Crowdfunding

or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb Hardware

NOTICE

All opinions appearing in this work are mine. Any resemblance to real companies, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

http://tah.io/get

Crowdfunding celebrities

10,266,845$

13,285,226$

Relevant Crowdfunding celebrities

$1,731,475

$578,478

$2,071,927

$898,921

Why crowdfund?

• Upfront costs are high
• Validates user requirement
• Low overhead

Why not crowdfund?

• Breaking even is tough
• People on the Internet are not nice
• You still have to go to retail

What went right with Tah ?

1. Picking a platform

Kickstarter

• Community
• Doesn't support Indian creators

Indigogo

• Supports Indian creators
• Poor rep

Crowd Supply

• Niche - open source hardware
• Great SNR

2. Name, logo, etc.

Video - Tried outsourcing.

Ended up reworking everything.

3. BOM

• No alternative but China
• Language barrier - TQFP QFN

3. Made in पुणे

• Shogini for PCB
• Thuse for assembly
• Lead times as per auto industry

4. Custom is expensive

• White PCBs 
• 2.4mm thickness

5. Indian mentality

• Preorder? Huh? 
• कोपरे  का भैय्या तोह सस्ते मैं देता है |
• I want to do project. Plz halp.

6. Software

• Make it super easy
• Edge cases are a pain - limit
• Android
• iOS

7. Logistics

• Shipping to obscure countries
• Returns
• Local Taxes 
• iOS 

8. Support

• Forum - Discourse
• GitHub issues & PRs
• Email
• Docs - website

9. Its not just tech

Final thoughts