Imagine dreaming of an iconic product in your head for 3 years. On launch day -- you press the button on your Kickstarter campaign and walk away.
Two hours later after your bike ride you check the status and bingo -- thousands of dollars have already poured in on your way to a six-figure campaign.
Elated?
David Mayer, Founder and CEO of Clean Bottle sure was.
You see, Mayer is like the rest of us entrepreneurs. Lots of game changing ideas running around in his brain. And yes -- it was 3 years ago when he first had the vision for a product called The Square.
But this story begins long before his vision of 3 years ago. Mayer first started out sitting behind a desk inside a cubicle. His dream of owning a business never far from his mind as an employee of Cisco.
For 4 long years he worked hard for the Fortune 500 company while working on his startup. Slaving away during the day working for “the man”; then working his tail off at night and on weekends to build his dream business. A simple idea he uncovered that any user of a sports water bottle would understand. How to get the disgusting gunk out of the bottom of the bottle.
Born on that day was his Clean Bottle brainchild.
And after landing such coveted coverage at the Tour de France, appearing on a segment of “Shark Tank” with Mark Cuban and becoming best buddies with Bill Walton, ex-NBA superstar -- Mayer was finally able to realize his dream of business ownership and step away from the corporate world.
Not all peaches and cream though.
Even with the success of his first product; a sports water bottle that opened at each end for easy cleaning, the pressure mounted for Mayer to develop more products. And so as any good entrepreneur should do -- he listened to his customers and went to work on his next baby called The Runner.
Now conceptually speaking I have no idea whether The Runner is a good idea or not -- but Mayer made a decision to test market his new product on Kickstarter; the crowdfunding platform.
Putting together some content, images and a short video of The Runner, Mayer tries his luck on Kickstarter with a simple aim to raise $5,000. Push goes the button -- crash goes the project. Feeling extremely bummed -- Mayer sulks away after barely clearing $1,000 in the campaign.
But does Mayer totally give up and wave the white flag? No -- of course not.
Mayer digs in. He makes the commitment to rise above the wreckage and aims to figure out how to make it work on Kickstarter. Tenacity replaces bewilderment and Mayer gets to work using his next great idea: The Square -- an iconic water bottle; square in form with no match.
First thing he does? Research. He immediately contacts and sets up interviews with 15 people who have experienced successful campaigns on Kickstarter. Scouring their minds for every bit of wisdom he can -- he comes away with clarity on how to make a campaign work. Mayer spends countless hours watching videos and reading content from the very best of Kickstarter.
Next? Mayer goes all-in on wanting to create the best two and a half minute video possible. Because he realizes how impactful video is at communicating a compelling message -- this is a key turning point for him. Instead of just slapping together some home made video with cheap graphics; Mayer reaches out for a real director.
Driven to knock it out of the park, Mayer ends up spending months writing scripts and “story boarding it a million different ways”. He brings in real professional photographers and leverages his team of Apple engineers who helped create The Square to boost the story. He spends countless hours asking for, and then listening to, feedback on how to tell the story better.
And because Mayer is now intimately familiar with his target audience on Kickstarter -- he aims to make the message sexy and turn his video into a commercial where after you get to the end of it -- you’re on a rampage to hit the buy button.
In total, Mayer puts $8,500.00 of his own capital at risk to create his video for The Square to be played on Kickstarter.
But Mayer is not to be denied this time. The colossal failure of his first attempt on Kickstarter drives him to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself. Still there is some doubt. What if it bombs?
Since the first day he envisioned building a square bottle; Mayer became fixated on making his vision a reality. Wanting to create a product so iconic and beautiful where people drop their jaws at the sight of it.
Brought to life with the help of Apple engineers; Mayer’s product vision has 16 different parts that go through a production process involving 65 different people. Twenty tools and several specialized machines are needed with a master’s student in mechanical engineering from Stanford on the factory floor overseas two days per week for the past 2 years making it a reality.
And Mayer? Battling daily the internal struggle on whether his idea would actually work and whether anyone would even care. Some people even dared to call his idea “crazy”.
But there he was -- 3 years after having the vision and untold hours of sweat and toil -- Mayer is ready to launch his new product on Kickstarter.
And so with some reservation, Mayer presses the button to make his project live. And then jumps on his bike for a 2 hour ride. Sounds like a ploy some entrepreneurs use when they can’t bare to watch -- me being one of them.
With sweat beating from his brow -- he comes back to check: over $5,000 in orders with more pouring in. Mayer breathes a sigh of relief. Vindication is at hand. Mayer is not the failure his mind tries to tell him at times.
In the end, Mayer and his Kickstarter campaign for The Square brings in $126,280.00 in capital. Smashing his original goal of raising $20,000 -- he ends up raising 600% more than he dreamed of.
The moral of this story? Never give in. Just like Mayer did; when you suffer a setback on the lonely road of an entrepreneur -- get up and brush yourself off. Get your tail back in the game. Mayer did. He rose above his first failure and had fire in his eyes. No way was he going down a second time. And he didn’t -- and neither will you.
Go get ‘em tiger...
NOTE: If you don't know me, I'm Eric. Husband, father & life-long entrepreneur.
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(You can also find me hanging out at Mighty Wise Media; on Google+, Facebook or Twitter @MightyWiseMedia.)
