New Year, New Goals
Happy New Year!
It’s been a little while since I’ve updated the blog here.
In case you missed it, there were daily video updates over on Facebook. And then there were a few video updates on Kickstarter as well.
The goal for 2021 was pretty clear: share my father’s ultrasonic contact lens cleaner with as many people as possible. The end result was a moderately successful Kickstarter campaign that saw 181 people join together to raise over $10,000 in just 32 days.
This year, in 2022, the goal has shifted. Now, my goal is to finally get that design into your hands.
A single-minded mission: Less sharing. More making.
How 2022 Shall Unfold
The best goals are also the most clearly defined.
Vague plans yield fuzzy results. If you want to achieve something specific, you first need to specify how you plan to get from A to B.
In hindsight, that’s something I could have done better in 2021. My goal last year was to share my father’s story with as many people as possible.
That resulted in 181 backers on Kickstarter. Which is pretty good.
But what if I had set a more definite goal? Had I set the target to something like “Find 500 people to back my Kickstarter campaign,” I might have had more success.
What will you accomplish this year in 2022?
Let’s be specific.
The definite #1 end goal for this year is to deliver Visonic Dome to every Kickstarter backer.
Come July or August* 2022, I want all 181 supporters to have their Visonic Dome in their hands, cleaning their contact lenses, and enjoying the benefits.
This is where the success of a crowdfunding campaign is truly defined.
Because it really doesn’t matter how many backers you can convince, if they never get to experience your product.
I’ve backed enough projects (and you probably have, too) to know that delays and set-backs are the norm. Missed deadlines are common. Excuses abound.
Visonic Dome will be different. That’s my New Year resolution.
[*depending on shipping/transit time]
Progress So Far
We’re only a few days into 2022, but there are already a couple positive things to report.
Firstly, we planted the carbon-offsetting trees in our ‘Forest of Visonic Dome.’
Have you checked your email inbox lately?
As a Kickstarter backer, a tree was planted in your name. That was one of the original promises of Visonic Dome.
Planting Trees In Your Name
Click the link in the Tree-Nation email to see where in the world your tree is planted, what species, and the lifetime carbon offset potential of your new green friend.
You don’t have to claim your tree to reap the benefits, by the way. It’s totally optional.
But judging by the positive response I’ve had so far, it seems like the backers are liking the tree thing. And that makes me glad.
Setting The Foundation
It took Kickstarter more than 2 weeks to release the funds we all collectively raised. Which meant that our first chance to get to work was literally Christmas Eve.
That did affect what we were able to start working on, but not our ability to get started.
Visonic Dome is Made In America. But some parts do come from Asia. And they don’t generally celebrate Christmas over there.
What that means is that I shifted my focus from some aspects of production to others.
So something like the PC Board layout, which we had planned to do later, is moving up in the schedule. And the injection molding tools can wait a little while longer.
Expect a more in-depth update on the state of production by the middle of January, over on the Kickstarter page. At that point, we’ll have the 2D drawings digitized.
And your nifty new travel case will be in the works at that point, too.
Shop Til You Drop – Introducing Visonic Dome Web-store
A huge part of making your Visonic Dome / Kickstarter experience as smooth and seamless as possible is fulfillment.
To do that, I need to verify what your reward is and where it’s going.
For those of us who have backed Kickstarter campaigns before, the Canadian company called ‘Kickbooster’ might ring a bell.
They have a survey service to help sort out all that shipping info for backers and creators alike.
For the last 3 weeks, I’ve been working with their support team to set up our survey. That will let you update your shipping info, select your favorite design art postcard, and add any extra add-on that you might have missed.
Expect that survey in your inbox sometime this week. Just fill it out before June 2022 so that I know where to ship your rewards!
In order to make the survey, I had to set up an online store. Honestly, that’s something I very much wanted to avoid. I wanted Visonic Dome to be a Kickstarter exclusive – a one-and-done kind of deal. But the survey needed that to map the rewards correctly to pledge amounts. And a couple people wrote to me privately asking if they could get their Dome after the fact.
So the new web store is still a work in progress, but by the end of this week you’ll be able to pre-order a Visonic Dome if you missed the campaign. But only until April 2022! I need to know how many components to order since this is still a one-time production run. I can’t be making these things forever! 😉
More updates on the way!
Anyhoo! This is just a quick, in-between kind of update. There’s still much more good news to come!
Keep an eye on the Kickstarter page for monthly updates from here on out. I look forward to sharing the entire production process with you guys.
Take care!
– Daniel
