Hey, it's your ol' pal Joel! Used to write a gadget blog that wasn't about gadgets? Man, great to see you. No, no, have a seat. Can we get a couple of…yeah, no ice, thanks.
So let's get business out of the way before we eat: One of my clients is launching a Kickstarter today and I hope you'll check it out.
(I have clients now! I started a company. It isn't a media company or even a gadget blog. Just a regular, ol' fashioned intragalactic-HUMINT-and-covert-ops-themed strategic comms company, where people hire me to help them solve problems. I like it.)
The Kickstarter is set at $500k, which is a lot of money; it's also how much is needed to build a dedicated printing facility under one roof that can provide 20 museum-quality, ad-supported prints to tens of thousands of customers for free each month. That's what they need to increase production, in both volume and speed. Bear in mind this is a company that took an initial $160k Kickstarter success and 1) made a functional iPhone app 2) established a printing process that exceeds all other consumer printing quality, and 3) spun up production that is putting out 80-100k prints a month. There were many pitfalls along the way—screwed up batches of prints that had to be reprinted before delivery, equipment that was promised that didn't work, greater-than-expected software delays—but they didn't walk away from it. They pushed through it and have built a company. They've got major advertisers lined up to start sponsoring prints. They've got a plan for expansion. They're focused on making people really excited to hold memories in their hands again.
If that has caught your eye, go click on their Kickstarter and read through all stuff, maybe watch that "Robots & Lasers" video which sounds like a cheesy faux nerd reference but is quite literal, maybe kick the tires on the business model and ask some questions.
Hrm, I guess that was all business! No, ha ha, let me get it. In fact, I've got to get to another meeting. Yeah, no, for sure! Let's do this again.
