it will be exhilarating

7/30/2019 It Will Be Exhilarating

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IT WILL BE EXHILARATING

Indie Capitalism and Design Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century,

As Observed By Studio Neat



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FOREWORD

Te lure o the startup has been such a prominent part o the American story

in the last 20 years, even people who don’t read the business press have some

sense o how it’s done. First you have an idea, then you do some market re-

search, then you pitch the idea to raise money. I the idea gets unded, you

market it to the public en masse who mostly don’t care in order to nd the ew

that do, and then, nally, you get to sell your product or service to the resulting

customers.

Tis has been the story or startups creating everything rom ads on search en-

gines to artisanal soap, and it hasn’t changed much over the years. In dierent

eras, the diculty o raising money, advertising, or selling things has varied,

but the basic pipeline was the same, and because it was the same or so long,

businesses adapted. Te way products and services were developed shaped the

companies that developed them, and vice-versa: marketing became a depart-

ment, sales became a dierent department, and so on. It all came to seem sonormal that people assumed this was the way the business world should work

rather than simply being the way it happened to work.

Tis book is the story o a dierent way o starting a business. A really dierent

way. When om Gerhardt and Dan Provost wanted to und the development

o the Gli, their iPhone tripod mount, they didn’t think they were launching a

company, much less testing a new model or starting a company. Tey thought

they might raise enough money to make a couple hundred o their elegant littletripod mounts and sell them.

Using Kickstarter, they put out an appeal to adventurous consumers who

would take a yer on two designers who had a good idea—people whose desire

to own a good tripod mount dovetailed with their desire to see someone try-

ing something new. And it turned out that there were enough such people to



5

support om and Dan’s work; they raised enough to make 500 Glis. Ten 600.

And then 800. 1000, 3000, 5000 Glis. By the time their Kickstarter campaign

ended, they’d raised well over ten times their initial goal.

Studio Neat was born because they discovered that the things that motivatedthem—well designed products people need but no one makes—had a much

bigger audience than they anticipated. Ten they did something remarkable—

they did it again with the Cosmonaut, their iPad stylus. Te Studio Neat way o

launching a product wasn’t just a uke.

All o this is wonderul or om and Dan, o course, wonderul or Studio Neat,

wonderul or their customers. But it’s wonderul or us as well because it shows

us how businesses can get started in our little corner o the 21st century.

om and Dan started with the animating idea o most businesses: “We want to

make something we think you might like.” But then, instead o spending time

assessing market demand, getting mired in Powerpoint, spreadsheets, bank-

ers, business plans, and so on, they sidestepped all o that. Instead, the key

relationship here was between them and us.

Tey came to us and said: “Here’s our idea. I you want it, we will make it”,

and that was enough. We wanted it, they made it. So what part o starting abusiness did their Kickstarter campaign help them with? Was the conversation

between us and them market research? Was it undraising? Maybe it was mar-

keting? Or sales? o which the answer is Yes. It was all o those things.

Te old pipeline—where nancial institutions demand approval at every

step—isn’t the only way to start a business anymore. It’s just a way, and com-

pared to sharing their vision directly with us, it’s not even a very good way.

In this book, om and Dan tell the story o the Gli and the Cosmonaut and

Studio Neat, but they also tell the story o how to take an idea and try it out

in a world that suddenly allows or such audacity. And they tell us what they

discovered along the way, which is that i you go directly to your customers, to

your audience, to us, motivation and clarity became essential.



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Tere is no recipe or passion, no 5-step guide to making your idea real, but

there is good, solid advice, and this book is lled with it. Tey speak rom real

experience when they tell us:

Don’t make a product because you want to quit your day job (that can be areason, but not the reason). Don’t make a product because you want to get rich.

Make something great because you care deeply about it. Make something be-

cause you stay awake at night thinking about it. Make something because you

eel invigorated when you work on it, and anxious when you don’t.

Te Studio Neat story is remarkable, but that’s not why they wrote this book.

Te obstacles between designers and customers are oundering, and there’s a

new premium on passion and clarity. What Studio Neat has learned can help

others create their own remarkable stories. Tere’s no monopoly on elegant de-

sign. Someone is going to have the next good idea. Could be you.

—Clay Shirky



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INTRODUCTION“I you add up all the trends under way today, I believe we are beginning to

see the start o something original, and perhaps wonderul.”

BRUCE NUSSBAUM

Tere is a sea change aoot.

In the past, i an individual had a great idea or a product or service they want-

ed to bring into the world, it was incredibly dicult to do so. Especially i their

plan was or that product to make them a living. Entrepreneurship has always

been a tenuous and risky pursuit, resulting in many ideas let buried and or-

gotten at the bottom o a desk drawer.

However, things are changing. We are now living in a world where those ideas

can come to ruition with a surprisingly minimal amount o riction.

Fundraising platorms like Kickstarter are part o the story, o course, but it’s

bigger than that. Designers, artists, writers, programmers, lmmakers, and

creative olks o all stripes are now empowered to make great stu with toolsand resources that didn’t exist ve years ago.

Furthermore, consumers have an appetite—rapidly becoming an expecta-

tion—to be connected directly with the creator(s) o the thing or service they’re

buying. Te need or the middlemen o the world is quickly vanishing.

Indie capitalism, a term coined by Bruce Nussbaum in an article or Fast Com-

pany, is the most succinct way to describe the product o this shit. It is dened

by a maker system o economics that is centered around the direct relationshipbetween creators and their customers.

What it all boils down to is this: it’s an exciting time to be making stu.

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1665567/4-reasons-why-the-future-of-capitalism-is-homegrown-small-scale-and-independent




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WHO WE ARE

Studio Neat has two employees, om Gerhardt and Dan Provost (henceorth

reerred to as “we”). We met in high school in Round Rock, exas, and became

good riends when we went through the undergraduate architecture programat exas A&M University together. Ater graduating, we drove cross country to

New York City or grad school (om at NYU’s Interactive elecommunications

Program and Dan at Parsons’ Design and echnology program). Ater graduat-

ing (again) in 2009, we got jobs in New York; om worked as a sotware devel-

oper at Potion, and Dan as an interaction designer at rog.

During the summer o 2010, we began working on a product idea: a combina-

tion tripod mount and stand or the iPhone 4. Although the thought o gener-

ating some side income had crossed our minds, we mostly wanted to make it

because it ullled our own needs, and, simply, we love making things.

For the next couple o months in the evenings and on weekends, we sketched

out concepts, modeled them on the computer, and ordered several 3D printed

prototypes (more on this later). Ater countless iterations, we had an elegant

and simple design we were proud o, but one question remained: how the heck

would we make this thing? We knew mass-producing it would require a process

called injection molding, which takes a considerable upront investment. In the

past, this is where the story would have ended. Without the upront capital, or

the risk o taking a large bank loan, great ideas are abandoned. Fortunately,

this is no longer the case.

At the time, Kickstarter was only about a year old. We had seen it used suc-

cessully to und creative projects like books, lms, art projects, sotware, and

music, but examples o product design were ew and ar between. Nonethe-

less, we had a hunch Kickstarter could be the ideal way to launch our iPhonetripod mount, which we named the Gli, based on its unique shape resembling

a typographical “glyph.” On the evening o October 3rd, 2010, we launched our

campaign with a modest unding goal o $10,000. We hoped to sell 500 o them.

Within 12 hours o launching our campaign we had reached our unding goal,



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and by the end o the rst day we had raised over $25,000. By the end o the 30-

day campaign we had raised $137,417. Our pants were ocially peed.

Six months later, ater we had our business up and running on sales o the Gli,

we launched our second project on Kickstarter, a wide grip stylus or the iPadcalled the Cosmonaut. It raised $134,236 in less than a month. And a year later,

we released our rst piece o sotware with Frameographer, an iPhone app or

creating stop motion and time-lapse videos.

Te Gli, a tripod mount and stand or the iPhone, and the Cosmonaut, a wide grip

capacitive stylus.

Tough it may sound surprising, our story is becoming less and less unique

as more designers are nding creative ways to bring their ideas to lie. And

experience is not required. Beore the Gli, we had no industrial design, manu-

acturing, or retail experience; yet in the past two years we have released threehardware products (the Gli, Gli+ and the Cosmonaut), one piece o sotware

(Frameographer), and one book (you’re holding it).



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WHY A BOOK?

For makers o things, there is something unquestionably enticing about books

that document the creative process. Tey provide an opportunity to pull back

the curtain to see how innovative minds work. Stean Sagmeister’s Made YouLook and Hillman Curtis’s MIV are two o our avorite design books. Every-

thing published by A Book Apart, and 37signals’ Rework have been hugely in-

uential as well, or their brevity and clarity o ocus. We took this inspiration

and ollowed suit.

Tis book is about many things. It’s partly about our company, and how we

operate. It’s also an instructional textbook, and part o it takes a look at our

design process. Perhaps you’re interested in launching your rst Kickstarter

campaign, and you’d like some tips and pointers on how to make sure it goes

smoothly. Maybe you’re curious about starting your own company, and want to

see how attainable it is. Perhaps you already have a company and want to avoid

the pitalls we ell into. Or maybe you’re simply a an o design, and enjoy see-

ing how the seed o an idea is brought to ruition.

We’ve kept the book intentionally brie, ollowing our goals o simplicity and

clarity. You should be able to read it in one sitting so that you can get back to

making stu.

As a disclaimer, this story is told through the lens o our own experience; we

do not have decades o experience in the industry. We’re just two dudes who

had a pretty interesting thing happen to us, and we want to share it with you.

We’ve been ortunate in having ront row seats or a very exciting shit in the

consumer industry, and we’ve learned a lot in a short amount o time. We hope

you nd something here you can take and use.

Let’s get to it.



11

PHILOSOPHY“Don’t hal-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing.”

RON SWANSON

Sometimes it eels as though we’re in business by accident. Our original inten-

tion was simply to make a useul product, little did we know that six months

later we would be quitting our jobs to ocus on Studio Neat ull time. As such,we’ve had to learn as we go, but we don’t think that’s such a bad thing.

Our design and business philosophy stems rom who we are as people, but it

also derives rom observing and ollowing people in design and business we ad-

mire and respect. None o what we discuss here is altogether new or revolution-

ary. It is simply what we believe in. ake what is useul to you and leave the rest.

SIMPLICITYSimplicity is ingrained in everything we do at Studio Neat.

First and oremost, we aim to design products that are simple. Simple prod-

ucts benet more than just our customers. Te act that the Gli was relatively

simple to manuacture meant we could deliver the product just over a month

ater the Kickstarter campaign ended with ew hiccups along the way.

Simplicity extends beyond the design o the products we make. Especially when

it comes to logistics and operations, we try very hard to keep things as simple

as possible, and as a result we’ve been able to remain a two-person shop even

though we’ve steadily expanded our product oerings.

Focus and simplicity go hand in hand. For a company as small as ours, it’s im-

perative to stay as ocused as possible. Not every idea, even an idea you’ve put a

1



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lot o work into already, is worth pursuing. aking a cue rom Apple, we are as

proud o the things we decide not to do, as we are o the things we decide to do.

Simplicity is not easy. It takes a great deal o eort to try to arrive at the sim-

plest solution to a problem, and oten involves some level o sacrice or com-promise. Simplicity must be always on your mind, and something you are al-

ways intentionally striving to achieve. It’s easy or things to get “accidentally”

complex i you lose ocus on simplicity.

So why is simplicity a goal or Studio Neat? Don Norman, design and usability

guru, has said that “simplicity is highly overrated,” arguing that when aced

with a choice, consumers will choose the more complex, eature-packed version

o a product. In other words, simplicity is a nice enough design goal, but bad orbusiness. We take a dierent approach. Our goal is to design something that is

continually delightul to use, not something that looks ancy on the store shel

but rustrates in actual usage. We want customers to love our products, and to

become repeat customers and ans. Te pursuit o simplicity is how we aim to

achieve this.

Te most notable champion o this ideal, o course, is Apple. Here’s Jonathan

Ive, head o industrial design at Apple:

Simplicity is not the absence o clutter, that’s a consequence o simplicity. Sim-

plicity is somehow essentially describing the purpose and place o an object and

product. Te absence o clutter is just a clutter-ree product. Tat’s not simple.

Te quest or simplicity has to pervade every part o the process. It really is

undamental.

Tis is not to say a complex product cannot also be well-designed, but in our

experience, consumers value simplicity, and weigh it in their purchasing deci-

sion. Perhaps Einstein said it best: “Everything should be made as simple as

possible, but not simpler.”



