain type o small, ocused company. In his
words, a company “that’s small and cares about quality and is trying to do
something great or a ew customers instead o trying to mass produce crap in
order to maximize prot.” Jason Kottke, blogger extraordinaire, came up with
a nice way to describe this type o company: small batch business. Te nam-
ing idea comes rom bourbon whiskey, but it can be applied to anyone making
small quantities o high quality products. Tis is what we aspire to.
Tere was another nice analogy in the aorementioned Wired article by Chris
Anderson. Imagine a jar ull o marbles. Tese marbles represent big compa-
nies, operating at a large scale. In between the marbles is empty space, space
that could be lled with sand. Each grain o sand is a “small batch” company,
addressing all the cracks and crevices the bigger companies can’t t into. Tere
is room or both, and the jar is eciently and completely lled by using both
marbles and sand.
Stated simply, our vision or Studio Neat is to continue making great stu. We
hope to keep growing, slowly and organically, and we are making a bet that this
new economy ueled by creators, this indie capitalism, will continue to allow
us to do that.
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OUTRO
At Studio Neat, we make tools that encourage creativity. We hope this book,
too, will act as a tool to encourage you to go out there and make stu. Tere is
no better time than now.
In a recent commencement speech or the University o the Arts, author Neil
Gaiman told the graduating class:
We’re in a transitional world right now, i you’re in any kind o artistic eld,
because the nature o distribution is changing, the models by which creators got
their work out into the world, and got to keep a roo over their heads and buy
sandwiches while they did that, are all changing. I’ve talked to people at the top
o the ood chain in publishing, in book selling, in all those areas, and nobody
knows what the landscape will look like two years rom now, let alone a decade
away. Te distribution channels that people had built over the last century or
so are in fux or print, or visual artists, or musicians, or creative people o
all kinds.
Which is, on the one hand, intimidating, and on the other, immensely liberat-
ing. Te rules, the assumptions, the now we’re supposed to’s o how you get your
work seen, and what you do then, are breaking down. Te gatekeepers are leav-
ing their gates. You can be as creative as you need to be to get your work seen.
Youube and the web (and whatever comes ater Youube and the web) can give
you more people watching than television ever did. Te old rules are crumbling
and nobody knows what the new rules are. So make up your own rules.
Godspeed.
om & Dan
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RECOMMENDED READING
Rework, by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
Getting Real, by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
Design is a Job, by Mike Monteiro
Te Laws o Simplicity , by John Maeda
Drive: Te Surprising ruth About What Motivates Us, by Daniel Pink
Poke the Box, by Seth Godin
Making It: Manuacturing echniques or Product Design, by Christ Leteri
Te Shape o Design, by Frank Chimero
Made You Look, by Stean Sagmeister
MIV: Process, Inspiration and Practice or the New Media Designer, by Hill-man Curtis
Make Your Ting: 12 Point Program or Absolutely, Positively 1000% No-Fail
Guaranteed Success, by Jesse Torn
Kickstartup, by Craig Mod
In the Next Industrial Revolution, Atoms Are the New Bits, by Chris Anderson
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TOOLS
People oten ask us what sotware, hardware, and services we use. Here is a
nearly complete list. None o these companies have paid in any way to be men-
tioned here.
Dropbox
Basecamp
umblr
Google or Domains
MailChimp
Dreamhost
Shopiy
Shipwire
Kickstarter
PayPal
BraintreeFullled by Amazon
Shapeways
Moo
WePrintBarcodes.com
McMaster-Carr
icanlocalize.com
Premier Source
Keystone Folding Box CoSwissurn/USA
Coda
XCode
JQuery
ypeKit
NetWorth Bookkeeping
Sparrow or Mac
weetDeck or iPhone
extExpander
Instapaper
Reeder
iA Writer
Byline
Pages
Rhinoceros
Solidworks Adobe Creative Suite
Final Cut Pro X
Apple Hardware
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END NOTES
INTRODUCTION
“I you add up all the trends...” : Nussbaum, Bruce. “4 Reasons Why the Future o
Capitalism is Homegrown, Small Scale, and Independent.” Fast Company. 2011.
