Wow, what an exciting platform – Kickstarter. I’m thrilled to discuss this week’s topic because my team and I have successfully managed six Kickstarter campaigns, raising over CA$200k in total from this incredible and magical place.
From our first Kickstarter campaign to our latest one, we have made tremendous improvements in our videos, write-ups, images, and even our product itself. I believe that a pitch is all about telling a story, focusing on promoting the venture to investors rather than simply showcasing products for customers. As an Ed-tech company, our main emphasis should be on how our products/services can revolutionize the way electronics education is taught and learned, rather than bombarding people with technical specifications. I’m proud to say that we have shifted in the right direction since our first campaign in 2018, MEGO, which was solely a product, to our most funded campaign in 2022, Lab-on-the-go, which represents an idea of how people can approach electronics labs
But still, I looked some other peer’s post of different pitch pool, I can tell that there are huge potential room for us to grow. Given the abundance of talented peers in ETEC522, most of whom are in the educational field, I genuinely value your opinions and criticisms regarding any of our previous Kickstarter campaigns.
By the way, I’m excited to announce that we are preparing to launch our seventh Kickstarter campaign, tentatively named SparkTip, around mid-June. This upcoming project revolves around a cordless solder iron pen, a rechargeable (cordless) fan sucker, and a meticulously designed tutorial book. The target audience for this campaign will primarily be beginners, makers, and individuals keen to learn soldering.
Some of our previous KS campaigns:
MEGO – portable power supply in 2018
STEM Ruler (PCB crafted) in 2019
Zoolark – Integrating Oscilloscope and Function generator in 2021
STEP FPGA – a micro controller board for FPGA beginners in 2022
Terrence, I must applaud you for your entrepreneurial spirit. I wish I knew more about the electrical engineering educational space as your products seem to provide an affordable option for those looking to practice their skills. It’s no surprise that Lab-on-the-go has been a success as I could see my school getting several of these. With that in mind, what is your end goal? Is it personal use or are you looking to sell to learning institutions? The great thing with selling to school boards is the size of the order could be immense. Good luck with the new release and I hope this opens the door for even more ed-tech items in the future.
Hello Simon,
Thank you for showing interest in Lab-on-the-go. Initially, we thought Lab-on-the-go was mainly for schools and institutions, but surprisingly, we have seen higher sales from individual customers compared to schools. Now, we are facing a dilemma of whether to focus on individual personal use (makers, electronics hobbyists) or target institutions. Despite this, I still believe that school boards offer more opportunities; we are just struggling to find the correct path or approach to effectively promote our solution.
One approach we find useful is presenting our products at educational conferences. One such conference is BCTEA (https://www.bctea.org/), which is a technology conference that attracts many tech teachers.
Do you have any insights about selling items to schools?
Thank you,
Terrence
I like this Lab-on-the-go concept and from the site,the idea seems very fleshed out. From my stance as a venture capitalist, I would invest in this venture, as it is in STEM Education, which is an subject I would like to see more emphasis in, especially in electronics, as your lab features. I also like the project based learning aspect of this.
However, I have noticed in your goals the dates of the pledge goals have passed. I would like to contact you and find out more if this venture is still running and if you are still looking for investors and in which capacity.
It looks like that the team behind Lab-On-The-Go has successfully managed several Kickstarter campaigns raising over $200,000 in total. This definitely shows a strong commitment and passion for the project. Although the pitch indicates a very capable team and their product is well thought out and ready to manufacture, I feel that the pitch hasn’t done enough to grab my attention or excite me about the product. While the pitch could be compelling for those looking for efficient and innovative electronics and engineering solutions I feel that it doesn’t do enough to market for schools. The marketability is there but for me to be an investor in this venture I would have to see more of an extended pitch in order for me to fully understand its ‘win’ potential. I’m out on this one.