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YOU CAN’T PLEASE EVERYONE

Our ability to achieve ocus and simplicity in our products comes rom an un-

derstanding that you can’t please everyone, and that it’s utile to try. Let’s take

the Gli as an example. Not only is it designed or a specic device (the iPhone4), but it requires that device to be completely naked, i.e., with neither case nor

screen protector. For many people, this is a nonstarter, as they reuse to carry

their phone around without a case, and don’t want the hassle o removing it

every time they want to use the Gli. We’re ok with that. We regret that we can’t

have them as a customer, o course, but making a tripod mount that accom-

modates all the varying cases dimensions would clutter the elegance or which

we were striving.

More recently, as we have stepped into the world o sotware with Frameogra-

pher, it is quite common to receive eature requests via email, witter, or App

Store reviews. Tis can be a glittering lure, but we always approach with cau-

tion. It takes a great deal o restraint to slow down, and consider how the addi-

tion o a eature would aect the app as a whole. I we can’t gure out a way to

incorporate a eature in an elegant way, we don’t add it.

INTENTIONALLY SMALL

We are big ans o the olks at 37signals, and as we mentioned earlier, consider

Rework to be one o our guiding lights. One o the key things we have gleaned

rom their philosophy is the idea that it’s OK to intentionally stay small. We

work hard to keep business operations as simple as possible, so even ater three

successul products and almost two years in business, we are still the only two

employees o Studio Neat.

Te advantages o working this way are numerous.

In “start-up” culture, there are basically two trajectories: become super success-

ul so you can become the next witter or Facebook, or aim to get acquired by a

larger company. Tere are very ew new start-ups that have the goals o staying

intentionally small, building great products that can be sold or a prot, and



14

growing organically.

One o the more ascinating aspects o Indie Capitalism is that there is now a

middle ground. Instead o the “go big or go home” approach o most start-ups,

it is now easible to “go small and have complete autonomy over your productsand not work crazy unreasonable hours.” Tat’s probably a little too long to

catch on, but you get the idea.

SCRATCH YOUR OWN ITCH

A key component to the products we make is that we seek to scratch our own

itch(es). Everything we design ullls a need that we, ourselves, have. Te Gli

was born when we realized how awesome the iPhone 4 camera was, but didn’thave an ideal way to mount it to a tripod. Te Cosmonaut was born when the

two o us were sending design sketches back and orth to each other rom our

iPads, and none o the styli we tried elt great to use. Frameographer was born

out o our childlike desire to make neat little stop motion and time-lapse mov-

ies, and our corresponding inability to nd a simple, exquisite app or that.

A huge benet to designing things or yoursel is you are the perect judge o

whether it sucks or not. Better yet, the two o us have very high standards and

are not araid to poop (constructively) on each other’s ideas. Ater all, we want

things to be perect.

People sometimes ask us what kind o market research we did to determine the

price points or our products. Te answer is: very little. Instead, we think we are

pretty good judges o what the product “should” cost, i we were the consumers

considering a purchase. It’s really that simple.

Some might nd this approach irresponsible. Certainly we can’t make every decision on gut intuition, right? Tis is a air point, but staying small aords

us the opportunity to make decisions quickly and course correct as we go. We

trust that i we do something wrong, our customers will tell us. Tey, in a sense,

are our ocus group.

Tat said, it is important or us to execute decisions thoughtully and con-



15

dently. It is very easy to be inuenced by a vocal minority o naysayers, but we

try to stay the course. I what we are making is truly valuable, it will nd an

audience.

TELL A STORY

“Storytelling is one o the most ecient communication methods we’ve devised. Its

eectiveness is why so much o the wisdom and insight about what it means to be hu-

man is wrapped up in ables and parables.”

FRANK CHIMERO

Everyone loves a good story. Humans have told and retold stories or as ar back

as we know. For some reason we seem hardwired to seek out, and tell, stories. Also it’s easier to connect with something on an emotional level i it reaches us

in the orm o a story.

For this reason, we try to tell a story with each o our products. Whether it’s

the story o how the product came into existence, how the product ts into our

little ecosystem, or how the product ts into the lives o our customers—the

story is important.

People want to know where things come rom and who is behind the design.

Products do not exist in a vacuum; they are designed and created by humans,

which we sometimes orget. On Kickstarter, project creators are able to put a

ace to their design via the project video. You, as the consumer, are not buying

a thing, you are buying a thing made by this person. Tis is a subtle but impor-

tant distinction.

PASSION

Don’t make a product because you want to quit your day job (that can be a rea-

son, but not the reason). Don’t make a product because you want to get rich.

Make something great because you care deeply about it. Make something be-

cause you stay awake at night thinking about it. Make something because you



16

eel invigorated when you work on it, and anxious when you don’t.

As long as your goal is to create something great, everything else is cream

cheese. Maybe it will turn into a ull time business. Maybe it will just be a cool

side project that zzles out in six months. Te point is, wouldn’t you want tobe working on something you are passionate about, regardless o the outcome?

I you are as ortunate as we have been, and your passion project turns into a

ull time gig, the introduction o new business pressures will threaten to suck

the passion right out o you. Having a business changes the game, as every deci-

sion eels like it needs to be legitimized by its ability to make money. Fear and

anxiety can set in, and you might eel suocated, and like you’re no longer ree

to experiment. Te best way to overcome this eeling is to try to remember howyou ound success in the rst place: by working on something you love. You are

going to make mistakes, and you will create things that are unsuccessul, either

creatively or nancially. Don’t let it paralyze you. Instead, let your passion be

your guide.

MAKE THINGS

“Perhaps it sounds ridiculous, but the best thing that young lmmakers should do is to

get hold o a camera and some lm and make a movie o any kind at all.”

SANLEY KUBRICK

Tat’s good advice. When we launched the Gli on Kickstarter, we had no in-

dustrial design, manuacturing, or retail experience. But we had a good idea,

and the condence that we could gure it out as we went along. As we’ve said

(and will say again because it bears repeating), there are going to be missteps,

hiccups, and miscalculations—even the best-laid plans by experts never gosmoothly. Your idea is not doing anyone any good by remaining only an idea.

Tis is not carte blanche to simply throw stu out there with no research or

prior knowledge, but you’d be surprised how quickly you can learn something

when 5000 people are waiting or you to learn it. Jump o the cli and build

the plane on the way down.



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CROWD FUNDING“A good idea, well-crated and pursued with passion, doesn’t need a gate-

keeper’s stamp o approval to succeed.”

YANCEY STICKLER, CO-FOUNDER OF KICKSTARTER

On the evening o October 3, 2010, we launched our rst Kickstarter campaign,

or the Gli. As you may recall, we had a modest goal o $10,000, with the hope

that we could sell about 500 o them. wenty-our hours later, we had raised

twice that, and by the end o our 30-day campaign we had raised $137,417, over

10 times our goal.

Six months later, we launched our second Kickstarter campaign, this time or

the Cosmonaut, a wide grip stylus or touch screen devices (like the iPad). For

the rst two days o the campaign we tried something unique, oering a “pay-

what-you-want” model, raising nearly $50,000 in that 48-hour period. We ul-

timately opened up more traditional tiers, and by the end o the campaign we

had raised $134,236, and in the process, became the rst project creators on

Kickstarter to raise over $100,000 on two separate projects.

In running these two campaigns, and in studying countless other projects,

we have learned a tremendous amount about the do’s and don’ts o running a

successul Kickstarter project. Our personal experience alls in the hardware/

industrial design category, but we think the lessons we learned can be applied

across the spectrum.

WHAT IS KICKSTARTER?

For the uninitiated, Kickstarter is “the world’s largest unding platorm or

creative projects.” Te concept is simple: a person has an idea or a creative proj-

2

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/danprovost/glif-iphone-4-tripod-mount-and-stand

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/danprovost/the-cosmonaut-a-wide-grip-stylus-for-touch-screens

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/danprovost/the-cosmonaut-a-wide-grip-stylus-for-touch-screens

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/danprovost/glif-iphone-4-tripod-mount-and-stand



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ect, but does not have the money to make it. By using Kickstarter, that person

can try to get “pledges” rom “backers” on the internet. Tis is known as crowd

unding. A pledge is kind o like a monetary donation, but with most projects,

the backer receives something tangible in return or their pledge, known as a

“reward.” Te important twist is that every project on Kickstarter has a und-

ing goal, i.e., how much money is needed or the project to be able to be carried

out. I the goal is not met, the project does not move orward and nobody’s

credit cards are charged. I the goal is met, everyone’s credit card is charged, the

money is transerred to the project creator, the project creator is able to make

the creative project, the backers get cool rewards, and there is much rejoicing

throughout the land.

Kickstarter has helped und projects o all shapes and sizes. Te range o proj-

ect types is quite extraordinary, including music albums, lms, video games,

dance videos, and pretty much anything that is considered a creative project.

Te only real rules are that you can’t have a project that raises money or char-

ity, and you can’t have a project that oers equity in the creation o a business.

Kickstarter represents an exciting new way to bootstrap ideas. Rather than

seeking outside unding or a bank loan, Kickstarter allows you to collect money

rom individuals that believe in what you’re doing and want to support it. It’salso a great way to test the viability o your idea. People vote with their dollars.

I the project ails, the only real downside is sadness, but at least you didn’t in-

vest a huge amount o your own time and money to execute a project that didn’t

have legs to begin with. And on the upside, you may learn why people weren’t

interested, and how you can make improvements in the uture.

In some ways, Kickstarter is the poster child or Indie Capitalism. Te essence

o the platorm—connecting creators and consumers, directly—gets to theroot o this new movement.

IS KICKSTARTER RIGHT FOR YOU?

Kickstarter is one o the main reasons, i not the reason, Studio Neat is in busi-

ness today. It’s an incredible platorm that continues to explode in popularity,



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and there is a great variety in the types o projects eatured on the site. Tat

does not mean Kickstarter is or everyone, however; not all ideas make sense

as a Kickstarter project.

Kickstarter may not be right or you simply because o the type o project you’reworking on. I you have a big, sprawling concept that involves building up a

large social network, or lots o upront work to make a proo-o-concept, seek-

ing outside investment or venture capital unding may indeed be the better

path. Kickstarter works well with smaller, sel-contained ideas. On that note, i

you make handmade, bespoke items, a platorm like the wonderul Etsy might

be a better choice. Quirky , the crowdsourcing design platorm, is a better t i

you have a great idea but no idea o how to execute. In all likelihood, it will be

airly obvious i Kickstarter is the right way to go or not.

Te most important thing you need to do beore deciding to launch on Kick-

starter is to determine i your project is even easible. A napkin sketch is not

nearly enough (and will likely get rejected by Kickstarter, or your own good).

I you are making a physical piece o hardware, a working prototype is a must.

Also, it’s important to start conversations with manuacturers beorehand to

make sure your design is not impossible (or extremely dicult) to manuac-

ture. Our general impression is that projects that are successully unded butail to deliver are a result o not doing the necessary legwork up ront.

ESTIMATING COST

One o the rst things you will need to do is estimate the cost o your project.

Tis can be tricky, especially i it’s in an area outside o your expertise (e.g.,

manuacturing). alk to as many people as you can beore starting your cam-

paign to make sure you have reasonable expectations o how much things willcost.

Kickstarter collects 5% o your unding total, and Amazon grabs another 3% as

the payment gateway. Also, actor in about 5% dropped backers, meaning back-

ers whose credit cards are denied when the campaign ends.

http://www.etsy.com/

http://www.quirky.com/

http://www.quirky.com/

http://www.etsy.com/



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One o the biggest “gotchas” rom our rst campaign was how much it costs

to ship things worldwide. We nd that project creators consistently underes-

timate this cost. We will discuss shipping costs more in the next chapter, but

be sure to keep this is mind as you shape your reward tiers and unding goal.

Lastly, be mindul o Uncle Sam. Any money you raise on Kickstarter is con-

sidered taxable income or the calendar year in which your project is unded.

Te money you sink back into the project (like manuacturing and ulllment

costs) can help reduce your tax burden, but everything else is taxable. As with

things o this nature, speak to an expert.

With all that in mind, it is a good idea to overestimate your unding goal, as

there will be plenty o little unexpected costs, and maybe a ew bigger ones,along the way.

FORMATTING YOUR CAMPAIGN

I you’ve made it this ar, you’ve decided to go orth and create a Kickstarter

campaign. Well done. You are about to embark on a journey both strange and

wonderul.

Opinion varies on the ideal length o time or the campaign. Conventional wis-dom would deem the longer the better, allowing more days to receive unds.

However, this line o thinking is not necessarily true, and we have ound that

shorter is actually better: the campaign stays resh and relevant, and doesn’t

appear to drag on orever. Remember, people have short attention spans on

the internet. Tirty days seems to be the sweet spot or campaign unding du-

ration, but plenty o projects have ound success with even shorter unding

periods.

