Have you ever thought about starting a Kickstarter campaign? Do you wonder how some people seem to have cracked the code on crowdfunding? If so, we’ve got an fantastic episode for you.

Jeff Sheldon set a goal to raise $18,000 and ended up with over $430K in pre-orders. In this episode, he unpacks the details of his recent blowout Kickstarter campaign. Jeff shares what it takes to hit a crowdfunding home run and how to avoid some unexpected consequences of Kickstarter success. Enjoy!

Episode Highlights:

• Talking the talk: The Kickstarter Process 5:40
• What set Gather apart from others on Kickstarter? 6:27
• Building Mass Effect: How to tease your product on Instagram 9:51
• Off to the Races: The first day of the Kickstarter campaign 11:30
• Discovering Super Backers and their value on Kickstarter 14:06
• The Facebook ROAS of Super Backers 15:50
• How much time was spent just on your Kickstarter video? 17:04
• The Future of UgMonk 19:59  
• What they don’t tell you: The downsides of running a Kickstarter campaign 22:56
• Recovering funds: Where did all the backers go? 24:52
• Where is Gather now in the production cycle?: 27:15
• Productivity hacks: What Jeff uses to stay on task 29:03  

Links and Resources:

• Dropbox paper
• Help Scout
• www.Ugmonk.com
• Facebook - UgMonk
• Twitter - UgMonk
• Instagram - UgMonk
• Jeff (at) UgMonk.com

Does it ever seem like there are brands out there who just have it figured out?

It's easy to look at other businesses and think "wow, they are crushing it" without realizing the work they put in to get there. Today, we talk about the work. Chris Lynch is a talented entrepreneur out of San Diego who's built a growing lifestyle brand called Everyday California. Life is good. But as he tells us in today's episode, it hasn't always been IPAs and sunny days. He's hustled, he's made mistakes and he's continued to iterate on his original ideas before finally getting to a point where growth is coming easy. In today's episode, we share a real life story of how EveryDay California spread its wings.