#57: How To Raise $390,977 on Kickstarter With Ryan Beltran From Original Grain

Tune in this week to hear how Ryan Beltran and his team raised $390,997 on Kickstarter to fund their first shipment of Original Grain watches. Original Grain watches are made from all-natural wood and stainless steel. Original Grain is a lifestyle brand meant to emulate that of an OG – an individual that stands out from the rest: a leader, trend setter, and a down right boss.

Topics Discussed:

  • 02:30 – Background of product sourcing and Original Grain
  • 04:00 – Learning a skillset on someone else’s dime
  • 07:00 – The biggest misconception of product sourcing in China
  • 08:30 – First design, prototyping, and finding the supplier
  • 10:00 – Should you go with Alibaba or peer recommendations?
  • 11:30 – How many prototypes before launching the Kickstarter campaign?
  • 13:00 – Finding suppliers for different components of your product
  • 15:00 – Asking for customer references when filtering out suppliers
  • 16:30 – Working with minimum order quantities and Kickstarter goals
  • 18:30 – Setting tiers and levels in Kickstarter
  • 20:00 – Creating an early bird special to imply scarcity
  • 22:00 – What are stretch goals, and how to set them up?
  • 25:00 – Dangers of getting too carried away with stretch goals
  • 28:00 – Don’t confuse shipping one item with one thousand items
  • 32:00 – Shooting product photos and balancing quality/budget
  • 33:00 – Figuring out sea freight, air freight, and product packaging tips
  • 37:30 – Quick primer to sea freight, US customs, HR codes, and logistics
  • 41:00 – Amount of customer service required in a Kickstarter campaign

Mentions in the Episode:

Episode Length: 44:47

 

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