In setting up reward tiers, simplicity is key. I possible, include the cost o ship-

ping in the pledge amount (or physical rewards); it becomes conusing or

backers to need to calculate and add in the shipping themselves. We made this

mistake on our Gli campaign, and it was a pain in the ass to try to collect

shipping costs ater the campaign ended. Also, it’s going to be tempting, but



21

don’t get carried away with too many reward tiers. Variety is nice, but don’t

overwhelm your potential supporters with too many options, otherwise the

burden o choice might deter them rom backing your project altogether. Tat

said, don’t be araid to have some un with your reward tiers. Ze Frank is the

poster child or this (love that $69 reward tier), although taking the tiers to

that extreme is usually better suited or projects o great whimsy.

For the Cosmonaut campaign, we decided to try something dierent. Rather

than launching with traditional tiers, we instituted a “pay-what-you-want” sys-

tem, inspired by how Radiohead released In Rainbows. ongue rmly in cheek,

we also liked the socialism tie-in with the Cosmonaut branding (“pay what-

ever you can aord!”). Tere was a key distinction between our campaign and

other pay-what-you-want projects, however. We had a unding goal ($50,000)

and a limited number o slots (3000). Tis created a natural tension that was

quite ascinating to observe. I too many people “under-pledged,” the unding

goal would not be met, and no one would receive a Cosmonaut. People who had

pledged a “air” amount had to decide either to pledge more, or use the com-

ments page to coax/harass the under-pledgers into giving more.

Initially we sold out o the 3000 slots within the rst 48 hours, and were about

$5000 shy o the $50,000 unding goal. Ater some brie deliberation, we de-cided to open up new, unlimited tiers, to ensure the unding goal was met and

make sure everyone who wanted a Cosmonaut could get one. Te nal product

was more important than our game theory experiment, ater all.

http://kck.st/xHMnCZ

http://kck.st/xHMnCZ



22

Te pledge distribution across the rst 3000 backers o the Cosmonaut

campaign. Each bar is segmented into the dollar amounts in each range,

increasing light to dark.

At the end o the day, was the pay-what-you-want experiment worth it? We

think so, although that doesn’t mean we would do it again, nor would we neces-

sarily recommend it. It was a tool to generate some great press and excitement

or the project, but we don’t see it as a sustainable unding method on Kick-

starter.

It’s a good idea to look at other successul campaigns or products that are simi-

lar to yours, and see what they did right. Checking out unsuccessul projects to

learn rom their mistakes can be helpul as well.

VIDEO

Te most important aspect o a Kickstarter campaign, besides a great product,

is the video. Video is the language o Kickstarter. It is generally the rst im-

pression a potential backer will have when they view your project.

So, what makes a good video? Kickstarter videos vary widely, but they all con-



23

tain some key elements. Here is what we have ound to work well:

1) Keep it short. Your video should be 2 minutes or less, and should show the

project you are pitching within the rst 15 seconds. Be as economical with

time as possible; people have short attention spans on the internet.

2) Be personal. Share your story. Nearly all successul Kickstarter videos ea-

ture the project creator(s) speaking directly to the camera, and there is a rea-

son or this. People want to see your passion or the project, and this is the

most direct way to do that. I you are not comortable in ront o a camera, it

can be incredibly dicult, but it’s necessary. We ound that taking a couple

shots o whiskey helps take the edge o. Keep the camera rolling and do sev-

eral takes, eventually the passion and excitement (and booze) will overcomethe awkwardness.

3) Be honest. You are not a huge corporation, so don’t make a ancy video that

tries to imitate one. Speak directly to the viewer/potential backer, and let

your passion or the project shine though. By all means, your video should be

polished and well crated, but keep your audience in mind. Don’t use hyper-

bolic language or marketing terms, just be clear, concise, and honest.

Our two project videos have been like a Pixies song: sot, loud, sot. We startwith a quick talking head o us introducing the product, quickly cut to a mon-

tage o the product in action, demonstrating various use cases, and then close

the video with another talking head, this time addressing why we need the

unding. It’s a ormat that has worked well or us, but your mileage may vary.

Don’t be araid to try something new.



24

View our project videos or the Gli and the Cosmonaut.

Here are some o our avorite Kickstarter videos. As you will see, they run the

gamut in terms o content and style, but the traits outlined above are present.

Jay Silver - MaKey MaKey

Frank Chimero - Te Shape o Design

im Schaeer - Double Fine Adventure

Roman Mars - 99% Invisible

PROMOTION

Many people make the mistake o thinking that once their project launches on

Kickstarter, their work is done, and they can sit back as the money rolls in. Tiscouldn’t be urther rom the truth. In reality, launching a project is the moment

the real work begins.

Kickstarter has a ew ways to eature projects, namely on their homepage or in

their weekly email newsletter. However, these shouldn’t be relied on. It’s your

http://kck.st/bb6Tuu

http://kck.st/g10bbj

http://kck.st/IT93ry

http://kck.st/evTfwY

http://kck.st/A9k3jH

http://kck.st/PRbsfa

http://kck.st/PRbsfa

http://kck.st/A9k3jH

http://kck.st/evTfwY

http://kck.st/IT93ry

http://kck.st/g10bbj

http://kck.st/bb6Tuu



25

responsibility to get people to discover your project, not Kickstarter’s.

Tere are a variety o ways to drum up excitement or your project. We discuss

project promotion in-depth in Chapter Five.

CAMPAIGN UPDATES

Ater the video, project updates are the second most important aspect o any

successully run Kickstarter campaign. Te majority o backers did not just buy

in to a product idea, they want to be along or the ride, and it’s your job to pro-

vide that experience. Tis is what makes Kickstarter a unique consumer expe-

rience: everyone is let in on the “behind the scenes” action. Amazingly, people

actually do want to see how the sausage is made.We love to create “making o” videos or our products. Aside rom the act that

they are a blast to make, they are a polished and concise way to present the

creation o a product. We created a couple or our Gli campaign, and they were

our most popular updates or that project. Likewise, our Mr. Rogers Cosmo-

naut video was a big hit. Te underrated genius o the Double Fine Adventure

campaign was that they embedded a “making-o” documentary as part o the

project itsel.



26

View our videos or making the Gli and making the Cosmonaut.

One tricky part o updates is nding the right cadence. I you send too many it

becomes spammy and they are largely ignored. Send too ew, and backers be-

come anxious. We generally like to wait until we have a lot o things to report,

and then bundle them up into a meaty update. Keep in mind, the update is sent

to every backers’ email inbox, so be mindul and respectul o the number o

updates you are sending.

MANAGING EXPECTATIONS

Having 5000 backers is a git. It is, however, like having 5000 bosses. Tey are

not literal investors, but a strange relationship is created between a project cre-

ator and the backers.

Our Gli campaign went astoundingly well, especially in hindsight. Funding

ended on November 2nd, 2010, and backers began receiving their Glis in the

mail a little over a month later, in time or the holidays. We skated through

the production process unscathed; all o our material choices and tolerances

were right on the money, so nothing needed to be redone. Part o that is to our

https://vimeo.com/17275305






27

credit or intentionally designing a very simple product, but beginner’s luck

must have been a actor as well. Unortunately, we used up all our luck on the

Gli project, leaving little or our next project, the Cosmonaut.

We learned a lot rom the Cosmonaut project, specically when it came to man-aging expectations. Te campaign launched in late March, and we set an initial

goal o delivery in June, which seemed totally reasonable based on our expe-

rience with the Gli. Ater several manuacturing delays too painul to go in

to, June turned to “late summer,” which turned to “all,” and we ultimately

delivered at the beginning o December. We cringed each time we had to send

a project update to the backers notiying them o the delay, but obviously it’s

better to bite the bullet and be honest than to leave backers in the dark.

Tere still needs to be more widespread understanding about what Kickstarter

is, exactly. Tis isn’t surprising, given that it’s a new platorm with an uncon-

ventional mix o commerce and patronage. One thing we noticed in running

our Cosmonaut campaign was that there seemed to be a real split among our

backers. Te majority “got” Kickstarter, and totally understood that delays and

manuacturing complications were all part o the process (and rankly, one o

the selling points o backing projects, in that you get to observe how a product

is made, warts and all). A vocal minority, however, expected a more traditional, Amazon-style experience. When delays occurred, they would get upset, and

even demand reunds. People are always going to be upset about delays, but

hopeully with time, the Kickstarter platorm will be better understood by the

general population, and expectations will be set accordingly.

Based on our own experience as well as observations o other Kickstarter proj-

ects, rewards tend to be delivered late. Delays and snags are inevitable, and

rst-time project creators seem to set ambitious (and perhaps naïve) delivery schedules. However long you think the project will take to complete, you may

do well to simply double that estimate. Ater all, it’s better to overestimate and

exceed expectations, rather than the opposite.



28

CAPTURE ATTENTION

When your Kickstarter campaign ends, you will obviously no longer be accept-

ing pledges rom people interested in your project, but you should nd a way to

capture the people that missed out on the campaign but are still interested inwhat you’re doing.

We did this by setting up a simple webpage with a orm eld, which allowed the

user to enter their email address so that they could be notied when the prod-

uct became available or general sale. Creating witter and Facebook proles is

another wise move. Tis may seem obvious, but you want to make it as easy as

possible or interested people to connect with you.

DELIVERING

Tere is nothing quite like the satisaction o nally delivering your project to

your backers.

Tat said, the handling o address collection or reward ulllment is one o

Kickstarter’s only weaknesses. Tis is done through a survey that can gener-

ally only be sent once via email, cannot be linked to, and allows users only a

short window to edit their inormation ater submission. I you are ortunateenough to have backers numbering in the thousands, this can be a real head-

ache, but it appears that Kickstarter is continually working to improve their

system. Tankully, once all o the survey results are in, you can easily export

all the results as a spreadsheet, which can then be used as a checklist i you are

ullling orders manually, or uploaded directly to your ulllment service i

you take that route (more on this in the next chapter).

We recommend holding o on sending the backer survey till as late in the game

as you can. Ideally, just a ew weeks beore you are ready to start shipping. I

you send it too early, some people will inevitably move and manually managing

address changes can get quite cumbersome. Also, don’t annoy backers with ad-

ditional, unnecessary questions on the survey, e.g., “What do you plan on using

Product X or?!” Save that or a dierent and optional survey. Te Kickstarter



29

survey should be about the brass tacks, such as getting the backer’s shipping

inormation and reward preerences.

As with all things related to Kickstarter, communication with your backers is

key. Keep them up to date on delivery schedules. I you need to send the re-wards out in batches rather than all at once, communicate that, ideally in a

way that properly sets the expectations or when backers should receive their

reward. With both the Gli and Cosmonaut campaigns, we were able to send all

o the rewards out at once, which is great i you’re able to swing it.

When everything has been delivered, take a deep breath. You have run a suc-

cessul campaign, and you should eel pretty chued. Tere are going to be

some stragglers who never lled in the survey, so be prepared to handle thosead hoc or the next year or so (seriously) ater the initial delivery. Aside rom

that, have a drink. You deserve it.



30

HARDWARE“I love the idea that we live in a world now where two guys

can just decide to make hardware.”

JOHN GRUBER

In an article written or Wired magazine in 2010, Chris Anderson, editor-in-

chie at Wired , claimed that “atoms are the new bits.” In his words:

ransormative change happens when industries democratize, when they’re

ripped rom the sole domain o companies, governments, and other institutions

and handed over to regular olks. Te Internet democratized publishing, broad-

casting, and communications, and the consequence was a massive increase in

the range o both participation and participants in everything digital—the

long tail o bits.

Now the same is happening to manuacturing—the long tail o things.

We’ve been ortunate enough to experience this rst hand. Services and tech-

nologies that did not even exist ve years ago are lowering the barrier or any-

one to start making hardware, and this trend will continue as technologies

prolierate and decrease in cost. Manuacturing a physical object will never be

quite as easy as starting a blog or posting a video to Youube, but it’s getting

closer.

PROTOTYPING

One o the key advancements that made both the Gli and Cosmonaut proj-

ects possible is easily accessible and cheap 3D printing. In the crudest possible

terms, 3D printing is an additive manuacturing technique that takes a digital

3D model and “prints” thin layers o plastic on top o one another until you end

3

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/01/ff_newrevolution/all/1




31

up with a solid plastic part. Until just recently, the only option industrial de-

signers had was to hire someone to make a cast or carve o their design, which

o course was very time-consuming and expensive. Now, with companies like

Shapeways and Ponoko, designers can order 3D prints over the internet and

have them arrive in 1–2 weeks. Amazing.

