#35 - King of Kickstarter

Peak Design are a brand that makes some really fantastic products. There's a lot of good things to say about the Peak Design everyday backpack. I don't think I've ever been this excited to talk about a bag. This is the Peak Design travel tripod. It has a lot of unique elements that I've never seen on a tripod before. This thing is so hot right now. Your granny is probably talking about it. Every day backpack from Peak Design's really, really fucking awesome back. Tons of innovation. Tons of things to be like really celebrated. If there's awards for bags, this should win all of them just because it's like game changer. We are the company that's earned the second most on Kickstarter in our collective history. It's a little north of 30 million dollars. Going back to 2010, that's when I quit my job. I was a construction engineer and I'm living on my savings with about 25 grand. I did like a four month walkabout when I was twenty five. I went to India and Southeast Asia and Australia and New Zealand I had a camera with me the whole time. A real pain in the ass to carry with me because it's on a strap and it's banging against your chest. I just came up with this idea. It's this clip that clamps onto a backpack strap.

And then your camera is immediately accessible, totally hands free, locked into your camera strap. When you need it, push the button, pull it out. So we totally solved that problem. To this day, we sell millions every year. There is nothing as sweet as that first Kickstarter when the money comes rolling in and people are saying, I like that idea. That's incredible. I just sold a thing that I haven't even made yet to a guy in England that I've never met. Right. This is magic. God, the internet is cool. you got the friends and family email that goes out and that's the extent of the marketing that I did. I mean that is the sum total is I emailed my friends and family. You know, frankly the whole entrepreneurial side funding a business where you go out there and you raise money and you you ramp up the stakes did not even cross my mind like, ooh, should I raise money for this? No, it's ridiculous. I'm gonna make a fucking thing. You know, last year I think we had an average of thirty eight employees and we did somewhere between sixty five and seventy million.

Five million is not enough. Ten million dollars. Fifteen. Twenty million dollars. one or two people in a bedroom actually the threats to these like giant multi-billion dollar companies because you have creativity and you have nothing to lose. Add another zero to that price, buddy. Add two more zero. First. No.

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