We are one week into our crowdfunding campaign, which launched on Tuesday of this week. It has been exciting to watch support pour in from various supporters around the world and as of today, we have raised over US$6,000 from over 50 backers in 7 countries. But we still have a ways to go – we’re about a fifth of our way to our goal!
Crowdfunding is a relatively new concept, especially here in Asia. Wikipedia has a pretty widely accepted definition for crowdfunding:
Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising monetary contributions from a large number of people, typically via the Internet.
But what does that really mean? And why are we crowdfunding? The answer to that starts from a common request we heard from you - as we have told more of our friends, family, and even random strangers about Ambi Climate, more and more of you began to ask: “Where can I get Ambi Climate? Can I buy one now?”
While there are many forms of crowdfunding, the type that we are using can be thought of as a form of taking pre-orders for our product. Typical channels of distribution – through retail or wholesale, for example – can be a long, slow process, and is fraught with risks; an electronics product can take up to 6 months to get into stores, and frequently requires a large volume of units, numbering into the thousands. For startups, crowdfunding can be a relatively inexpensive yet highly effective way to quickly get your product to people who want to try it and gain valuable feedback from them as well.
We do want to point out that we are not crowdfunding equity, which is a type of crowdfunding that involves raising funds that give contributors shares of the company they have invested in. When you partake in our crowdfunding campaign, your funds are going toward the purchase of a pre-mass produced Ambi Climate device.
What many people may not realise is that the road to getting a product mass produced is quite a long one. For now, crowdfunding will help us get Ambi Climate to those who are excited about what we are doing until we are able to offer it on Amazon or in traditional brick-and-mortar electronics stores. Our crowdfunding campaign, which will run until 5 September, will help us do two things: firstly, raise awareness and increase visibility of our company and product and secondly, help us get our product into the hands of our loyal supporters, like you!
There are a lot of ways in which crowdfunding will benefit us:
- Awareness: We want more than our family and friends to know what we are doing!
- Attract talent: Greater awareness means we can grow our team and attract talented people to help us build better products
- Biz ventures: It also opens the door to new business developments, partnerships and investment
- Recruiting testers: At this stage of Ambi Climate’s development, the more people using the device, the better. In particular, the more testers we can get from other countries in Asia the better! And getting feedback from people who don’t know us personally *hopefully* means more impartial feedback (We love you too, mom…)
- Raise funds to cover the cost of producing and shipping the devices purchased during this campaign
We hope this was a useful explanation into why we are crowdfunding and why your participation in our campaign means a lot to us, far beyond anything finance-related. We have been working on Ambi Climate for two years and are ready to put it into the hands of people who want to test it out. If you’ve been waiting to get your hands on an Ambi Climate, please back our campaign and spread the word! Let’s get delightful AC comfort to everyone.
