217: Using Crowdfunding for Real Customer Feedback on Your Invention

Yuri Dvoinos is the visionary behind an illustrious portfolio of 15 enterprises that have collectively amassed tens of millions of dollars in revenue. Among his ventures lies the portable Jammy Guitar, a resounding success story that garnered $250,000 in initial funding during its inaugural crowdfunding endeavor, swiftly followed by a staggering $500,000 in its subsequent campaign. Today, Yuri shares how he accomplished these commendable feats and his insight into crowdfunding to inform modern innovators, burgeoning startups, and niche manufacturers. He elucidates the profound significance of customer feedback and delves into how to optimally harness such feedback to drive subsequent product iteration and development.

Click this link for This Episode's Full Info Page: https://www.makodesign.com/podcast/217-using-crowdfunding-for-real-customer-feedback-on-your-invention/

Key Takeaways in This Episode:

• Crowdfunding provides instant, high-quality feedback from real customers!

• A large factor in their success was that they identified a gap in a market with lackluster products and filled the gap with their product.

• The primary reason they wanted to do a crowdfunding campaign was not to secure funding, but rather to get real customer feedback from backers who had pre-purchased the product.

• Make sure you celebrate your campaign's successes once it has finished!

• After that, leverage your campaign to get interest from important people in the industry.

• Customer segmentation can be very valuable when striving to find your ideal target audience, as you can develop a product exactly for them.

• Version 2.0 comes after launching an MVP.

• Consider leveraging both Kickstarter and Indiegogo!

• As you evolve, you will figure out how to reduce costs associated with hardware development.

MAKO Design + Invent: www.makodesign.com

Kevin Mako: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevmako

Producer: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. We also help our clients with business and product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories.