How to launch a fashion startup on Kickstarter (even if you don't have a background in fashion)

Desire to launch a manner startup just non certain how to fund information technology? Discover out how one mum (with no fashion background) managed to become full funding in but three days on Kickstarter.

My name is Shamanth Pereira and I recently launched InvisiBelly, a high waisted compression leggings brand on Kickstarter, which was successfully funded in less than iii days with (still growing) worldwide back up. You tin can check out my entrada here.

Unlike their predecessors, InvisiBelly leggings are a unique combination of old and new, preserving a traditional Ayurvedic practice with modern twenty-four hours pinch engineering science. Their revolutionary high waisted performance leggings combine the slimming of shapewear, the durability of activewear and the modesty and style of outerwear.

Trethowans

Trethowans

In this article I am going to share my behind the scenes experience of launching a manner startup (without any way experience) on Kickstarter.

What is Kickstarter, and why use information technology?

Kickstarter is a type of rewards-based crowdfunding platform. Crowdfunding platforms were originally created to help budding artists crowdfund their music album. Equally the artists didn't have the funds to produce their album, they turned to their fans to assistance them by pre-funding their album.

Shortly the likes of Kickstarter and Indiegogo crowdfunding platforms were launched to assistance creatives in whatever industry bring their business organization to life.

And then why launch on Kickstarter and not your ain commerce site? Here are some reasons:

  • Kickstarter allows yous to prove your concept, thereby minimising take chances of launching and no ane being interested in the product.
  • You tin generate revenue to assist y'all produce your start run of orders.
  • It's an first-class grade of validation – you lot can say your startup was successfully funded through Kickstarter. It means real customers dearest your production and are happy to part with their money and look a few months before the product arrives.
  • It gives you the opportunity to pitch to bigger retailers as you are a proven concept.
  • Kickstarter is widely trusted platform. While there were some initial projects that failed, Kickstarter have tightened their rules for launching. Now your project needs to pass their rules and guidelines before you launch.
  • Your campaign has a wider reach every bit you are also tapping into the Kickstarter audience, who may otherwise not know nigh you.

One thing to deport in mind though is that Kickstarter is a predominantly male audience platform (it has around a 70/30 divide). That said, there are many female-led campaigns that are successfully funded, and some accept gone on to achieve the 1 million mark in pre-order sales.

How I launched my fashion startup on Kickstarter

So how did I successful launch my style startup on Kickstarter? To help you become practical tips of your own campaign I'm going to share my step-past-step process with y'all.

However, I starting time need to stress that launching on Kickstarter is neither easier nor harder than launching on your own ecommerce site. The level of effort involved in launching a Kickstarter campaign is the aforementioned equally launching any startup.

one) Come up with an thought

Commencement you demand to decide  what you want to create, and ensure it has wide appeal. To come upwards with my idea I decided to expect at the bug I encountered on a daily basis and picked the one that had the biggest impact on me.

In my case, it was the weight gain from having two children. I was a lean person prior to having children, and post-children I found it hard to lose the baby weight, especially around the tummy area, and equally a result my overall confidence took a tumble.

ii) Talk to others and go feedback

Once I had my idea, I reached out to other women and asked them the part of their body they establish well-nigh challenging – and the muffin summit/stomach came upwards tops.

This step is critical. I appreciate that some of you might find this process daunting, merely it's an essential footstep to ensuring yous are building something that people volition want. I too reached out to stylists every bit they wearing apparel women all the fourth dimension, to confirm this theory and was soon onto a winner.

3) Check out your competition and see what else is out at that place

Now I knew I wanted to create a pair of comfortable leggings that had shapewear congenital in, so they held in my 'mum-tummy' and were versatile enough to wearing apparel upwardly or down.

I was inspired by the age erstwhile Asian belly wrapping tradition that has been passed downward through the generations. However I didn't want to wrap my tummy with a textile and then put trousers over it.

So I decided to try combining both, and that's when I discovered pinch garments mimicked the same benefits of the belly wrapping tradition. It is of import to see what'southward currently on offer and how you can differentiate yourself from the crowd.

