Boreas hit Kickstarter

A modular carry system seeks wings…

You know we love Boreas. And you probably know we love the innovation that’s happening in carry care of Kickstarter. So when Boreas shared their plans for a Kickstarter project, we dived in with a bunch of questions about it. If you want details on the project, go check the project page (including the rad little video). If you want to discover more about their thinking, read on…

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Carryology: Is crowd-sourcing the new black?

Boreas: I’m not sure if it’s the new black, but it is a really neat and innovative way to get people excited about a product or project. It also allows them to support you financially, which is so cool. I mean, your large or small donation can bring an amazing project into reality and it’s helping a lot of small projects get off the ground that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. For us, it’s helping us to bring a unique product to market and get some heathy buzz around the Boreas brand.

It’s neat seeing some established brands getting involved on Kickstarter. For you guys, is it as much about finding a receptive market as finding funding for an innovative project?

Exactly! We’re not ashamed in the slightest to have a project on Kickstarter! It’s 50/50 for us, funding and marketing. We’re really excited and proud of this project so if it’s successful and we use Kickstarter as a tool to make that happen, then we’re happy.

It’s almost like you will have to please lots of stakeholders now. Do you guys worry about the Kickstarter constraints (longer lead times and making forward commitments) reducing flexibility for this project?

We took the time to plan it all out, so we’re not all that concerned about the commitment side of things. We limited the number of rewards to be given out with room to exceed our goals. If it’s wildly successful, we’re ready for that too. But yes, it does have an element of stress because if you are crazy successful, you have to pony up on your end of the bargain. The key is setting realistic expectations on how much product you can produce for rewards and how long it takes to get them to the people who help fund. There’s a ton of strategy that goes into the rewards, the people who pledge and the fulfillment part of the project. I could elaborate, but it might be a bit boring. 😉

The pledges feel like really good value. Have you intentionally discounted a bit because of the uncertainty?

We didn’t discount because of uncertainty, we just wanted to reward the people who help make this project a success. We figured out how much product we needed and how much we could discount and still stay within our financial limits. I can’t stress how much these Kickstarter projects are about strategy. If you take the time to plan it out, your odds for success are really good. If you go to Kickstarter’s website they have some really interesting stats to look at.

[Editor’s note: The value of this deal is pretty epic, so it’s not surprising that they have exceeded expectation on the first day of launch. We can’t wait to see how many folk lock in for this one!]