NY Restauranteur John Fraser goes Guerrila with Kickstarter: Temporary Restaurants - Now You See It, Now You Don't

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From NY Times:

By FRANK BRUNI
Published: January 4, 2011

JOHN FRASER’S new restaurant is doomed. It may make a splash at the start, but by this time next year it will be over, done with, kaput.
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At least if you take him at his word.

For his follow-up to Dovetail, an elegant success on the Upper West Side, Mr. Fraser has chosen a project with a death foretold. He signed a short-term lease for a space in SoHo whose landlord cannot promise that the building, likely to be demolished, will be around past July. In return he received a rent of about $9,000 a month, well below market rate....

read full post on nytimes.com

Very Cool. TikTok+LunaTik Multi-Touch Watch Kits by Scott Wilson — Kickstarter pledges @ 30 x original request!

About this project

Hi! Thanks for checking out our project. With your help we would love to make our idea a reality and get them on as many wrists as possible.

TikTok and LunaTik simply transform the iPod Nano into the world's coolest multi-touch watches. The idea to use the Nano as a watch was an obvious one ever since the product was announced. But we wanted to create a collection that was well designed, engineered and manufactured from premium materials and that complemented the impeccable quality of Apple products. Not just clipped on a cheap strap as an afterthought. We wanted to create a product that your friends and strangers would stop you and ask "WTF is that??? And where can I get one?!"

TikTok is a simple snap-in design. It allows the user to easily and securely snap the Nano into the wrist dock. It cleanly and simply integrates the Nano and transforms it into a modern multifunction timepiece.

LunaTik is designed and intended to be a premium conversion kit for someone that wants to dedicate their Nano to being a watch and the newest conversation piece with their friends. It is forged from Aerospace Grade Aluminum and then machined via CNC into its final form.

The straps are made from high grade silicone rubber and the hardware is solid stainless steel not some chrome plated brass that will wear off. The quality of these watch cases and straps will be scrutinized very carefully and produced in the same factories that produce the best watches for companies like Nixon, Diesel, Vestal, and Nike.

So many watch companies have struggled to make a multi-touch color display watch to date. It is no small task. The Nano itself is an engineering wonder. Multi-Touch, color display, long battery life, MP3, radio, photos, pedometer, Nike+ and clock all in an impossibly small package. Just like reinventing the phone it took Apple to make it possible. And in clock mode the Nano battery lasts at least a week before recharging. We are excited to help complete the effort in converting it to a watch that everyone can enjoy.

So here is where you come in. Designing products is what we, MINIMAL, do day-in and day-out for big brands. But like most designers our dream is to eventually make our own products. But funding, manufacturing and distributing a new product is a whole other story. Kickstarter is a great way for us to realize many of the ideas that we have in our small studio that we know people will love but big companies are scared to do. We love creating cool stuff without the big company politics and indecision. We believe in the emerging power of community and the individual to bring ideas to life and we hope that this is just the beginning. By pledging at least $25 you are pre-ordering TikTok or by pledging $50 you are pre-ordering the LunaTik and helping make what we believe is a very cool iPod accessory a reality.

And if you pledge at the Limited Edition levels you will get one of the red anodized Backer versions.

With your support we are targeting to have the TikTok shipping to Backers by late December and the LunaTik by mid January. We hope that you are inspired and excited by the idea and choose to support the project. Either way please spread the word and share with your friends. Everyone has at least one friend that is a watch geek.

Thank you!

Note: TikTok will retail for $34.95 and LunaTik will retail for $69.95. iPod Nano not included. iPod Nano, Apple logo and Apple are registered trademarks of Apple Inc.


Project location: Chicago, IL

Great Share: The Kickstarter Blog - Tips from Creators and Beyond

Tips from Creators and Beyond
Posted by Daniella Jaeger

We get a lot of questions about how to put together and run a great Kickstarter project, and we’re always happy to share whatever insights we have, either from personal experience running a project or from simply seeing what works well on the site day after day. But we’re hardly the only people worth asking. There are more and more great write-ups from project creators and media outlets alike popping up all the time. We’ve blogged about some of these articles in the past, like Craig Mod’s wonderful piece about his experience — a must-read! Here are a few more good ones.