4) Build a prototype

Next I had to translate this idea into a prototype. Non having a style background meant that I needed to thoroughly research to find reliable designers who could successfully translate my idea to reality. The easiest fashion to do this was to get an existing pair of competitor leggings and show the blueprint cutter/designer what I wanted to modify.

five) Create a blueprint pack

With vesture you lot demand to create a design pack that includes the design and measurements for sizing, so it'due south easy for the factory to interpret your idea.

Unless you possess design skills, this is by far the all-time fashion to translate your idea. Sometimes a skilful factory, volition get their in business firm team to help yous with design and measurement procedure.

half-dozen) Detect a manufactory to produce prototypes

Once you have an idea of what yous want to produce you demand to find a mill that can help y'all produce prototypes. In my case, I wanted a pair of compression seamless leggings that required a specialist round knitting machine.

Every bit I had absolutely no mode experience I needed to thoroughly inquiry manufacturers in the UK, China and Europe to evaluate and choose the all-time for my business organization. It was a long long road with incorrectly translated samples, poor quality materials (despite specifying exactly what I wanted) and even being dismissed outright by some for existence a startup.

To create seamless leggings I needed that circular knitting machine, but virtually manufacturers take the cut and sew together road. The downside to this route you lot are at the mercy of fabric manufacturers, and there are tons of textile out there. While it'due south a more affordable way to produce, I wanted to create something unique and different.

I wanted solve real women'south issues, so I wanted my leggings to stay put, and be an easy to wear, dawn to sunset item – in short a pair of leggings that women want.

7) Ask your network for introductions

It took me nearly a year of trial and fault with various manufacturers before my inquiry eventually led me to my lovely producer in Portugal. I was introduced to them through Utelier, a platform that connects creators with makers.

By this signal, I was on the verge of giving upwards! I asked myself if information technology was worth the try to keep trying. I had internal discussions with myself such as "mayhap I am not cut out for this" and "possibly it'southward just non meant to be". However my competitive mindset didn't let me give up just yet.

I told myself Portugal was my last attempt otherwise I would have to rethink my options.

Thankfully, Utelier solved my problem. They continued me to a manufacturer that created seamless leggings, and I felt it was a sign from the universe to not give up!

8) Launch your startup to an audition

Now that I finally had a prototype that was designed to my idea, the side by side stage was working out how to finance production and market information technology to the world.

Every startup knows that the first customers are crucial to edifice momentum for the business, but startup c apital is tricky to obtain. One way around this is to pre-fund your startup by launching to pre-orders.

One of the primal lessons I learned from my previous eastward-commerce experience was to ensure I had an audience of willing buyers to launch to. T his is where Kickstarter comes in.

Viii critical steps to ensuring a successful Kickstarter entrada

So how do y'all ensure your Kickstarter campaign is successful? Here are the eight critical steps you need to take (and some lessons I learned on my journey).

1) Produce an engaging video that shares your story and production

The video is a critical element to a successful entrada. I recommend taking inspiration from other fully funded campaigns and observe how they have scripted their videos.

Information technology's worth investing in a really skillful videographer because a skillful video tin help convey your message clearly and brand potential buyers want to pre-social club your product. I received a lot of expert feedback about my video. (You can bank check it out hither.)

I recommend setting aside a budget of £1,000-3,000 for a loftier quality video.

2) Make sure your Kickstarter page is has an engaging layout, design and photography

Your crowdfunding page is substantially the website of your project. Information technology'south the sales page you apply to convert visitors into backers. As such it should exist crafted with the same care you would put into a new website or project.

Once more set up aside a decent budget to create this, and of course research and get a few referrals for graphic designers before you settle for one. (Here'due south the graphic designer that created my page.)

3) Create a strong pre-launch campaign

It's worth noting that almost fifty% of campaigns don't get funded. Though the skillful news is once you striking the twenty% funding goal, your chances of failure drops to 11%.

Building an email list of between 5,000-ten,000 subscribers ahead of your launch will assist you lot with days one to three of your launch. You lot can gather subscribers past running a giveaway of your product, collaborating with bloggers to share the giveaway with their audition, and also employ ads to promote the giveaway to a wider audition.