We went through about 10 iterations o the Gli beore we settled on the nal

design. Each iteration was 3D printed, and we were able to learn a tremendous

amount about what was and wasn’t working with a design by being able to hold

the physical object in our hands, and test the t on an iPhone.

Some o the various 3D printed prototypes or the Gli.

Beyond the 3D printing tools we’ve used to design our products, indie entrepre-

neurs have a whole host o prototyping tools that have only recently become

available. Arduino, the open-sourced electronics platorm, enables tinkerers to

prototype their ideas with motors, sensors, computer chips and screens. Web-

sites like eMachineShop give us access to proessional-level machine shops so

http://www.shapeways.com/

http://www.ponoko.com/

http://arduino.cc/

http://www.emachineshop.com/

http://www.emachineshop.com/

http://arduino.cc/

http://www.ponoko.com/

http://www.shapeways.com/



32

we can create custom metal parts rom our desks.

Basically, a high school kid in the middle o nowhere can now make almost any-

thing with just his or her imagination, the internet, and a ew bucks.

FINDING A MANUFACTURER

When we reached our unding goal or our Gli Kickstarter campaign in one

day, we knew the scale o our project was growing much bigger than we ex-

pected. Our next order o business was to nd a manuacturer that could

handle that quantity. We were initially planning on using a company we ound

through Google called Protomold, which specializes in low run injection mold-

ing. When we realized the quantities were going to be much higher than wewere anticipating, and higher than Protomold could accommodate, we had to

start looking elsewhere.

We wish we had a silver bullet or magic piece o advice or nding the perect

manuacturer or your product, but it’s really pretty boring: lots o Googling

and lots o cold calls. For the Gli we called dozens o manuacturers, and end-

ed up getting quotes rom six o them. We ultimately chose Premier Source, a

small company located in Brookings, South Dakota, because they understood

what we were ater, and shared our enthusiasm or the project.

I you are planning on running a Kickstarter campaign or a physical object

that needs to be manuactured, we strongly advise you to speak with, and ide-

ally select, a manuacturer beore you launch the campaign. It is o upmost

importance to make sure your concept can even be manuactured in a cost

eective way, and some design tweaks may need to occur beore you launch.

Tis was something we learned the hard way with the Cosmonaut campaign.

Although we did have a manuacturer selected and a build process outlined, it

ended up being ar more complicated then we had bargained or, and we ulti-

mately had to hire three separate vendors to get it made.

What i you have no idea what manuacturing process you should be using?

Tere are a lot o great resources out there to amiliarize yoursel with vari-

http://www.protomold.com/

http://www.premiersource.us/

http://www.premiersource.us/

http://www.protomold.com/



33

ous processes. Making It: Manuacturing echniques or Product Design, by Christ

Leteri, is an excellent place to start and describes common production meth-

ods in straightorward language.

MADE IN THE USA

Want to help create jobs in a country that seems to be orever lingering in a re-

cession? Want to help bring that country back to its hey day as a manuacturing

power? Make your stu in America.

Tere are many more intelligent and well inormed people who can speak to

the advantages o manuacturing overseas, but in our experience these are

shrinking, and manuacturing stateside oers some signicant advantages,especially or a company as small as ours. Just because Apple makes their stu

in Shenzen doesn’t mean we have to.

For starters, it has been a boon to be able to easily visit our manuacturers in

South Dakota. We love being directly involved with the manuacturing process,

and this is especially easy when the plant is located in the States. O course it

is not impossible to travel to China, but it is certainly more dicult and expen-

sive.

As two young guys with no manuacturing experience, we were susceptible to

all kinds o rookie mistakes, but thankully Premier Source was ready and will-

ing to guide us through the whole process. Tey immediately understood our

objectives and design goals, and were able to help us make smart design deci-

sions that would improve the manuacturing side o things. We doubt we would

have gotten that kind o attention i we tried to outsource overseas.

Perhaps most importantly, it eels right. Tere is no way we could be doing whatwe are doing i not or the opportunities presented to us by living in this coun-

try. Sure, it might cost a little more to manuacture in America, but we think

it’s more than worth it.

Obviously, or huge companies like Apple, manuacturing anywhere other than

Asia simply doesn’t make nancial sense. But what about or smaller compa-



34

nies, like ours? For the answer to that, we turn to our riends Che-Wei Wang

and aylor Levy o CW&, a duo that launched their awesome and rugged Pen

ype-A on Kickstarter, and raised $281,989. Tey manuactured their product

in China, so we decided to ask them about their experience:

Our Kickstarter campaign ended mid-August 2012. Like Studio Neat with the

Gli, we were blown away by the amount o pre-orders we received rom back-

ers. Our original goal was to make 50 pens and we ended up with over 5,500

pre-orders.

We chose to manuacture Pen ype-A at the same actory in China where our

prototypes were made. We were happy with them, and assumed that i they

could make our prototypes, then they could make several thousand. We otenwork with China when we make prototypes, but we had never tested a medium

scale abrication run. We were curious to see i it was possible.

Over the course o a year, we worked with and red two dierent Chinese ac-

tories. Early on, they both told us that they could meet the specications and

manuacture our pens without a problem. We red the rst actory ater a

week. o make a very long story short, they simply were not equipped with the

machines or expertise required to make the pens. We learned a lot, but we were

happy to cut our losses. Working with the second actory was a much dierent

experience. It was owned and operated by two engineers, one American and

the other Chinese, who were riends rom a prominent US business school. Tis

actory actually managed to ulll most o our order, but only ater problems

with quality control, meeting specications, price increases, signicant delays,

misleading us about how the pens were being made, lawyers getting involved

and oh! we had to remake 30% o one o the parts in America. It was a grueling

process.

Pen ype-A requires 4 parts to be precision machined out o stainless steel. It’s

not the easiest material to work with, but it’s certainly not unusual. One o the

biggest challenges o working in China is that anything that can be made by

hand, is made by hand. Even when we were assured parts were being made on a

CNC (computer numerically controlled) machine, we ound plenty o inconsis-

http://cwandt.com/

http://cwandt.com/



35

tencies as a result o manual labor.

Another big challenge was communication. Language wasn’t the problem, but

communicating how crucial it was to have products that met our specications

precisely was incredibly dicult. Our abricator would oten qualiy substan-dard parts as “good enough” in an attempt to sidestep specications. o give

China the benet o the doubt, we are extremely nit-picky. And I think it’s air

to assume that i you are reading this book, you probably are too. Our rst pri-

ority is to be proud o what we’re making, and we demand quality that meets

our expectations. Good manuacturers would never sidestep specications. I

something turns out to be harder than expected they will suggest alternatives

that oten improve the design while solving manuacturing issues.

Small studios should take a long hard look at where they have stu made. Sure,

plenty o garment and electronics brands pull o manuacturing in China on-

time and in-budget with great quality. But, unlike a giant corporation, we don’t

have the leverage o multi-million dollar contracts. As a two-person team, we

bear the ull responsibility o delivering products to our customers. We are the

customer support hotline, R&D, PR, accounting, etc. Te last thing we need is

extra demands clouding our super valuable creative time.

We now work with a manuacturer in Vermont that shares our attention to

detail and has standards o quality that surpass any actory we’ve ever seen.

We visit them oten to see how they operate and to talk to machinists on the

foor, ace to ace. Tere’s nothing more reassuring than a machinist who tells

us how uneasy it makes him when a part comes out measuring 1 thousandth o

an inch o when the specications show a tolerance o 5 thousandths (that’s

0.001” vs 0.005”). Quality is ensured by the culture o the entire operation, not

just a quality control department that has to sit through thousands o parts to pick out and reject bad parts.

We can only speak rom our experience, but or us, the benets o working with

a domestic manuacturer greatly outweigh the benets o manuacturing in

China. We say that now, and you’ll probably hear it over and over again. In

the ace o comparing quotes that are a raction o another, it might be hard to



36

swallow, we know.

Instead o debating the pros and cons, our advice is to test it or yoursel. Pick

a ew US shops and a ew overseas. Have each o them make a small sample

production. Budget that into your project, and evaluate the results or yoursel. An important thing we learned is that no two manuacturing projects are ever

the same. Regardless o a abricator’s experience, surprises are inevitable.

Manuacturing is hard. Tere are no shortcuts. Regardless o where something

is made, you get what you pay or. No magic, no secrets, and always lots o

surprises.

Many o CW&’s insights apply beyond just manuacturing in China. It is al-

ways a good idea to seek out several options, or anything, in order to make an

inormed decision. And o course, as they said, you get what you pay or.

PACKAGING

I you are in the game o making and selling hardware products, packaging is

an integral component. Te packaging is a way to make that all-important rst

impression on the customer, a chance to surprise and delight them.

Like everything we do, we strive or simplicity in our packaging. We are in a

unique position, selling essentially online only, so we don’t need to make our

packaging “retail riendly.” Tere are other considerations to keep in mind

when something is being shipped through the mail, certainly, but it is nice to

not have to worry about how it will look when sitting on a store shel.

Coming up with packaging ideas and prototyping them is lots o un, at least

or us. It harkens back to our model making days in architecture school. Like

architectural models, we nd it most productive to grab an Exacto knie and

some cardboard (we use cereal boxes) and dig in. It’s also un to seek out dier-

ent types o packaging or inspiration.



37

Packaging or the Gli, Gli+ and Cosmonaut.

For the Gli, we went as minimal as possible: black ink printed on krat board,with a simple die cut to house the Gli. Te shape o the Gli allowed it to stay

in place, suspended in the middle o the card, without any additional reinorce-

ment needed.

When we expanded the Gli line to include the Gli+, we wanted to try some-

thing a little cheeky. In the spirit o “using every bit o the bualo,” we designed

the packaging to turn into a mini tripod (technically a bipod). It’s not particu-

larly practical, but could be used in a pinch.

Our most well received packaging, by ar, was or the Cosmonaut. It’s our most

traditional package, a simple box, tray, and sleeve, but when you slide the box

out o the sleeve it reveals the Cosmonaut, with little rocket ns printed on the

side o the tray. Ready or take o.

All o our packaging is printed on recyclable krat material. Again, because it is

not meant or a retail space, we have an easier time nding a more eco-riendly

solution.

Finding a printer was a process similar to that o nding a manuacturer; we

used Google to do our research. Printers are usually happy to send various

packaging samples; take advantage o this to evaluate what their work is like.

We ended up going with Keystone Folding Box Co., located in New Jersey, and

http://www.keyboxco.com/

http://www.keyboxco.com/



38

they’ve been great.

ORDER FULFILLMENT

With our pre-launch goal o selling 500 Glis, we had planned to spend a week-end or two stung envelopes, and mailing everything ourselves with a ew

trips to the post oce. When our project blew up beyond our expectations, shit

got real.

We didn’t know anything about order ulllment services, and we had to learn,

quickly, i we wanted any chance o getting the Glis into backers’ hands beore

the holidays. We wanted the Gli to be neatly tucked underneath the Christmas

tree alongside Nintendo 64s and Super Soakers (wait, what year is it?).First, let’s take a step back. What is an “order ulllment service?” Remember

watching late night V ads where the product would cost X dollars plus Ship-

ping and Handling? Order ulllment is the Handling part o that equation.

You send a ulllment company your inventory, bulk packed rom your manu-

acturer. Tey stock your inventory, and when an order comes in (typically rom

your ecommerce site) they process it, pack it up, and ship it to the customer.

I you are making and selling a physical product that needs to be shipped to acustomer, using an order ulllment service is not necessarily a given. Tread-

less, the popular crowd voting t-shirt company, began by ullling orders

themselves, and as they grew, so did their warehouse space. attly , the designy

temporary tattoo company ounded by ina Roth Eisenberg, ullls its orders

in-house as well. I you have just succeeded in getting unding or your Kick-

starter campaign, and you have a relatively modest number o backers, ulll-

ing the orders yoursel will be the most cost eective option.

However, in some circumstances, hiring a ulllment service is necessary, and

awesome. It is one o the chie reasons the two o us are still the only two em-

ployees o Studio Neat. We have warehouses stocking our inventory in Los An-

geles, Philadelphia, and the United Kingdom. Orders made at www.studioneat.

com are sent directly to our ulllment center, and they take care o the “Ship-

http://www.threadless.com/


http://tattly.com/

http://tattly.com/





39

ping and Handling.” At this point, it’s a airly hands-o process or us.

We decided to use Shipwire, and they’ve been a antastic partner. Tey have

six warehouses across the world (we stock inventory in three o them), which

makes it easy to grow without inordinate complication and headache. Depend-ing on the quantity shipped per month, Shipwire takes around $2 per item

shipped plus the cost o the packing materials and shipping. Tis is a pretty

standard rate or ulllment services. Tey also charge a small monthly ee or

renting space or your inventory in their warehouse.

