Joe FierHead of Builds, Delphi · Scaling expert knowledge with AI

How Kickstarter TRANSFORMED Will Ford's Entrepreneurial Journey

Name: How Kickstarter TRANSFORMED Will Ford's Entrepreneurial Journey
Uploaded: 2025-01-08T15:59:37+00:00
Duration: 42 s
Channel: Joe Fier
Description: A first-person monologue from an entrepreneur describing how Kickstarter and crowdfunding changed his approach to launching consumer products. He…

8 Jan 2025 · 1 min

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A first-person monologue from an entrepreneur describing how Kickstarter and crowdfunding changed his approach to launching consumer products. He contrasts pre-selling via crowdfunding (taking money up front, validating demand) with the older approach of placing large manufacturing orders and risking unsold inventory and deposits. The speaker emphasizes the reduced financial risk and stress when launching new products.

Chapters

I couldn't believe that I could take a prototype and pre sell thousands of units to people all over the world, take their money up front before I have to work through manufacturing, shipping, delivery. It just seemed like a no brainer for launching new consumer products. Before crowdfunding, I would try to place the largest volume order possible, and then I tried to come up with the most clever marketing strategy with launching that product. And then I better be right, because if I wasn't, right now I'm stuck with a bunch of product I can't move in most cases. I've already placed a 50% deposit down on that manufacturing order. And I've been there before too. And that's a scary place to be as an entrepreneur, especially when you're launching a new product.