I want to highlight that I did not manage to execute this as effectively equally I would take liked, because my son became unwell for three months, so everything stalled. Even so I managed to reach my small-scale funding goal. To ensure you raise as many pre-orders and generate as much revenue as possible it is critical to practice this step well.

To provide some context, campaigns that have executed a strong pre-launch campaign went on to enhance six figures for their campaign. Most of these campaigns achieved the loftier 5 figures ( £30k up) within 48 hours of launch. Here are are ii examples to check out.

Fiddling Nomad:

Flexr:

4) Plan constructive rewards

Rewards are effectively pricing your product in an attractive way to make people want to buy it. Hither are some unlike reward types you can offer:

  • Early bird discounts to entice buyers to pre-club quickly.
  • Package discounts.
  • Limited and premium rewards.

The most critical part of rewards is to cost them carefully and so you lot don't lose money after accounting for Kickstarter fees and payment fees.

One matter to bear in heed is that y'all would be doing well if y'all break even from your Kickstarter campaign. View the campaign every bit a way to acquire customers that y'all can nurture and sell time to come products to. The lifetime cost of the customer is going to be much college, so call up large!

The lesser line is to make your rewards as easy to cover as possible. Draw inspiration from successfully funded campaigns.

5) Offer attractive shipping rates

Research has shown that consumers prefer gratuitous aircraft and are happier to pay a slightly higher price for a production, than paying a lower toll for a product and paying on pinnacle for shipping.

So wherever possible, and merely if it financial makes sense, offering costless shipping or significantly reduced shipping.

6) Invest in online advertising to drive traffic to your campaign

Having done my research, I knew the benefits of spending on advertisement (primarily Facebook advertizement) to promote my product. You can opt to learn and do Facebook ads yourself or find an agency that specialises in Kickstarter campaigns to aid you. There are many agencies, such as Jellop, Crowdreach, Enventys and Funded Today.

As I am in the midst of my entrada, I am still evaluating the effectiveness of using these agencies and will update postal service campaign.

7) Put aside a budget for PR

If you lot are able to gear up aside a budget for PR, so do so. Try to hire an agency that specialises in Kickstarter campaigns, as they will know how to pitch your project to the printing.

If you can't set aside a budget, it's worth trying to write press releases yourself because getting any mentions for a startup helps with brand sensation. For some campaigns, press mentions generated at to the lowest degree 30%-40% of their pre order revenue. Paved with Gold specialises in crowdfunding PR and is adequately reasonable with their rates.

8) Reach out to your network

Do not overlook this step. I reached out to friends, onetime colleagues, and family to help gain early on momentum for my campaign.

I was as well planning on out doing blogger outreach, just because of the suspension in my pre-launch program this didn't become done. In retrospect, I could have hired a virtual assistant and got them to practise the blogger outreach on my behalf.

If I 'launched ugly' and still got funding, you tin can practise it as well!

If you are really low on funds, and so y'all want to focus your budget on steps one-iii. As you lot are aware I am in the midst of my campaign. Mine was non a perfect launch by any ways, merely I decided to launch ugly.

I had a pick to make, either delay my launch farther until I achieve a perfect pre-launch or just 'launch ugly'. I didn't want to lose more momentum and then I decided to go alee and launch.

Since my pre-launch efforts only generated less than ane,000 emails, I compensated with aggressive manual outreach to friends and family unit and paid advertising. Thankfully my efforts led me to achieve my modest goal in less than three days, and right now I'thousand at virtually 200% of funding.

I hope my experience and advice helps y'all to take the backbone to plan your own successful Kickstarter campaign. While there's a more that goes into a Kickstarter entrada, I have highlighted the fundamental steps you need to take. And if I can do it, yous can besides!

If you love leggings and always dreamt of a pair leggings that doesn't roll down, non see through with the added benefit of a built in shape habiliment for an instant confidence boost, yous will love Invisibelly. Click hither to have reward of the early bird pre lodge discount.