Top six reasons why your tech kickstarter campaigns fail

There are many reasons why your Kickstarter campaign may fail; after all, you are begging people to hand over their hard-earned cash with no guarantee of your success. Nevertheless, there are several common reasons why most Kickstarter campaigns fail. Here are the top six reasons why.

People Aren’t Falling for it Anymore

Perhaps this header sounds a little harsh, but it represents the tone of many investors who have been duped. We have been promised everything from wrist bands that project your phone screen onto your arm, to flying mobile phones and poorly remade video games. Trust is now your biggest hurdle because you are trapped between the problem of bland and believable.

Too Bland or Too Unbelievable

If your tech product is truly brilliant and truly original, you are going to have a very hard time convincing people to invest. As mentioned earlier, people have become numbed to exciting projects because they so often turn out to be scams (or simply fail to live up to their promise). On the other hand, if you are producing something bland, then it is very believable, but people find a hard time getting motivated to invest.

The Cost of Your Final Product

Not so much the money you are asking for, but the money you want for your product once it is completed. For example, somebody invented earmuffs you can wear in bed at night. They were supposed to keep noise out and were alternatives to wearing earplugs. The product turned out okay in that it keeps some noise out but makes your ears overly sweaty.

However, even though the project was over-funded by a whopping 78%, bringing the investment total to over 100K, the developer still wanted $60 per pair of earmuffs. People rightly thought that the selling price was massively overpriced considering the product (it being earmuffs and not gold cufflinks), and considering how severely the project was overfunded on Kickstarter.

Product Presentation

Mistake number one is to hire a middle eastern company to create a cheaply produced whiteboard animation. They are everywhere because they are cheap, and people are getting sick of them just like people got sick of PowerPoint presentations back in the day. If your presentation is too sophisticated, then people will assume you do not need the money, and if it is too cheap, then people will assume your follow-through will be poor.

People Want Measurable Results

Do exactly what President Trump did. Give a detailed plan showing exactly what you plan to do. Then, just like the president, follow it through so that people can see what you are doing. This may require you to add videos of your progress, blog updates, technical diagrams, product tests, and so forth.

Give out details of what you will spend the money on, including everything from product parts to Verizon Fios bundle deals at MyDealsClub. However, do not include your own drawings. If people think you are going to pay yourself a wage for working on the project, then people will reject your project.

People Do Not Want to Pay for Advertising

There are red flags that Kickstarters give off that suggest they are going to waste money. The most obvious is that their project is unbelievable. When a Kickstarter claims that some of the money is needed for advertising, then it is a massive red flag and most savvy investors will not hand over their money. By all means, you should offer up the methods you will use to promote your product, but if you assign it a dollar value, then people will not invest.

Final Advice

Keep your pitch bland and believable. Even if you have a world-changing product, you need to sell it like you are selling a cheap Toyota car. Also, make a point of showing your final product prices and any bulk-buy discounts you are going to offer because people want to know you are not going to charge a fortune once the product is completed. Present your project in a piecemeal manner, and then maybe tie it together with a video near the later stages. Show what you will spend the money on, and do not allow any for advertising.

Finally, show people what you will do, when you will do it by, and explain how you will prove it. Again, follow President Trump by creating a long and detailed plan, and then offer up a briefer bullet point plan too. As a side note, do not mention previous (successful or unsuccessful) Kickstarter campaigns, or other failed methods by which you have tried to acquire the money. Making it look like you have tried to get funding elsewhere seems like a good idea, but all people see is a trail of rejection rather than a hard-working never-give-up tech innovator.

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