One operational problem that continues to vex us is maintaining proper inven-

tory levels. im Cooks, we are not. Ideally, the minimum amount o inventory

should be maintained to satisy demand, but this is tricky when unexpectedspikes and lulls occur. Our current method is to build up several months o

inventory, and hope the rug doesn’t get pulled out rom under us.

SELLING ONLINE

99% percent o our business is selling products online. People are oten sur-

prised when they learn that we don’t pursue physical retail opportunities. Tis

may seem obvious, but we eel the population likely to seek products like ours

has reached a point where they are totally comortable shopping online, and it

is clearly possible or a company to exist with an online-only presence.

We use Shopiy as our ecommerce platorm o choice. It’s secure, reliable, and

interaces beautiully with Shipwire, our order ulllment service. It is also ul-

ly customizable; our storeront is a unique, non-templated design. Shopiy also

has several options or payment gateways. We use Braintree (or credit cards)

and Paypal, but there are many more options as well.

Aside rom Shopiy, we also sell our products on Amazon.com. Tis has been,

in a word, awesome. Amazon unctions like a combination o Shopiy and Ship-

wire in that they act as the ecommerce platorm and the ulllment company.

Creating a listing on Amazon is straightorward, and they make it easy to send

inventory to them by providing prepaid, printable UPS labels. We make slightly

http://www.shipwire.com/

http://www.shopify.com/

https://www.braintreepayments.com/

https://www.braintreepayments.com/

http://www.shopify.com/

http://www.shipwire.com/



40

less money on a product sold on Amazon versus on our website, but the conve-

nience o having our products on Amazon (or us and the customer) makes it

worth it. Amazon also handles the customer service or items sold on their site,

so that helps deray the cost as well.

WHOLESALE

When our manuacturer packages our inventory, we have them pack 50 items

into a smallish box, and then pack our o those smallish boxes into a larger

box. Te reason we take this extra step is simple: wholesale.

Wholesale is a way or people who have stores o their own (either online or re-

tail) to sell our products. ypically, those interested in our products have pho-tography, gadget, or Apple centric stores.

We oer all o our products at wholesale prices to anyone interested. All it is,

essentially, is a discount or purchasing a large quantity o our stu. We pack

the items in the smaller boxes o 50, which is a reasonable starting quantity or

resellers.

It sounds airly simple, but be wary, as selling wholesale can add a lot o compli-

cation to your business. Resellers will sometimes ask or exclusivity contracts(exclusive rights to sell in a specic country or region), drop ship arrangements

(they make the sale but we are responsible or shipping the order), or net 30

payment terms (a 30 day window to make payment ater the order has been

shipped). While none o these are unreasonable requests, it can become a chore

to maintain those relationships.

We ultimately decided to streamline our terms. Essentially, when you buy

wholesale rom us, you are simply getting a discount or purchasing a largequantity at once. We don’t oer exclusivity, and you have to pay or the order

beore it ships, just as any customer would. Some resellers could balk at those

terms, and we may lose some resellers as a result, but i the end result is a dra-

matically simplied way o maintaining that aspect o our business, the trade

o is worth it.



41

RETAIL

We’ve gone back and orth when it comes to getting our products into brick

and mortar stores. On one hand, it would be quite satisying to see the Gli

in Apple Stores, side by side with the product that inspired its design. On theother hand, we’ve heard that retail can be an absolute bitch, with slim margins,

and lots o people in the middle taking small bites out o your prot every step

along the way. Additionally, the retail store will oten have strict guidelines

about packaging, pricing, etc. And some stores will heap all o the risk on to

you, meaning, i your product doesn’t sell, you are orced to buy it back rom

them. Sounds like a great deal, eh?

Tere seem to be two games at play. With retail, you have low margins, less con-

trol over the presentation o the product, and little direct customer interaction,

but you have the potential to make it up with quantity sold. By selling direct

online, you cut out all middlemen, have complete control over the product, and

get to interact directly with your customers. You may not sell as well, but the

margins will be much higher. For us, the choice was easy. We started indie, so

we’ve decided to stay that way.

For some products, pursuing retail makes a lot o sense. I you design an inno-

vative new kitchen utensil, or example, you might have much greater success i

shoppers “discover” it in the right retail store, rather than hoping they stumble

upon it online. Furthermore, you may simply have a product that is dicult to

ship through the mail, or something that needs to be touched or elt to be ully

appreciated. We are ortunate to have products ideally suited or an online au-

dience, but this is not the case or everyone.



42

SOFTWARE“Most people make the mistake o thinking design is what it looks like.

People think it’s this veneer—that the designers are handed this box and

told, ‘Make it look good!’ That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just

what it looks like and eels like. Design is how it works.”

STEVE JOBS

Beore leaving our jobs to pursue Studio Neat ull time, om worked as a sot-

ware developer and Dan worked as an interaction designer, so it’s a bit unny it

took us until our third product to make an iOS app.

Our rst app, Frameographer, was released in March o 2012. It is a simple

(surprise, surprise) app or creating stop motion and time-lapse videos on the

iPhone. Our goal was to create something easy enough or anyone to pick up

and use, yet capable enough to satisy most users. Perhaps more importantly

though, we wanted the app to be un to use. Our physical products bend to-wards utilitarianism, so making our rst piece o sotware oered some great

opportunities to delight our customers in new ways.

AN ECOSYSTEM

Ecosystem is a word that gets tossed around a lot, especially in the tech world.

In this context, an ecosystem reers to the various products, services, and con-

tent oered by a single company, meant to play o one another. Companieslike Apple and Amazon have thriving ecosystems, and by buying into one you

essentially get “locked in” to that platorm.

On a smaller scale (like how we operate), an ecosystem is not designed to lock

in customers, but to create a sense o cohesion between products. Everything

appears to be cut rom the same cloth, as it were.

4



43

When we created the Gli, we knew that making stop motion and time-lapse

movies was going to be a popular use or our handy little tripod mount. Tese

two techniques require a still, motionless camera, so the Gli was an obvious

t. What we also realized is that while there were plenty o apps in the App

Store or creating time-lapse and stop motion movies, none o them were that

great. Tey typically suered rom one o two problems: needlessly cluttered

and complex, or lacking certain eatures and export quality. We hoped to hit

the sweet spot: an easy-to-use and capable creative tool.

Te project view in Frameographer.

DESIGNING THE APP

Te rst step o any new design project is to check to make sure a antastic solu-

tion to our problem didn’t already exist. We surveyed the scene in the App Store

to check out what was available or making stop motion and time-lapse movies.

I there was already an awesome app or that in the store, we would not build

one. We have limited time and resources, so we only move orward on projects

where we eel we can make a signicant contribution to the space.

We should probably mention, we chose iOS as the platorm without even a sec-



44

ond thought. Tis might seem smug or arrogant to ans o Android, but they

can go stick it (only kidding). Tere are our main reasons we chose iOS:

1) Ecosystem. Te Gli is designed specically or the iPhone 4/4S, and Fram-

eographer was meant to compliment our hardware, so it wouldn’t make senseto design it or a dierent device.

2) Fragmentation. Android is more ragmented than iOS, meaning it is spread

across several dierent device types, with various screen sizes and internal

specs. With the limited resources we have (only the two o us), it made sense

to design or the OS that reaches the most people with the least amount o

(re)design work. Te “bang or your buck” actor, i you will. We even cut

down on the ragmentation urther by allowing Frameographer to run ononly Retina display devices.

3) Monetization. Anecdotal evidence has shown that iOS users are more willing

to pay or apps than Android users. Tis may not remain true orever, but it

seems to be the case at present.

4) Familiarity. We have been using iOS since its inception, and we believe a-

miliarity with a platorm leads to better design. We’ve become intimately

amiliar with the UI (user interace) conventions simply by using our phoneseveryday.

Te app we designed comprises three main screens: Home, Capture, and Proj-

ect. We decided on this organizational structure early on, but each screen went

through countless iterations. We also went straight rom sketches to pixel-

perect mock-ups. I you’ve ever worked at a design rm it might seem bizarre

to skip the wirerame stage, but that’s one o the advantages o making an app

with just two people. We don’t have various stages o “approval,” so we can skipsome steps.

For an in-depth look at the making o Frameographer, you can read this blog

post we put together.

http://www.therussiansusedapencil.com/post/20069271435/the-making-of-frameographer






45

ANIMATED WALKTHROUGH

One unique approach we took in designing the app was creating a ully ani-

mated, pixel-perect UI walkthrough video. We initially did this because we

planned to hand the design o to other developers, but it still proved to beuseul ater we decided against that plan and om took over coding responsi-

bilities.

In iOS apps, and in our app especially, animation is a key part o the user ex-

perience. Screens slide in and out o transitions, things moves when you touch

them, and objects have a sense o physics to them that is hard to convey in a

mockup or wirerame. Creating a UI walkthrough video is denitely time con-

suming, but it can be a useul tool. We actually consider the walkthrough video

our rst prototype, and showed it to a handul o people to make sure the ows

and interactions made sense.

It’s interesting to look back now at the walkthrough video to compare the orig-

inal vision or the app with what we ultimately ended up making. Although

some things remained in place, the nal app is dramatically simplied and im-

proved rom the walkthrough video, a testament to the iterative design pro-

cess. Te walkthrough video can be viewed here.

HIRING OUTSIDE HELP VS. DOING IT YOURSELF

When we rst started designing the app, neither o us were procient in iOS

development, so our initial plan was to hire outside developers. At the time

we were ocusing our eorts on getting the Cosmonaut manuactured, so we

gured we could ully design the app, and then ofoad the development work

to a couple riends who run a small app development studio.

Long story short: it didn’t work.

Our experience is too specic to make any sweeping generalizations about hir-

ing riends to do development work, or hiring outside help at all. But speaking

anecdotally, we have been much happier doing everything in-house, and think

the product is better as a result.





46

Initially, the creation o the app was happening in two very discrete phases:

design and development. We designed the entire user experience, provided pix-

el-perect, layered Photoshop les, and created an animated UI walkthrough

video to demonstrate the ow and animations. All o this was then passed o

to the developers, who began building our design. Tis kind o compartmental-

ized, segmented design process is not uncommon in many design agencies, but

rom our limited experience, we think the product suers when ollowing that

process.

Design and development are intertwined, and they eed o one another. Sep-

arating the two prevents serendipitous discoveries rom occurring. Further-

more, it is simplistic to assume a piece o sotware can be ully designed, and

then sent o to a land o magical development where all your app dreams come

true. Questions will arise, technical challenges will occur, and the back and

orth between design and development is critical to working through these.

Ultimately, om learned Objective-C and we brought the project back in-house.

Te biggest advantage o this, o course, was the tight melding o design and

development. We were able to uss over every tiny detail, and quickly iterate

new ideas.

What we’ve learned rom this is that it’s best to do things yoursel whenever

you can. Even i it requires learning a new skill, in the end it will be worth it. It

might seem like a big deal that om picked up Objective-C, and it kind o was,

but it was something that was within reach. Tere is generally no harm in tak-

ing the time to learn something new, and oten times it will pay o handsomely

in the uture.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Naming products can be a un exercise. New projects start to eel tangible and

“real” when they are given a proper title. Te importance o a good product

name is obvious, but in time any meaning ades away and it simply becomes

a symbol or the product. ake the iPad, or example. Remember how many

people hated the name when it was introduced? “It sounds like a eminine hy-



47

giene product!” (kids can be so cruel). Fast orward a couple years, and no one

thinks twice about it.

For our iPhone app, we settled on the name “Frames” quickly. It sounded nice,

spoke equally to time-lapse and stop motion techniques, and had a style that tnicely alongside other Apple apps (e.g., Numbers, Pages).

wo days ater launching the app, we received an email rom the CEO o a com-

pany called ech4Learning, which makes Windows and Mac sotware or the

educational sector. Incidentally, they too had an app called Frames, which is

or—you’ll never guess—creating stop motion animations. It had been around

since 2006.

Hearing about the existence o this app, although in a dierent domain, was a

real punch in the gut. We were backed into a corner, and it was completely our

ault. Although we did our due diligence in checking the Apple App Store, we

ailed to consider the reach o trademark across domains. A simple trademark

search would have revealed that “Frames” was already taken.

Ater some hemming and hawing, we realized that the only reasonable course

o action was to change the app name. So, ater even more deliberation, we

picked “Frameographer.” Although we really loved “Frames,” we have grown tolove “Frameographer” as well. Te act that it is a unique, invented word also o-

ers some advantages, including our ability to “own” it, in a matter o speaking.

Obviously it’s not ideal to change the name o a product ater it’s out in the

wild, but in this case we didn’t have much o a choice. Fortunately, we learned

that this change wasn’t as big o a deal as we eared.

