Crowdfunding campaign stress
Written by John Teel.
When Nicolas Franco went to bed the night before his crowdfunding campaign went live, he felt sick to his stomach from nerves.
He had worked so hard on his product and put so much of himself into it, that he couldn’t help but be nervous.
There was a lot riding on this launch!
He was confident it would do well, but…there are always doubts.
His product is called the Hex Evo and it’s a totally unique gaming controller.
Nicolas came up with his idea during college when he started gaming using a mouse and keyboard instead of a joystick.
He quickly realized that while aiming with the mouse was superior to using a joystick, using the keys with his left hand was awkward.
The keyboard was large and in the way, when all you needed were a handful of keys.
Plus, it was way too easy to hit the wrong key.
So he of course imagined a better solution – a controller built specifically for the left hand with only the necessary buttons for game play.
Nicolas has been an active member of my Hardware Academy for several years while developing his product.
He recently posted this message in the Academy community:
“From figuring out how to put together the first breadboard prototypes, to doing marketing and building a waitlist, creating a roadmap and a strategy, and building a functional prototype with a custom PCB, I’ve been accompanied by John and the Hardware Academy in every step of this journey.”
So how did his crowdfunding launch go?
Well, luckily the next morning his stomach issues quickly disappeared because…
…he reached his funding goal of $40,000 in only 86 minutes!
And his campaign ended up raising over $130,000 by the time it was over.
I couldn’t be more happy for Nicolas and this huge win!
I’m also proud to be listed as one of his advisors, and I’m excited to continue advising him in my Hardware Academy as he sets up manufacturing for the Hex Evo.
“I couldn’t have done all of this without the help of this amazing community that you’ve built, and that’s why I made a special section in my Indiegogo page for the Hardware Academy.” – Nicolas Franco
