Heads up!
Since the time that I wrote this post, there’s been a change of plans. Now, Visonic Dome is coming exclusively to Kickstarter. No more Indiegogo campaign! Note that I’ve changed the article below to reflect this fact.
Click here to read more about why we switched from Indiegogo to Kickstarter and what that change means for the project.
Thanks!
“Provided By The Voluntary Contributions Of Patriotic Citizens Like YOU”
Did you know that a crowdfunding campaign helped complete the Statue of Liberty?
It’s true!
Lady Liberty was a gift from France to the United States, but there was a small problem. We didn’t have the full $250,000 to build the pedestal.
(That’s like $6 million today.)
New York State and Federal governments refused to pay for the final stage of the Statue’s construction, so it just sat unassembled. Other American cities even started bidding for the chance to adopt her for themselves. It was uncertain if NYC would be able to keep the Statue of Liberty at all.
That’s when local newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer decided to help raise the missing funds. But instead of taking contributions from wealthy donors, he turned to his daily readers.
Pulitzer asked readers of The New York World newspaper to give what they could. In all, over 120,000 readers pooled their donations together to raise over $101,000 and fund the Statue of Liberty pedestal.
It seemed as though New York had run out of options when renowned publisher Joseph Pulitzer decided to launch a fundraising campaign in his newspaper The New York World.
“The Statue of Liberty and America’s crowdfunding pioneer” – BBC.com
It took just 5 months to fund the Liberty Pedestal project. Most of the donations were small – more than 75% gave less than $1. But every contributor got their name printed in The New York World and some even won commemorative gold coins.
And the paper kept everyone up-to-date on construction progress and published letters from contributors, too.
Why Is Visonic Dome Coming To Kickstarter?
OK, so maybe the Visonic Dome Kickstarter campaign isn’t quite on the same level as erecting a national monument. But just like with the Liberty Pedestal, your contribution makes all the difference.
My hope is that this crowdfunding campaign will help me connect with all of you in a more personal way. That you get to know a bit about the man who designed this product. And that, ultimately, the Visonic Dome changes your life for the better.
Even if it’s just to make your contact lenses more comfortable.
The following are my 3 own motivations for starting this Visonic Dome Kickstarter campaign and for bringing my father’s design back into production, 32 years after he invented it.
1.) Telling My Dad’s Story
When my dad invented the Visonic Dome, it was the smallest ultrasonic cleaner ever.
To this day, it’s the only device ever developed by a major contact lens manufacturer.
And it’s still the only ultrasonic contact lens cleaner that’s clinically shown to work as well as harsh enzymatic chemicals. And it’s the only one that’s got FDA clearance for sale in the USA.
But getting to that point wasn’t easy.
When my dad arrived in California, all he had was a prototype for what would become the Visonic Dome. He didn’t even know a word of English to describe what it did. He lived in a tent along the American River where he panned for gold during the day and spent nights typing up business plans on a portable typewriter.
I want to tell you that story. But more than that, I want you to feel that story.
I’m 100% convinced that once I have my father’s lifework in your hands, you’ll get it. You’ll see firsthand how much better your contact lenses feel. All the usual annoyances and irritations you suffer through with your contact lenses right now? Gone forever. Seriously.
And then you’ll understand why I’m acting like my dad’s hype man. Because when someone designs something so simply perfect, I believe that it deserves to be celebrated.
2.) Recreating His Masterpiece
My father made almost 240,000 of his Visonic Dome.
He sold them all across the country out of major retailers like Walmart and Walgreens, as well as through the offices of thousands of independent optometrists and eye care practitioners. And he produced them here in the USA by employing 100 Americans, many of them immigrants like himself.
I know. Because I was there.
But that was 20 years ago. An no one has made them again since.
The goal of the Visonic Dome Kickstarter campaign is to start that production up one more time. It’s the goal I’ve been working toward for the last 2 years. I’ve been studying and saving and working hard, but now I need your help.
By backing the Visonic Dome Kickstarter campaign, you can help recreate the easiest way to get cleaner, safer, more comfortable contact lenses ever designed. The funds raised will be used to cover tooling costs for the injection molding and for the stainless steel chamber stamping machine.
Production costs can be kept relatively low since all of the usual growing pains of creating a new product were ironed out long ago. It’s literally just a matter of starting up the conveyor belt at this point.
With your help, we can make that happen.
3.) Limited-Edition Celebration
32 years after my dad achieved his goal of launching his product in America, we’re celebrating by recreating the moment of his grand debut.
And after the Indiegogo campaign ends, you’re never going to see Visonic Dome for sale anywhere else again. Not on Amazon or a web store. Certainly not on retail shelves. Not sold by me, anyway.
Unlike most other crowdfunding campaigns, the goal here isn’t to start a business. There’s no plan to continue production or to sell leftover inventory online. We’re producing this on-demand. However many backers support the Indiegogo campaign, that’s how many we’ll make. We set our sales cap at 5,000.
That’s what makes crowdfunding so perfect for this project. By supporting the campaign ahead of production, you’re telling me how many to make. So there’s no extra inventory and production costs are easy to calculate.
In that way, this Visonic Dome Kickstarter campaign is a very limited edition production run. It’s made as a combination of all our efforts. And it’s something special we can all point to and say, “I helped make that happen.”
It’s Almost Kickstarter time.
After years of work and planning, it’s almost time for the Visonic Dome Kickstarter campaign to go live.
With my father’s help, all of the logistics of production are underway. He’s really a master of product development and manufacturing. It’s been amazing just to see him in his element again after all these years.
All that’s left now is the final show of hands.
Everyone who signs up for our email notification is telling me, “Yes, I’m ready to get this bad boy rolling.” Because a good crowdfunding campaign only works if there’s a crowd.
I want to be able to share my dad’s invention with you and tell his story to you and show you how fantastic the Visonic Dome really is. But I need your help to get there.
So the question is, are you in?