THE ICON

Te design o an app icon is one o the most important parts o the app. Not

only does it occupy a prominent chunk o real estate on the user’s home screen,

it is the primary way an app is represented in the App Store. Te easiest way to

signal to a potential customer, “hey, this app is high quality,” is to have a well

designed, high quality icon.



48

We went through dozens o iterations beore we nally arrived at a design that

made us happy. It was the part o the app we were ussiest about, and nearly

lead to the dissolution o Studio Neat (not really).

We started o by having a graphic designer riend take a pass at the icon. Wedidn’t give too much direction, other than showing her the UI o the app and

giving her a ew napkin sketches o icon ideas. We liked where we ultimately

ended up, but ater sitting with it or a ew weeks we thought we might be able

to improve upon it, so we both continued sketching our own ideas. Ater being

unsatised with where that netted out, we decided to bring in the big guns

and hired Te Iconactory . When everything was said and done we’d produced

about 50 dierent icons.

Some o the Frameographer icon designs. Final design is on the right.

It might seem silly to spend this much time and attention on a 114x114 pixelsquare, but as stated beore, the app icon is incredibly important. I you don’t

eel comortable making the app icon, hire a graphic designer to make it or

you. People do judge the book by the cover, so make a nice cover.

NUMBERS

So, how did we do? We thought it would be interesting to reveal our app sales

numbers, to give an idea o how an app like ours, with the publicity it received,

does in the App Store.

We sold 9,179 copies o Frameographer in the rst week, 2,457 on the rst day

alone. We received some great press on the rst day, including posts rom

UAW, Macstories, Shawn Blanc, and Benjamin Brooks. At its peak, Frameog-

rapher reached #55 in the overall Paid rankings, and #5 in the Photography

http://iconfactory.com/home

http://iconfactory.com/home



49

section. Four days ater we launched, our app was eatured by Apple in the New

and Noteworthy section o the App Store, and was moved to What’s Hot the

ollowing week.

Our second week netted 4,488 sales, and the week ater we had 1,775 sales. As you can see rom the graph, our sales continued along this classic long tail

shape.

Frameographer sales in the App Store.

Another interesting (and perhaps unsurprising) tidbit we learned: keywords in

the app title matter. For the 1.3 update, as an experiment, we changed the app

name rom “Frameographer” to “Frameographer - Stop Motion & ime-Lapse.”

In the search results or “stop motion,” we jumped in ranking rom 31st to 1st;

likewise, a search or “time-lapse” jumped us rom 25th to 5th. As a result, our

sales eectively doubled, although this bump in sales was also a result o someoutside press. It also appears that the algorithm Apple uses or search ranking

is constantly being tweaked, as our ranking tends to uctuate.

By numbers alone, these sales look great, but our app is only $2.99 (which is

actually high by App Store standards). Subtract Apple’s 30% cut, and Frameog-



50

rapher alone would not be enough income or the two o us to live on i it was

our only source o revenue. In our case, that wasn’t our goal or intention, but

it should be kept in mind i you are an aspiring app developer with dollar signs

in your eyes. Obviously, results may vary, as all apps are unique and beautiul

snowakes. Tese numbers are simply provided as a reerence point.



51

PROMOTION“The biggest myth ever perpetuated in the design feld is that

good design sells itsel.”

MIKE MONTEIRO

Someone smarter than us said that the enemy o those who create things is

not piracy, it’s obscurity. Very ew people will discover your products serendipi-

tously; it is up to you to put them in ront o their eyes.

Both o our Kickstarter projects went o without a dime spent on advertising.

We were ortunate enough to get some antastic blog coverage, and both proj-

ects spread virally across the web.

Having a Kickstarter project is a lot like having an app in the App Store: that

act, in itsel, does not make it interesting. Te novelty o both has or the most

part worn o, and the quality and originality o the product is what needs tostand out.

Tis chapter will discuss methods or promoting your product. When you are

running a Kickstarter campaign, it’s a bit weird to be spending money on adver-

tising when you are trying to raise it to make your thing, but there are plenty o

ways to get “ree” publicity. Te paid examples in this chapter apply to products

that are already established.

INTERNET FAMOUS

One o the most valuable (and humorous) classes Dan took while in grad school

at Parsons was called Internet Famous. It was taught by Jamie Wilkenson,

James Powderly, and Evan Roth, no strangers to the Internet ame game. Te

goal o the class was simple: to try to get noticed on the Internet. As silly and

5



52

narcissistic as that sounds, it provided an invaluable exercise in attempting to

understand what makes the web tick, and more specically, how to get trac

without spending money. Te key lesson, in a nut shell, is to be proactive. Te

bloggers will rarely come to you; it is your task to make their job easier by seek-

ing them out and providing the pertinent inormation.

I you are looking to promote your project, it likely alls into a niche category

that is covered by an inuential blogger, and you probably already ollow and

are huge ans o them. Send them an email, but not just a blanket, copy and

pasted PR statement. Write to them directly. Make it personal. Keep it short

and sweet, but try to convey why you think that writer, specically, might be

interested in your project. It is oten a good idea to reerence something they

have posted in the past, by way o explaining why your project is a good t or

their blog. Some bloggers also like or you to include a handul o screen resolu-

tion images, thus saving them some legwork.

I a writer posts a link to your project, send them a short note o thanks. Use

those manners your mother taught you.

THE GRUBER EFFECT

John Gruber is a man o exquisite taste who writes or Daring Fireball, a web-

site ocusing on technology and design through the lens o Apple products. He

has an enormous ollowing; anyone with more than a passing interest in Apple

likely subscribes to his RSS eed. Remember back in the 90’s when Oprah would

add a book to her Book Club and it would immediately become a best seller?

Gruber has that type o inuence in the tech community.

We had the good ortune o having a modest rapport with John, as he had

linked to Dan’s blog a couple o times in the past. Te day we launched the Gli

campaign, we sent him an email with a link to the project page, and oered to

send him a prototype to check it out early.

On the morning o October 4th, 2010, John Gruber linked to our Kickstarter

campaign on Daring Fireball. Te post was innocent enough, only 167 charac-

http://daringfireball.net/

http://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/10/04/glif

http://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/10/04/glif

http://daringfireball.net/



53

ters. 1 hour and 25 minutes ater the post went live, we surpassed our unding

goal o $10,000, and nished the day with over $25,000.

Te 167 characters that eectively launched Studio Neat.

Te point o this anecdote is not to tell you to email John Gruber so your proj-ect will be successul. Don’t do that, in act, as we’re sure he’s inundated with

Kickstarter related emails at this point. Te point is, communities oten have

“tastemakers” that set the conversation. Malcolm Gladwell reers to these peo-

ple as “Mavens.” For all things Apple, that person is John Gruber, but there is

likely someone similar or the community to which your product belongs. Tese

individuals are oten more inuential, in this context, than larger publications

like Te New York imes. Tree cheers or the Internet being the great equalizer.

WEB ADS

raditional web ads are oten seen as the bane o the internet. Several browser

plug-ins exist to block obnoxious and obtrusive ads, and services like Insta-

paper are created partially to remove such clutter. However, there are some



54

examples o web ads being tasteully done, notably Te Deck Network, run by

Coudal Partners. Tis ad network has a highly curated selection o webpages

that your ad will appear on (some o the best websites on the web), and only

one ad is ever displayed on any o these webpages at once. Other ad networks,

such as Fusion and Carbon Ads, use this same method. We tried Te Deck or

a month to advertise the Gli, and liked the results we saw, although it can be

hard to gauge the value o an “impression.” Google Analytics cannot track how

many brains subconsciously absorbed the content o the ad. Yet.

We have only run a couple small ad campaigns, so our sample size is small. But

our impression is that it is simply not as eective as other advertising methods

we have tried.

Tat’s not to say it won’t work or you, especially i your product is better suited

or this type o advertising. Our goal or the ads is to make a direct sale, rather

than simple brand building, so one explanation or the tepid response is our

ads were shown in places where people are not in a “buying” mindset.

As an experiment, we also tried a short Google Adwords campaign, but the

results were disappointing. We have learned to trust much more targeted ap-

proaches.

EMAIL CAMPAIGN

As part o the Kickstarter survey we sent out to obtain our backers’ mailing

addresses, we included an option or backers to add their email address to our

mailing list. Likewise, we oer this option as part o the checkout process in

our online store (opt-in, not out). Having a mailing list is not a new concept by

any stretch, but we have ound it to be a very useul platorm or announcing

new products, so it’s worth mentioning. It’s the most direct way to announce

something to your most dedicated ans, shy o calling them on the phone or

visiting their homes, which we strongly advise against. We use Mailchimp or

our email campaigns and we’ve been happy with them.

Also, always make your mailing lists opt-in (the “checkbox” should be un-

http://decknetwork.net/

http://fusionads.net/

http://carbonads.net/

http://mailchimp.com/

http://mailchimp.com/

http://carbonads.net/

http://fusionads.net/

http://decknetwork.net/



55

checked by deault). C’mon, don’t be a dick.

SPONSORSHIP

Tis is our avorite method o advertising. Essentially, popular blogs oer theopportunity or a company to sponsor their blog or one week or a set ee. In

most cases, a post about your company will go up at the beginning o the week

and will be seen by the site’s RSS subscribers, generally the most loyal readers

o the site. Daring Fireball, Swiss Miss, Te Loop, and many other blogs, large and

small, employ this type o sponsorship. I you are a bit gun shy, try sponsoring

a smaller blog, which will only set you back a couple Benjamins.

We love this method o advertising because it targets a very specic audiencewe are going ater: tech enthusiasts, designers, people who know what RSS is,

etc. It’s the best bang or your buck. Even i your product is not tech related,

you always want to be targeting the most dedicated and passionate subset o

any group.

Podcast sponsorships have been surprisingly eective as well. We sponsored

Dan Benjamin’s antastic podcast network 5by5 earlier this year, and were

blown away with the results. We assumed podcast sponsorship would not be

as eective as blog sponsorship, given that people oten listen when it is not

exactly convenient to buy a product (like in a car or on the subway). What we

didn’t account or, however, was the human element. Having your ad read out

loud is quite dierent than having it displayed as text on a webpage. It also

helps when a guy like Dan Benjamin is reading your spot—he’s an excellent

pitchman.

We are ortunate that our products ll a niche that is easy to target with spon-

sorship advertising. What i your product has more o a mainstream appeal?

Tat’s a bit out o our wheelhouse, but we think the strategies discussed here

are still sound. arget the most passionate, early adopters, and they will be-

come the evangelists or your product.

http://5by5.tv/

http://5by5.tv/



56

DEAL SITES

Daily deal sites are another potential avenue to promote your product. We have

limited experience in this area, but we did do a 3-day ash sale or the Gli on

Fab.com.

Fab is an invite-only ash sale website that hosts well made, “designy” prod-

ucts. Te products are oered at a generous discount, and the sales typically

last 24 to 72 hours. Fab collects the orders and then passes along the mailing

inormation or each buyer when the sale ends. Te seller is responsible or or-

der ulllment; this arrangement is known as a drop shipment. You determine

a set quantity to sell in advance, and a lot o the times the product will sell out

beore the sale ends.

Te buyers on Fab were denitely the kind o people we want to target, but we

question the useulness o utilizing the site as a promotional technique. Our

sale went well and we sold out o our allotted inventory, but we are unsure i

the amount o people who discovered the product as a result o the sale made

up or the steep discount at which it was sold. Tat said, we certainly didn’t lose

money on the deal, so there’s no harm in experimenting with your own product

to see how it goes.

TRADE SHOWS

We have attended the Macworld Expo (now known as Macworld | iWorld) or

the past 2 years. As the name implies, this is a conerence or those interested

in all things Apple. We rent a tiny booth that sits in the “Indie Showcase” sec-

tion, a small area in the back reserved or independent developers.

Tere are various reasons people set up a booth at a conerence. A lot o times it

is to promote a product and to be introduced to various resellers and distribu-

tors who might be interested in selling that product in their stores. We take a

slightly dierent approach and consider Macworld a great way to set up a little

retail shop or 3 days. We pride ourselves on keeping our operation small and

doing things ourselves, and it’s a nice opportunity to meet our customers ace

http://fab.com/

http://fab.com/



57

to ace.

Running a booth at a conerence like Macworld takes quite a bit o preparation.

Te booth itsel needs to be designed, ater all. Last year we used a gridded tile

design, which made assembly and teardown pretty painless. We also screenprinted Studio Neat shirts or ourselves and printed business cards to hand

out.