25 July 2012.
CHAPTER ONE - PHILOSOPHY
“Don’t hal-ass two things...” : “Sweet Sixteen.” Parks and Recreation. NBC. 23
Feb. 2012.
“Simplicity is highly overrated” : Norman, Don. Simplicity is Highly Overrated. 25
July 2012.
“Simplicity is not the absence o clutter...” : Ive, Jonathan. Jonathan Ive Interview:
Simplicity Isn’t Simple. 2012. 23 May 2012.
Fried, Jason and Heinemeier Hansson, David. Rework. Crown Business, 2010.
“Storytelling is one o the most ecient...” : Chimero, Frank. Te Shape o Design.
Sel-published, 2012.
“Perhaps is sounds ridiculous...” : Kubrick, Stanley .
CHAPTER TWO - KICKSTARTER
“A good idea...” : Strickler, Yancey. Why Kickstarter? 2009. 25 July 2012.
“the world’s largest unding platorm...” : Kickstarter.com. 25 July 2012.
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CHAPTER THREE - HARDWARE
“I love the idea...” : Gruber, John. “Han Solo’s Dog.” Te alk Show. 5by5. 5 Oct.
2010.
“atoms are the new bits...” : Anderson, Chris. “In the Next Industrial Revolution,
Atoms Are the New Bits.” Wired 25 Jan. 2010.
“Our Kickstarter campaign ended...” : Wang, Che-Wei and Levy, aylor. Personal
Interview. 31 July 2012.
Nickell, Jake. Treadless. New York: Abrams Image, 2010.
Eisenberg, ina Roth. attly = 1 | Tings I’ve Learned. 2012. 25 July 2012.
CHAPTER FOUR - SOFTWARE
“Most people make the mistake...” : Jobs, Steve. Walker, Rob. “Te Guts o a New
Machine.” Te New York imes, 2003.
CHAPTER FIVE - PROMOTION
“Te biggest myth even perpetuated...” : Monteiro, Mike. Design is a Job. New
York: A Book Apart, 2012.
Gladwell, Malcolm. Te ipping Point. Boston: Back Bay Books, 2002.
CHAPTER SIX - BUSINESS
“People always ask me...” : Arment, Marco. “Te App Economy.” Planet Money.
NPR. 31 Jan. 2012.
Eisenberg, ina Roth. “Te Power o Side Projects and Eccentric Aunts.” 27 April, 2012.
C.K., Louis. “ A Statement rom Louis C.K.” 13 Dec. 2011.
“A creator, such as an artist...” : Kelly, Kevin. 1,000 rue Fans. 2008. 25 July 2012.
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“that’s small and cares about quality...” : Linderman, Matt. “Seeking a Less Preten-
tious ‘Boutique.’” 2009. 25 July 2012.
Kottke, Jason. “Small Batch Businesses.” 2009. 25 July 2012.
OUTRO
“We’re in a transitional world right now...” : Gaiman, Neil. University o the Arts
Commencement Address. 2012.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First and oremost, Studio Neat would not be a company today i not or our
wonderul Kickstarter backers and our loyal customers. Tanks or believing
in us.
Special thanks to our lovely wives, Katrina and Kacie, or being supportive
throughout and oering valuable eedback, edits, and revisions. And or let-
ting us turn our homes into Studio Neat HQ.
Many thanks to Clay Shirky or providing the oreword to this book, and our
riends Che-Wei Wang and aylor Levy or contributing their experiences with
manuacturing in China.
It has been imperative to have multiple pairs o eyes look over various drats
o the book; to that end we want to thank our dear riend Liane Noble or her
valuable eedback and revisions, Andrew Kim or his legal expertise, and Erin
Allingham or the nal copy edit and polish.
And o course, thanks to our pal Caroline Oh or the book cover and layout
design. You make our stu look good!