SunFlo is a crowdfunding project that I
personally launched on Kickstarter.com. Briefly,
SunFlo is basically a solar charger project. It is about using solar energy as
a renewable, sustainable and reliable alternative. It has flexible solar panels
that can charge any device such as smartphone, tablet, laptop, or camera. It
also comes with rechargeable battery packs with removable batteries for other
uses.
SunFlo
According to Kickstarter, Kickstarter.com is one of the world's largest funding platforms that can
help you share creative ideas and projects with people. It is basically a tool
to get you connected with people that might be attracted to your project or idea,
so you make them contribute by funding a project and bringing it to life. Kickstarter
makes money with whenever a project is successfully launched and funded. There is
a 5% fee to the funds collected. However, if the project does not reach its
funding goal, there are no fees. Kickstarter has recently become a benefit
corporation. Benefit corporations are for profit companies that are obligated
to consider the impact of their decisions on society, not only shareholders
(Kickstarter).
My professor and I were behind the SunFlo project. It was such a great
experience even though it went unsuccessfully. We spent weeks building the SunFlo
project pages, shooting videos, and brainstorming the rewards to offer backers.
Once we got everything ready, we launched the project and shared it with the
community.
Our Presentation
SunFlo Page on Kickstarter
To encourage people support your project, you should have to
have good ways to get the community around you really excited to fund your
project. Kickstarter offers rewards section where project owners can post their
rewards to get people excited to fund the project. For our project, it took us
a while to estimate the profit we could make after offering rewards, because we
would not really offer expensive and/or huge amounts of rewards that could get
us lose money instead of make money.
The pictures bellow show on the right side the rewards we
offered for our project. The value of each reward was based on the amount of
money the backer pledged.
Rewards We Offered (Click on images to display full size)
By: Omar Almutlq
WOW! This was an incredible journey, Omar! thank you so much for sharing such a level of detail. This will be so helpful to those hoping to follow you. I don't understand, though, how you did not reach your funding goals because i am ready to buy now!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your support, Pat! Actually reaching the funding goal was more difficult than I thought. Having people around to pledge money on projects without knowing the creators personally could be something really challenging. Projects' creators should get the closest they can to the community around them! Keep them updated daily, and even share personal moments with them in order to make the community feel comfortable, safe and convinced about the project. I believe that was my mistake that I did not get close enough to the community.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great project and use of Kickstarter Omar. I'm sorry you didn't meet your goal. You bring up a good point in your above comment about how it's important to personally know people you donate to. I take the same approach when I donate to campaigns on GoFundMe. Do you plan on picking this project up again in the future?
ReplyDeleteThanks Andy! I believe I have had a good experience that would make me come up with another campaign in a more effective way! Probably I would choose more creative idea than solar charger which could attract more people and build up community way faster.
DeleteGreat post Omar and that's awesome that you developed that project. It seems like it would be beneficial in areas where people are environmentally conscious and third world countries where the electricity grid is not so reliable. Don't give up and look for funding... or maybe solar companies that could purchase the idea from you. Great project!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your support, Carol! I look forward to having another experience with Kickstarter and I will definitely be more ready for it.
DeleteYou have done so well as regarding your project, what a good idea. Carol, you are right, such project will boom in an under-developed or even developing countries. Thanks for sharing your story and the kickstarter website. Nice post Omar !
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, Olusola!
DeleteGreat initiative. I am huge supporter for renewable energy. Glad to see that you actually did something to address that. Even if it was't a huge success, it certainly did grabed attention and educated people. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bijay! it was a great experience though it did not end successfully! There is no doubt the renewable energy is a great project to work on. The way you track your project and make progress is what makes you succeed or fail.
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ReplyDelete