I you plan on selling directly on the show oor, you’ll need to ship the invento-

ry in advance, and have a plan or what to do with unsold inventory. Some sell-

ers intentionally bring an amount o inventory they know they will sell out o,

so they don’t have to worry about that. We like to make sure we have more than

enough, and then ship the unsold inventory back to our warehouses. You willalso need to obtain a seller’s permit or whichever state you’ll be in. Also impor-

tant, you’ll need to gure out how you will accept payments. We use Square or

credit card payments, and it works wonderully. We also accept cash, o course.

Our booth at Macworld in 2011 and 2012, respectively.

https://squareup.com/

https://squareup.com/



58

Conerences are a great opportunity to meet bloggers, press, witter riends,

etc. in person. It’s always nice to connect a name to the ace. We were able to

meet John Gruber in person when we rst attended Macworld, and it was nice

to be able to thank him or essentially launching Studio Neat (he’s a tall drink

o water, in case you’re wondering).

o that end, we also attended WWDC (Apple’s Worldwide Developer Coner-

ence) this year. Te keynote and inormational sessions at WWDC were worth-

while, but the true value o the conerence is the chance to hob nob with no-

table people in the Apple community, and to meet all o the people whose work

we greatly admire. We will denitely be back next year.

SIDE PROJECTS

We saved the best or last. Sometimes the best way to promote your products

and your company is to simply be active online. Do stu. Make things. Say

things.

Here’s one example. 37Signals runs a company blog called Signal vs. Noise. Tis

blog is not simply a PR machine or their products; rather, it’s a place to talk

about things they’ve learned, behind the scenes insight on products they are

working on, and general links to cool things on the web. It’s open and honest;

the language is conversational rather than stilted and PR-y.

Additionally, they have published two books, Getting Real and Rework, which

are both short and punchy takes on unconventional ways to run a business,

gleaned rom their own experience. Te books certainly generate revenue, but

more importantly, they are great promotional tools or the company, and a

great way or customers to learn more about, and as a result, eel more con-

nected to the company and its products. Hmm, writing a book about how your

company operates. Tat’s not a bad idea.

Another example is Marco Arment, who created Instapaper, an iOS app and

website or bookmarking things you encounter on the web to read at a later

date. On the side, he writes a blog at Marco.org, and does a podcast with Dan

http://37signals.com/svn/

http://www.marco.org/

http://www.marco.org/

http://37signals.com/svn/



59

Benjamin on the aorementioned 5by5 network. As a result o these two things,

Marco has built quite a ollowing. o a lot o people, Instapaper is now more

than just another aceless service, it’s an app with a real human behind it. Peo-

ple eel a connection and relationship with the service.

We try to maintain side projects as well. Our blog, Te Russians Used a Pencil,

began as Dan’s blog about simplicity. While it maintains that same spirit, it’s

now positioned in a similar manner as the Signal Vs. Noise blog. We use it to

experiment with ideas, and to share interesting things we nd. Te impetus or

the Cosmonaut design actually started out as a blog post, exploring the right

eel or an iPad stylus. Our most viewed video to date, with over 400,000 views,

was a little Smart Cover hack or the iPad 1 that we did or un one weekend.

What all o this really comes down to is building a an base. By putting things

out there, consistently, you can orm a relationship with your customers. It

allows them to see the person behind the products. You are not a aceless cor-

poration, so why act like one?

http://www.therussiansusedapencil.com/

http://www.therussiansusedapencil.com/post/1521469842/the-right-feel-for-an-ipad-stylus



http://www.therussiansusedapencil.com/post/1521469842/the-right-feel-for-an-ipad-stylus

http://www.therussiansusedapencil.com/



60

BUSINESS“People always ask me what my business model is, and it’s very disap-

pointingly simple to them. It’s ‘I sell something or money.’”

MARCO ARMENT

We did not set out to create a business. When we were designing the Gli back

in 2010, it was a un side project, a design challenge to answer our own needs.

Ater the Gli ’s unexpected popularity, Studio Neat LLC was ormed. Still, it

took us six months to summon the courage to quit our jobs and ocus on Studio

Neat ull time.

ina Roth Eisenberg (aka Swissmiss) oten talks about the importance o side

projects. She is sometimes reerred to as the Queen o Accidental Businesses,

in that several o her side projects have come to generate revenue without that

being her original intention. Tis is an important lesson. Te starting point

should always be to make something great. Start something on the side, see i

it turns into anything.

Our ocus, rst and oremost, is to make great products. Walt Disney said it

best: “We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more

movies.” Tat said, now that Studio Neat is our ull time occupation, it is im-

perative that we generate revenue, so that we can eat ood and have clothing

and be sheltered. Tis chapter discusses how we do that.

BOOTSTRAPPED

I you’ve been ollowing the tech sector on the internet o late (and we know

you have been), you’ll know that there has been a urry o discussion about

money. Specically, how all o these tech start-ups are supposed to make it.

6

http://www.swiss-miss.com/

http://www.swiss-miss.com/



61

With the acquisition o Instagram (a company that generated $0 o revenue) by

Facebook or one billion dollars, many people are let scratching their heads.

Is this some kind o new, super secret orm o capitalism that only an elite ew

are privy too? Make zero dollars or two years, and then one handshake later,

you’re a billionaire?

Tough the Instagram buyout is an extreme example, the model is actually not

uncommon among start-ups. Te plan is to take investments and VC unding,

and then build up a user base as quickly as possible by oering a great product

or ree. Te end game is to either a) get acquired, or b) gure out a way to make

money later, typically either with ads or a reemium (ree to try with paid up-

grades) model.

It is not air to criticize all start-ups that operate this way, nor does it make

sense to. For many start-ups, the only way they ever have a chance at succeed-

ing is to grow very quickly. Social networks are a good example o this.

We hope people realize, however, that this is not the only way. Tere seems to

be a swing back in the other direction, where olks are embracing more tradi-

tional orms o business. Put simply, they create something o value and then

sell it to customers. Starting a business without taking any outside investment

unding is called bootstrapping, and there are more tools then ever or taking

this approach.

Tis is the path we have taken. It might not be the sexiest, and we will never be

acquired or one billion dollars, but we’re incredibly happy. We get to do what

we love, set our own rules, and don’t have to answer to investors.

PEOPLE MAKING STUFF, PEOPLE BUYING STUFF

One o the most satisying trends we have observed in the last ew years is the

closing o the gap between people making stu and people buying that stu.

One o the more striking examples is happening in the world o comedy.

In late 2011 Louis C.K., a hilarious and established comedian, oered his new-

est stand up special on his website or $5. Now, stand up specials are a com-

https://buy.louisck.net/purchase/live-at-the-beacon-theater

https://buy.louisck.net/purchase/live-at-the-beacon-theater



62

mon ormat in the comedy world, and they are typically unded by a television

network like Comedy Central or HBO, who gain the rights to show the special

on their network while paying the comedian a lump sum. Louis C.K., however,

cut out the middleman. He unded the lming and production o the special

himsel (using the money he made rom the ticket sales rom the show that was

lmed), edited it himsel, and made it available to purchase, directly and DRM

(digital rights management) ree, on his website. He created something, then

made it easy, convenient, and aordable or people to buy it directly rom him.

Other comedians, like Aziz Ansari and Jim Gagan, have smartly ollowed

suit by oering their own specials or direct sale online.

All o the comedians mentioned above are established practitioners o their

crat, but as we’ve discussed, this direct connection between creators and con-

sumers is happening at all levels. Kickstarter, o course, oers this same kind

o satisaction. It’s more than simply getting the unding to bring an idea to

market, it’s about connecting project creators to the patrons. While the Kick-

starter projects that raise millions o dollars get all the headlines, people—

project creators and consumers alike—are drawn to the platorm because o

its ability to connect makers with users. Tat connection is just as integral to

Kickstarter’s success as are the headline-grabbing projects.

1,000 TRUE FANS

Kevin Kelly, the ounding executive editor o Wired magazine, wrote a compel-

ling piece back in 2008 called 1,000 rue Fans. Te gist o the piece is stated as

such:

A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, cratsperson, perormer,

animator, designer, videomaker, or author—in other words, anyone producing works o art—needs to acquire only 1,000 rue Fans to make a living.

A creator with 1,000 rue Fans sits at a sweet spot on the classic long tail graph:

not quite into smash blockbuster success territory, but saely out o the obscu-

rity o the long tail. A middle ground, i you will, where you connect directly

with your niche audience. Kelly again:

http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/03/1000_true_fans.php/




63

Te point o this strategy is to say that you don’t need a hit to survive. You don’t

need to aim or the short head o best-sellerdom to escape the long tail. Tere

is a place in the middle, that is not very ar away rom the tail, where you can

at least make a living. Tat mid-way haven is called 1,000 rue Fans. It is an

alternate destination or an artist to aim or.

In a lot o ways, Kelly predicted the success o a platorm like Kickstarter, and

in act in his article he mentions Fundable, which appears to be a precursor to

Kickstarter. While Kickstarter does have some smash success projects making

millions o dollars (Pebble, anyone?) the vast majority o projects that are suc-

cessully unded nd small, loyal, enthusiastic audiences. Te perect ounda-

tion upon which to build a lasting business.

WORKING REMOTELY

During our rst year working at Studio Neat ull time, the two o us lived in

dierent cities (Dan in New York City and om in Durham, North Carolina). At

rst blush it seemed like this would be damaging to our business, but working

remotely turned out to be antastic. In act, now that om is back to New York

City, we still work as i remote. We typically meet via Faceime over breakast

in the morning to see what the other is up to that day, and then will IM or emailthroughout the day as needed. We use Basecamp to keep things organized, and

Dropbox to share les.

Working in dierent cities does have disadvantages o course. It makes it much

harder to shoot a demo video, or example. On the whole though, we’ve ound

being apart can be great or long, ocused work sessions. I we were together

we’d probably get distracted and end up playing Donkey Kong Country all day.

37Signals backs this up in their writings, espousing the virtues o remote work-

ing. Furthermore, their new oce in Chicago was designed to eel like a library,

a quiet place or individuals to get some work done.

Te opposing view is a set up like Studiomates, a working environment popu-

lated by some o the big guns o tech and design. Tis workspace osters col-

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/597507018/pebble-e-paper-watch-for-iphone-and-android

http://basecamp.com/

https://www.dropbox.com/

http://studiomates.com/

http://studiomates.com/

https://www.dropbox.com/

http://basecamp.com/

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/597507018/pebble-e-paper-watch-for-iphone-and-android



64

laboration, and many creative projects have sprung out o Studiomates as a

result. Likewise, the main Pixar building was designed to have a large central

atrium that encourages serendipitous meetings among employees.

Clearly, both sorts o environments seem to work swimmingly. Te moral o the story is, experiment and nd what works or you. It might be dierent than

what you initially expected.

PATENTS

Obtaining patents or our products is something that at rst seemed like a

good idea.

As with things o this nature, make sure you contact an expert rather than re-lying solely on the advice rom two dudes with no legal expertise. However, it is

our understanding that the path to obtaining a patent is a black hole that sucks

up money and spits out sadness. Many people seem to have the misconception

that patents are magical things that act like a orce eld around your product,

preventing anyone rom ever ripping it o. Sadly, this is not how they work.

Here are a ew things we’ve learned about patents:

• Tey are very expensive.

• Tere are dierent varieties of patents. A design patent, which is the

“easiest” to obtain, only protects the visual ornamentation o an object,

not its unction. A classic example o this is the glass Coca Cola bottle.

Tey can patent the specic shape and design o the bottle, but obviously

they don’t have a patent on a “container that holds liquid.” Utility patents,

which do include the unction, are much more dicult (and sometimes

impossible) to obtain.

• Most patents only protect infringement within the United States. Tere

are international patents, but these are even more dicult to obtain.

• Patents do nothing to prevent people from stealing your idea. All they

do is give you the legal authority to take action i you believe someone is



65

inringing. You would still need to hire a lawyer to take the perp to court.

Tis point may seem obvious, but it’s easy to overlook the cost o pursuing

legal action, on top o the cost o the patent itsel.

Ultimately, we have realized that patents are basically designed to protect largecorporations, and the idea o a small company o two people obtaining a patent

is airly ridiculous. We decided to pass.

o put things in perspective, since launching the Gli, there have been a ew di-

rect imitations that have cropped up, out o Germany and aiwan. Tere is not

much we can do, other than shrug our shoulders and carry on. Let’s imagine

or a moment we did have a heavy-duty international utility patent. How would

that change things? Would we really be willing to sink the time and money intogoing ater them? Our guess is no. We’d rather just spend that time design-

ing more great products. As long as our brand remains strong, customers will

choose the real deal versus the knocko.

