Info From the Vine: iBox Printers Nailed Their Kickstarter Campaign

"When a Kickstarter campaign promises a 3D printer that is small, portable, high resolution and even battery operated for less than one tenth the cost of the next available system based on a comparable technology it is going to be a success. In fact, 3D printing campaigns on Kickstarter have been a success when promising much less. The iBox Nano is a tiny high-resolution resin-based 3D printer that promises great innovations in terms of pricing, portability, accessibility and technology and these do not seem to be empty promises either," says the website 3dprintingindustry.com.

For me, I get to hear my friend and former colleague Michael Carter talk about how his brother's company, iBox Printers, over-funded their Kickstarter campaign. As of 11/10/14 the campaign has raised $377,832 versus a goal of $300,000.

Trent Carter, founder and President of the Melbourne, FL corporation told SignVine that, "The biggest challenge we faced with kickstarting our iBox Nano printer was getting press coverage. Look at press coverage as free-advertising, and with the benefit of having a third party review of the product. A press release will not guarantee you any coverage."

Trent continued to suggest that the list of press email addresses need to be assembled before the campaign kicks off as well as having a solid press release resource in place.

Entrepreneurs are always looking for ways to do things bigger and better, that is their nature. But this was a successful Kickstarter campaign. Regardless, over 433 hardware startups have successfully funded on Kickstarter or Indiegogo. 

That is pretty impressive! The next step for many now, is Venture Capital funding, and a "rule of thumb" is that company valuation is somewhere around 10X of the Kickstarter funding amount! That's not a bad way to boostrap a new company or promote a new idea.

Congratulations Trent and iBox Printers- we'll be watching you.

This blog represents my personal opinion and does not represent the opinion, practices, or values of SignVine or any other organization or person. If you have feedback, please email michael@signvine.org.