Grassroots Funding with Kickstarter.com

Jason Brubaker blogged some seriously relevant tips about his successful campaign for his graphic novel reMIND. It touches on everything from making a sweet video to spreading the word to keeping organized. Check out his nifty graph for tracking his project:

I especially liked his insights on rewards:

“Don’t make too many pledge options. I strongly believe that the more options you have the harder it is to make up your mind and a person will likely leave before deciding what to do.”

and

“Your pledge rewards should be better than what you normally offer your product for. I think this is really important. Many people make their rewards so lame for the amount pledged and nobody pledges. The pledgers are doing us a favor by giving money so they need to be rewarded with better prices and offers than someone just buying our product after it’s finished.”

He also touched on something we wish every project creator would do: Look at other projects for inspiration and get a sense of what works well.

“Study the successful and the unsuccessful. Look closely at the campaigns that are ending soon. Here’s a link. What’s interesting is they’re either fully funded or have next to no funding; there’s very few in between. If you can’t make a splash when you jump in then nobody will notice, so study which ones work and which ones don’t.”

Much more in the post itself; check it out here.

Kickstarter and me: What I learned from my mistake, and a friend’s success, using Kickstarter for crowdfunding

James VanOsdol tried his hand at a Kickstarter project to fund his book and got an impressive 139 backers on board. While he didn’t quite reach his goal, he now has a slew of lessons learned under his belt (great bait for a future project, perhaps?). He writes about his friend’s successful (and still live) project for the Rogues Gallery in particular and gets right to the point:

“The simple reason for the project’s success is that it’s a great idea which appeals to a talented and passionate community of artists and fans. Beyond that, Patrick asked for a relatively modest amount, making the funding all but guaranteed.”

James then outlines the careful budget he prepared for his project and his strategies, followed by what went wrong.

“I had asked for too much money to fund a fairly niche book…in a recession. My book strategy of ‘doing it right’ led me to not doing it at all.”

We often remind people that funding is all or nothing, so while of course one should choose a goal that will cover costs and allow for reward fulfillment, it’s probably a good idea to be conservative as well. You can always raise more, but never less. At the end of the day, each project is different and has its own needs and its own audience.

Trust, mobile, and money: New focal points (and hints for applicants) for the new Knight News Challenge

We were excited to find this article from the Nieman Journalism Lab. It’s not about Kickstarter specifically, but it provides tips on applying for a tech grant called the Knights News Challenge that can be useful when thinking about how to approach a Kickstarter project as well. The article profiles one of our more successful tech projects, LocalWiki, and I found this point to be especially telling:

A working prototype is great. When the creators of Davis Wiki … applied for grant funding to expand their project, they weren’t just pitching a concept. They could point judges to a thriving local website which collects community insight and serves as an open forum for residents to deal with everything from scam artists to lost kittens.”

Kickstarter audiences respond to this kind of work-in-progress evidence too. People are much more keen to support a project that has something exciting clearly brewing.

Any personal experience of your own you’d like to share, or something you know you’re looking for as a backer? Drop it in the comments!

TITANIA — Kickstarter

KICKSTARTER IS A FUNDING PLATFORM FOR ARTISTS, DESIGNERS, FILMMAKERS, MUSICIANS, JOURNALISTS, INVENTORS, EXPLORERS....

"Last week, Neil Gaiman recommended Titania's world of high fantasy and gothic stylings to his 1.4 million followers on Twitter. Lisa Stock's melding of Greek mythology to Shakespeare and Russian fairytales left an impression on the master of gothic fantasy himself. Click to see why."

PROJECT BACKGROUND
TITANIA is written and directed by Lisa Stock, and produced by InByTheEye Films.

A low-budget fantasy which relies on a strong story, compelling characters, and creativity. TITANIA is a retelling of the fairy tale of the Armless Maiden through Shakespeare's faery queen. The story is romantic, shocking, intense, and ultimately hopeful!

This unique project has already garnered an enthusiastic fan base, numerous features in the press, and growing interest within the fantasy industry. To learn more - please visit our official website at: www.TitaniaFilm.com

(those outside the US can pledge via Kickstarter, but if you have trouble - please see the Investor page on our website for further instructions or drop us an email. Thanks!)