BOOKKEEPING AND ACCOUNTING

Bookkeeping and Accounting are two things we have hired people to do or us,

and we think it was a wise move. Tese are two tasks that we could conceiv-

ably do ourselves, but all it would achieve is sucking our time away rom more

important things, like designing products. For the minimal cost o having a

bookkeeper and accountant, we think it’s a no brainer.

So what do these people do? A bookkeeper tracks the ow o money in and out

o your company. Tey can also make sure you pay vendors on time, make sure

people are paying you on time, etc. At rst we relied solely on reports rom

Shopiy and Google Analytics to keep us up to speed on how our sales were

doing, but once it came time to pay taxes, things got hairy. Te IRS and banks

speak a special language o “prot & loss” reports and “balance sheets;” book-

keepers help you speak that language.

An accountant does your taxes. Individuals with a normal, steady income can

usually get away with ring up the ol’ urboax and doing it themselves, but or



66

anything more complex or unusual, having an accountant is a godsend. Tey

can also give advice on how to save on taxes. For example, we’re ling as an

S Corp instead o an LLC next year, a tax saving trick we never would have

thought to do ourselves.

We ound our bookkeeper and accountant with a combination o Google and

asking riends or recommendations. Otentimes it makes sense to hire some-

one local so you can visit in person, but it is not a requirement.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Our credo rom the outset has been to run the kind o company that we would

want to do business with. You can learn a lot about a company by how it treatsits customers.

We love our customers. A lot. Plain and simple, they are the reason we have a

business to begin with. Tis may surprise many people, especially those with

ancy business degrees, but there is a direct correlation between having cus-

tomers and having a business.

o that end, we are astidious about answering customer emails. Customers

are oten shocked by and thankul or how quickly we reply to their questionsand concerns. We personally respond to every email that comes in, although

we can see this policy becoming untenable in the uture. I we end up hiring

someone to help with customer service, you can bet email response time will

be a top priority.

We also monitor what people are saying on witter, and consider that a great

place to communicate with customers. It’s also where we go to eel our hearts

explode with joy when viewing all the creative stu people have made with ourproducts.

GROWTH

So, where do we go rom here? What is our vision or the uture o Studio Neat?



67

Matt Linderman at 37signals once asked the readers o their blog to help come

up with a term to describe a certain type o small, ocused company. In his

words, a company “that’s small and cares about quality and is trying to do

something great or a ew customers instead o trying to mass produce crap in

order to maximize prot.” Jason Kottke, blogger extraordinaire, came up with

a nice way to describe this type o company: small batch business. Te nam-

ing idea comes rom bourbon whiskey, but it can be applied to anyone making

small quantities o high quality products. Tis is what we aspire to.

Tere was another nice analogy in the aorementioned Wired article by Chris

Anderson. Imagine a jar ull o marbles. Tese marbles represent big compa-

nies, operating at a large scale. In between the marbles is empty space, space

that could be lled with sand. Each grain o sand is a “small batch” company,

addressing all the cracks and crevices the bigger companies can’t t into. Tere

is room or both, and the jar is eciently and completely lled by using both

marbles and sand.

Stated simply, our vision or Studio Neat is to continue making great stu. We

hope to keep growing, slowly and organically, and we are making a bet that this

new economy ueled by creators, this indie capitalism, will continue to allow

us to do that.



68

OUTRO

At Studio Neat, we make tools that encourage creativity. We hope this book,

too, will act as a tool to encourage you to go out there and make stu. Tere is

no better time than now.

In a recent commencement speech or the University o the Arts, author Neil

Gaiman told the graduating class:

We’re in a transitional world right now, i you’re in any kind o artistic eld,

because the nature o distribution is changing, the models by which creators got

their work out into the world, and got to keep a roo over their heads and buy

sandwiches while they did that, are all changing. I’ve talked to people at the top

o the ood chain in publishing, in book selling, in all those areas, and nobody

knows what the landscape will look like two years rom now, let alone a decade

away. Te distribution channels that people had built over the last century or

so are in fux or print, or visual artists, or musicians, or creative people o

all kinds.

Which is, on the one hand, intimidating, and on the other, immensely liberat-

ing. Te rules, the assumptions, the now we’re supposed to’s o how you get your

work seen, and what you do then, are breaking down. Te gatekeepers are leav-

ing their gates. You can be as creative as you need to be to get your work seen.

Youube and the web (and whatever comes ater Youube and the web) can give

you more people watching than television ever did. Te old rules are crumbling

and nobody knows what the new rules are. So make up your own rules.

Godspeed.

om & Dan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikAb-NYkseI




69

RECOMMENDED READING

Rework, by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

Getting Real, by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

Design is a Job, by Mike Monteiro

Te Laws o Simplicity , by John Maeda

Drive: Te Surprising ruth About What Motivates Us, by Daniel Pink

Poke the Box, by Seth Godin

Making It: Manuacturing echniques or Product Design, by Christ Leteri

Te Shape o Design, by Frank Chimero

Made You Look, by Stean Sagmeister

MIV: Process, Inspiration and Practice or the New Media Designer, by Hill-man Curtis

Make Your Ting: 12 Point Program or Absolutely, Positively 1000% No-Fail

Guaranteed Success, by Jesse Torn

Kickstartup, by Craig Mod

In the Next Industrial Revolution, Atoms Are the New Bits, by Chris Anderson

http://37signals.com/rework/

http://gettingreal.37signals.com/

http://www.abookapart.com/products/design-is-a-job/

http://lawsofsimplicity.com/

http://www.danpink.com/drive

http://www.amazon.com/Poke-Box-Seth-Godin/dp/1936719002

http://www.amazon.com/Making-Manufacturing-Techniques-Product-Design/dp/1856697495/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342812552&sr=1-2&keywords=making+it

http://www.shapeofdesignbook.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Sagmeister-Made-You-Look-Stefan/dp/0810905973

http://www.amazon.com/MTIV-Process-Inspiration-Practice-Designer/dp/0735711658

http://transom.org/?p=24153


http://craigmod.com/journal/kickstartup/



http://craigmod.com/journal/kickstartup/



http://www.amazon.com/MTIV-Process-Inspiration-Practice-Designer/dp/0735711658

http://www.amazon.com/Sagmeister-Made-You-Look-Stefan/dp/0810905973

http://www.shapeofdesignbook.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Making-Manufacturing-Techniques-Product-Design/dp/1856697495/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342812552&sr=1-2&keywords=making+it

http://www.amazon.com/Poke-Box-Seth-Godin/dp/1936719002

http://www.danpink.com/drive

http://lawsofsimplicity.com/

http://www.abookapart.com/products/design-is-a-job/

http://gettingreal.37signals.com/

http://37signals.com/rework/



70

TOOLS

People oten ask us what sotware, hardware, and services we use. Here is a

nearly complete list. None o these companies have paid in any way to be men-

tioned here.

Dropbox

Basecamp

umblr

Google or Domains

MailChimp

Dreamhost

Shopiy

Shipwire

Kickstarter

PayPal

BraintreeFullled by Amazon

Shapeways

Moo

WePrintBarcodes.com

McMaster-Carr

icanlocalize.com

Premier Source

Keystone Folding Box CoSwissurn/USA

Coda

XCode

JQuery

ypeKit

NetWorth Bookkeeping

Sparrow or Mac

weetDeck or iPhone

extExpander

Instapaper

Reeder

iA Writer

Byline

Pages

Rhinoceros

Solidworks Adobe Creative Suite

Final Cut Pro X

Apple Hardware



71

END NOTES

INTRODUCTION

“I you add up all the trends...” : Nussbaum, Bruce. “4 Reasons Why the Future o

Capitalism is Homegrown, Small Scale, and Independent.” Fast Company. 2011.

25 July 2012.

CHAPTER ONE - PHILOSOPHY

“Don’t hal-ass two things...” : “Sweet Sixteen.” Parks and Recreation. NBC. 23

Feb. 2012.

“Simplicity is highly overrated” : Norman, Don. Simplicity is Highly Overrated. 25

July 2012.

“Simplicity is not the absence o clutter...” : Ive, Jonathan. Jonathan Ive Interview:

Simplicity Isn’t Simple. 2012. 23 May 2012.

Fried, Jason and Heinemeier Hansson, David. Rework. Crown Business, 2010.

“Storytelling is one o the most ecient...” : Chimero, Frank. Te Shape o Design.

Sel-published, 2012.

“Perhaps is sounds ridiculous...” : Kubrick, Stanley .

CHAPTER TWO - KICKSTARTER

“A good idea...” : Strickler, Yancey. Why Kickstarter? 2009. 25 July 2012.

“the world’s largest unding platorm...” : Kickstarter.com. 25 July 2012.





http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/simplicity_is_highly.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/9283706/Jonathan-Ive-interview-simplicity-isnt-simple.html

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Stanley_Kubrick

http://www.kickstarter.com/blog/why-kickstarter

http://www.kickstarter.com/start?ref=home_start

http://www.kickstarter.com/start?ref=home_start

http://www.kickstarter.com/blog/why-kickstarter

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Stanley_Kubrick

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/9283706/Jonathan-Ive-interview-simplicity-isnt-simple.html

http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/simplicity_is_highly.html





72

CHAPTER THREE - HARDWARE

“I love the idea...” : Gruber, John. “Han Solo’s Dog.” Te alk Show. 5by5. 5 Oct.

2010.

“atoms are the new bits...” : Anderson, Chris. “In the Next Industrial Revolution,

Atoms Are the New Bits.” Wired 25 Jan. 2010.

“Our Kickstarter campaign ended...” : Wang, Che-Wei and Levy, aylor. Personal

Interview. 31 July 2012.

Nickell, Jake. Treadless. New York: Abrams Image, 2010.

Eisenberg, ina Roth. attly = 1 | Tings I’ve Learned. 2012. 25 July 2012.

CHAPTER FOUR - SOFTWARE

“Most people make the mistake...” : Jobs, Steve. Walker, Rob. “Te Guts o a New

Machine.” Te New York imes, 2003.

CHAPTER FIVE - PROMOTION

“Te biggest myth even perpetuated...” : Monteiro, Mike. Design is a Job. New

York: A Book Apart, 2012.

Gladwell, Malcolm. Te ipping Point. Boston: Back Bay Books, 2002.

CHAPTER SIX - BUSINESS

“People always ask me...” : Arment, Marco. “Te App Economy.” Planet Money.

NPR. 31 Jan. 2012.

Eisenberg, ina Roth. “Te Power o Side Projects and Eccentric Aunts.” 27 April, 2012.

C.K., Louis. “ A Statement rom Louis C.K.” 13 Dec. 2011.

“A creator, such as an artist...” : Kelly, Kevin. 1,000 rue Fans. 2008. 25 July 2012.

http://5by5.tv/talkshow/11



http://www.swiss-miss.com/2012/07/tattly-1-things-ive-learned.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/30/magazine/30IPOD.html?pagewanted=all


http://typotalks.com/blog/2012/04/27/tina-roth-eisenberg-the-power-of-side-projects-and-eccentric-aunts/

https://buy.louisck.net/news/a-statement-from-louis-c-k



https://buy.louisck.net/news/a-statement-from-louis-c-k

http://typotalks.com/blog/2012/04/27/tina-roth-eisenberg-the-power-of-side-projects-and-eccentric-aunts/



http://www.swiss-miss.com/2012/07/tattly-1-things-ive-learned.html



http://5by5.tv/talkshow/11



73

“that’s small and cares about quality...” : Linderman, Matt. “Seeking a Less Preten-

tious ‘Boutique.’” 2009. 25 July 2012.

Kottke, Jason. “Small Batch Businesses.” 2009. 25 July 2012.

OUTRO

“We’re in a transitional world right now...” : Gaiman, Neil. University o the Arts

Commencement Address. 2012.

http://37signals.com/svn/posts/1807-seeking-a-less-pretentious-boutique


http://kottke.org/09/09/small-batch-businesses





http://kottke.org/09/09/small-batch-businesses





ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First and oremost, Studio Neat would not be a company today i not or our

wonderul Kickstarter backers and our loyal customers. Tanks or believing

in us.

Special thanks to our lovely wives, Katrina and Kacie, or being supportive

throughout and oering valuable eedback, edits, and revisions. And or let-

ting us turn our homes into Studio Neat HQ.

Many thanks to Clay Shirky or providing the oreword to this book, and our

riends Che-Wei Wang and aylor Levy or contributing their experiences with

manuacturing in China.

It has been imperative to have multiple pairs o eyes look over various drats

o the book; to that end we want to thank our dear riend Liane Noble or her

valuable eedback and revisions, Andrew Kim or his legal expertise, and Erin

Allingham or the nal copy edit and polish.

And o course, thanks to our pal Caroline Oh or the book cover and layout

design. You make our stu look good!

it will be exhilarating

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