We are amazed and want to thank you for all of your support!
Your support has been tremendous and we are humbled by the overwhelming response of people around the world. We are more than half way to our goal and have 210 backers & $17,108 on Kickstarter. On facebook, 1224 people like our video!
Yesterday, Josh and I went to the beach in the heat of the summer to shoot an update video. It started to rain but it was perfect because we had the EscapeCapsule to project our iPhones. We wanted to demonstrate how the case works and to answer some of your questions and we will be posting that video in a Kickstarter update tomorrow.
Thank you for being a part of our project to create something big in the world. We appreciate your support and oh we are having so much fun doing this & hope you are too.
It's day 5 of our Kickstarter campaign and we have 156 backers at $13,543.88. In case you're wondering, the 88 cents is from one of our backers who gave us $88.88. In Asia, the number 8 is considered to be very lucky so Josh and I really appreciate the good karma.
One of my favorite parts of our Kickstarter video is when our Swiss engineers share about the complicated manufacturing process for the EscapeCapsule.
Apparently, I'm not the only one who likes this since Jennifer Bergen at geek.com writes that "A Schwarzenegger-sounding dude in the video says that the capsule is created from injection moldings to combine different materials into one finished product. The process is complicated and rather pricey, and there is several post injection processes needed to assemble all of the parts into one precise watertight finished product."
Josh modifying and testing one of the early prototypes of the EscapeCapsule.
We designed every detail of the EscapeCapsule to be clean and minimal inside and out. However, the manufacturing methods to achieve this are very precise and actually quite complicated. The funding we are seeking on Kickstarter only covers the cost to complete the tooling. Beyond the $30,000 for tooling, there are still a lot of other costs involved and any amount above what we are seeking will go towards the production, testing, engineering, prototypes, fulfillment, and the basic costs to run a very lean business. One day soon, we hope to make enough to get paid ourselves and start to make some money so that we can develop the other great product ideas we have. We have several other innovative ideas that we see a market need for and that we'd love to turn into a reality.
My business partner Josh and I started Catalyst to create a consumer lifestyle brand that reflects the things we love: adventure, travel, beauty, exploration, unique experiences, and moments that only come along once in a lifetime.
The EscapeCapsule - our first product
If there is a small hair or grain of sand disrupting the seal, it will be obvious and apparent through the clear housing long before you expose your device to any danger.
We spent months developing and launching our first product, the EscapeCapsule, which is a waterproof case for the iPhone 4 designed to protect your phone from water, rain, snow, sand, mud, impacts, scratches and anything else you can throw at it. It is fully covered and sealed so that you can take your iPhone with you everywhere and still use the touchscreen, make & receive calls, listen to music and take photos or videos.
The key differentiator of the EscapeCapsule is that it has a clear durable polycarbonate hard outer shell so you can see through to the case to the gorgeous Apple product on the inside. The clear case also serves as a way to visually inspect the seal of the O-ring. If there is a small hair or grain of sand disrupting the seal, it will be obvious and apparent through the clear housing long before you expose your device to any danger.
The EscapeCapsule has been a huge technical challenge and has not been easy to achieve. We had personally been looking for a product like this out on the market and could not find one that really worked for us, so we chose to create one. However, designing and engineering a great product is only part of the story....
Seeking funding on Kickstarter
When we looked at getting funding for our product, the benefits of Kickstarter for a small 2 person startup were clear: no onerous shareholders agreements, no outside directors meetings, no forced exit strategy and the freedom to build a product and create a market before you launch in order to reduce your risk & committed capital without giving up equity.
As Om Malik from GigaOM's TheAppleBlog states: "Kickstarter is changing how we make things, how we turn dreams into reality and make ideas come to life. While a lot of people focus on Union Square Ventures’ Fred Wilson’s big name portfolio of Twitter, Zynga and Foursquare, I would argue, Kickstarter is the one that transforms the very idea of commerce."
Making the video
We wanted the video to be fun because that is what the product would do for people: enable them to have fun & go anywhere.
We knew we wanted to launch it on Kickstarter so we needed a video and decided to film it ourselves. We produced our own video shooting it entirely on our iPhones inside of several prototypes of the EscapeCapsule. We took a tonne of footage of us and our friends at waterfalls, in the ocean, in the rain, out on the streets, and lastly with the world's cutest baby, Theo, at bath time. Our Swiss German engineers even joined in on the action for our full version video on Kickstarter. Overall, we wanted the video to be fun because that is what the product is about: People have a great time, staying connected, and capturing those moments that only come along once in a lifetime.
The video took way longer than we ever expected to film and edit. There was a lot of trial and error to figure out what worked. Neither of us had any real experience producing a video. We made the video scenes short and sweet in a montage of mostly outdoor footage. The final scene in our kickstarter video was shot as we were hiking back from the beach after a day of filming and fun in the sun. Something about the light at sunset on that serene field in the back ground really worked. Josh is actually a lot taller than me and we found a perfect spot where he could stand in a muddy hole while I was up on a small grassy hill. It was a really nice end to a great day, and we love how it turned out in the video.
Marketing & Creative Design
We loved the layout and interface for creating our page on Kickstarter., Josh and I are both obsessed with details and and we spend a lot of time editing and reworking the content till we felt it looked right. We also crafted a simple 3 page press sheet which you can find on our photobucket page.
We also have more information on the EscapeCapsule
Our Product Launch
After an intense few weeks, we launched on Kickstarter on Mon, Aug 22nd, 2011. We immediately started sharing our project with friends and family while simultaneously sending personal emails to influential online blogs that feature the latest tech and Apple related accessories. We were thrilled when Jordan Crook at TechCrunch wrote a great article about our product on Aug 24th. This was the first article written about our product, and it was our introduction to the rest of the world.
We have since been blown away by the positive emails and comments from around the world. The story from TechCrunch spread like wildfire to other online sites, blogs, Twitter and Facebook and we found the story translated into Spanish, Russian, and Chinese.
Since then, there have been several other great articles written about us. Most notably on:
We absolutely love the humor and enthusiasm that everyone has expressed. It seems like everyone gets that this product is about having a great time. A special thanks to Coolest Gadgets for suggesting that Tim Cook, the new CEO for Apple, should take notice of the EscapeCapsule and for stating that,
"it really should be an official Apple accessory as it is downright useful for protecting an Apple asset."
The last few days have been some of the most alive, special and unique moments in our life. There is nothing that beats creating your first product from scratch and introducing it to the world and having people love it. Thank you for your support, for sharing the product with your friends and family, for rooting for us to win, for following us and for being a part of creating something amazing in this world. ;-)
