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My Greatest Personal Accomplishment... LAUNCHED on Kickstarter Today!

Biker Scout

Biker Scout

New Member
Well gang... it's been a long uphill battle to get to this proud point in my life where I've successfully completed a personal goal and project that I've been working on for the past few years. And I'd love to share it with my fellow Signs 101 family.

I had to basically sequester myself and set some goals and timelines or it seems as if this was never going to happen. I've had some great help from here, and others spearheading the social media aspect of this project.

So, as of this morning, my baby is finally out for the world to see: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1851170166/all-natural-flavored-water-enhancer

I had many back and forth sessions with the folks at KS as to what you can and cannot say. (Healthy claims, mentioning the word cancer, etc... took many revisions but it finally got approved)

I'm lucky that we've got all this in-house printing capabilities. It's going to be a major leg up when doing a product tour, or showcase to have all necessary banners, displays, wraps, pop-ups etc... on official product launch day.

Let me know what you guys think! :cool:

Kickstarter Squish.jpg
 
jfiscus

jfiscus

Rap Master
Good luck with your venture!
I hope kickstarter goes well for you, we are just learning the ropes of it here and getting ready to give it a try soon once our final working prototypes are complete.
I am on the board of a group debuting a new 3D printer, so I hope all these long nights and expenses pay off.
 
Biker Scout

Biker Scout

New Member
Long Nights... Check

Expenses... Check

Yeah, it's a gamble. But you know what? It's a great platform right now for people to venture out and actually test their ideas. I think the timing couldn't have been better.

Those 3D printers, if they have all the right features and price point, always seem to do really well with raising money! Good luck as well!
 
visual800

visual800

Active Member
Cool idea. always nice to see someone busting sodas bubble. gotta compliment on the art also, very clean.

best of luck and when the corporate lawyers start sending you threats just ignore them, cause corporations do not like natural!
 
C

CanuckSigns

Active Member
Looks good man, best of luck

I'd buy some if I wasn't one of those wierdos who actually like the taste of water, from the tap even!
 
Biker Scout

Biker Scout

New Member
Thanks guys. My only fears about this project were surrounding the large corporate companies who could knock this formula in a day if they saw mine as a threat. Then with their million dollar advertising budgets, just bury me.

I think I waited about a year too long to launch this. I've seen wally world's version have a couple of flavors without the food dyes, but they still had aspertame. Now, I see Vitamin Water is actually sweetened with Stevia, but they a one or two other ingredients that are questionable. So, word is getting around, and I feel a shift is about to happen on the artificial front. I just hope I'm in time to ride the wave, and be a part of the sea of change.
 
Mike Paul

Mike Paul

Super Active Member
Congrats for moving forward with your idea. :thumb:

Not a bad presentation but the audio sounds like someone speaking from the center of a room.? :cool:

Isn't there similar products available? I don't like flavored water but I'm pretty sure I've seen this in supermarkets already.
 
CES020

CES020

New Member
I met a guy a couple months ago that invented a drink that was natural juice. He did very well with it (it's still available today). He was telling me that that industry is nasty and he hated every minute of being in that industry. He said that you have to buy shelf space in grocery stores. He bought the shelf space at $50,000, was on the shelves, selling great, getting great feedback from the store and customers. He got called into the store's office one day, sat down, the guy hands him a check for $50,000. He said "What's this?". The guy said "It's your $50,000 back". He said "Why". The guy said "Coke came in and paid me $150,000 to buy all the shelf space".

They saw his product as a threat and bought all the shelf space so he couldn't get his product in that chain of stores. He sold the entire company and said it was one of the ugliest businesses he's ever been involved in and he was thrilled to no longer be part of it.
 
skyhigh

skyhigh

New Member
CES020 said:
He was telling me that that industry is nasty and he hated every minute of being in that industry.

He sold the entire company and said it was one of the ugliest businesses he's ever been involved in and he was thrilled to no longer be part of it.
Click to expand...

I hope you don't have any aspirations of becoming a motivational speaker. Best to stay in the sign business CES020.

:rolleyes:
 
CES020

CES020

New Member
skyhigh said:
I hope you don't have any aspirations of becoming a motivational speaker. Best to stay in the sign business CES020.

:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Oh, I'm sorry, I guess I should have said "It'll be a breeze and it's not competitive at all".

I was only responding to HIS comment about fearing the big guys and I was just relaying a story that I was told that shows his fear is well placed.

I think it's a great Kickstarter project and as a MIO user daily, I'd happily buy it if it were placed on the shelf next to MIO or anyone else. I hope he makes it and makes it big. I'd love to see healthier choices in that category.

Just more insight, his products were something like 97% actual fruit juice. The company he sold it to wants to lower the juice content to save money.
 
Jwalk

Jwalk

New Member
You cant do anything to uncle sam I live in Canada and still fear him. Any body going up against coke is going to lose unless we all do it at once.
I love those types of products hopefully you find the right venue to market and sell your product effectively.
 
Biker Scout

Biker Scout

New Member
My demographic is people who drink water. Coke has a large product line, huge supply chain and money to burn.

But I don't care about Coke, Pepsi or Kraft. They don't care about you either. Otherwise, they wouldn't be pedaling sugar water. Actually, sugar water would be an improvement. They are selling you carbonated chemical soup. With 50 bajillion dollars at their disposal and they can't figure out a simple all natural formula then, the joke is on the public. I made it on my stove for about $150 in bulk products, including beakers and other lab/food equipment.

Yeah, it would be cool to be on a store shelf, but that's not really where my product will end up selling the best from anyway. Online is the new frontier, and buying shelf space is an old world business practice. I'd rather take that money spent on buying shelf space, hire goodbysilverstein.com to do my ad promotion, and run an ad on the super bowl. Or even sponsor some popular YouTube channel guys. Just have all my ads point to the website.

If you generate enough buzz, store buyers will approach you. I just need to build the base of this budding empire that I don't need them and can survive without them. Label readers don't shop at the regular supermarkets anyway. I could private label this to Trader Joe's, and I already have an "IN" with the buyer of Whole Foods. Plus, I can sell this stuff at Bike Shops, Running Shoe Stores. Any place really that sells sporty adventure stuff. I know a guy who promotes snowboard venues, he'd gladly throw up a banner, or do a co-sponsorship.

Point is, there are so many places I can get this product in, that doesn't have anything to do with grocery store shelves, dealing with Coke or Pepsi. Now, if they happen to approach me with a really large check to buy my formulation... well, then I'd think about it, because the money is really just a vehicle to start another positive change the world project. I've got a long list of them, and each one will require more money then the last.

Only two people from S101 actually pledged. (THANKS, BTW :notworthy: ) and if any of you think this is a great product, please consider pledging the minimum of a paltry $7. Your support really means a lot and helps build promotional momentum.
 
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