Now that you’re over 650% funding, it may be time to reward the backers. When you said the initial goal was $38,000 to go into production, that was for the product as shown.
Someone brought up an idea that would work well as a stretch goal, namely to give the backers color options. You’re at $247k now, so let’s say that if you reach a goal of $300k you’ll make an option that the backer can opt for during the survey after the campaign is over to select a color: Silver as pictured or a black anodize. Same wood top on each.
Your next goal, say at the $350k or $400k could give backers an option on different wood tops.
Hopefully this is something you can alter in Boulder easily.
But it does not add anything to the weight of the unit being shipped, so your postage calculations remain the same as before.
Mike said
Scott still needs to come up with 561 - 18($1 supporters) = 543 Sprouts so far, so it's not as if there's tons of extra money on the table.
It's not the number of supporters, it's the ratio of initial goal vs. where you are at the moment. Scott said he only needed $36,000 to get the unit completely tooled and into production. Now that the campaign is at 752% of that initial goal, the Non-Recurring Engineering (NRE) of the initial tooling can be distributed over many more units, making unit cost lower (This assumes per-unit production cost is the same for all units)
so, in theory, there should be some extra $$ left over now that more units are sold, and this can be passed on to the backers as a ‘stretch goal.’
This also has a benefit of keeping the campaign alive. See, now that the goal is reached, there’s no real incentive for on-the-fence backers to join because the primary goal is reached. So the rate of pledges slows down. By adding stretch goals it serves as an inducement to get more backers to pledge because it serves as the next line in the sand for the backers to help you, thereby getting you more income. But if the backers don’t feel they’re getting something for their money or not contributing, they won’t jump the emotional hoop and pledge.
So, to me, a black Sprout would be a great addition to the product line. (I, for example, hate silver) A black anodize option might get me to change my mind. This helps Scott in that 1) he gets more options to sell later, and 2) the backers pay for the NRE to develop that option, and 3) more units are sold. The user gets the benefit of a choice of colors. (They can tell you what color they want during the survey at the end of the Kickstarter)
Well, the Kickstarter campaign has just concluded and the stretch goal was not met. But still, it was only by a mere $10,307. Pretty darn close by any measure.
So, now I’m wondering as I’m sure most of you are too… do we still get that nice red PS Audio power cord?
