What do you do when there's limited space at home, but a home office is absolutely essential? Maria Olinger of Raumio asked herself this question. She developed a cabinet that can house a fully equipped home office, including a chair, storage space, lighting, electrical system, and more. The prototype was financed through a crowdfunding campaign. Here are Raumio's crowdfunding tips.
Maria, in many crowdfunding campaigns, market testing or marketing are the main focus, in addition to financing. How was that for you?
That's pretty much exactly what we're talking about. I had reached a point where I wanted to launch my product and test how it was received in the market.
At the campaign I was more concerned with gaining recognition, gathering feedback from the crowd, and further developing my prototype than with achieving major sales success. We knew that a high-priced product like Raumio wouldn't be bought without thinking. The sales process is lengthy, and customers want to see and touch the product, perhaps even try out working with Raumio.
That's why we decided to combine the campaign with our trade fair appearance at the 'Heim und Handwerk' in Munich — this way, online and offline marketing measures would fuel each other, which largely worked.
Projects in the furniture industry fail more often than average
How did you prepare for the campaign and where did you find good support?
My first step was to search for similar projects on popular crowdfunding platforms. I quickly realized that projects in the furniture industry are more likely to fail than average. Therefore, I tried to increase the likelihood of success by setting a realistic and relatively modest funding goal.
The exchange with other founders and potential campaign initiators at the crowdfunding breakfast was very helpful and motivated. And without the Chamber of Commerce and the Funding from the City of Munich I would never have become aware of the possibility of a crowdfunding campaign as a marketing initiative.
What was the most helpful tip you received while preparing the campaign?
What was valuable for me was the well-founded Consulting At the beginning, the City of Munich and the Chamber of Industry and Commerce helped to choose the platform and size the campaign. Equally important were the tips and invitations to events during the campaign to generate more attention.
Activate your own network and be persistent!
What was the biggest challenge in the campaign?
The biggest challenge for us was definitely getting enough people to be aware of my campaign during the campaign and actively promoting the thank-you gifts—I underestimated this part a bit! And I certainly could have been even more successful if I had set a longer campaign duration. Then there would have been time to actively drum up publicity after the trade fair appearance, which was taking place at the same time.
That's why I advise every founder to actively use their time during the campaign, plan measures in advance, engage their entire network, and be persistent—it's worth giving it your all and not being shy! Only those who persist will be successful!
Invitation to a TV show
What were your experiences during the campaign? What surprised you?
I was surprised by the fact that the campaign also attracted media attention. The campaign had been active for barely two days when we received a request for an appearance in an inventors' and founders' magazine.–TV show. The invitation to a crowdfunding conference and the resulting networking opportunities were also very helpful.
Crowd feedback led to product adaptation
What lasting effects did the campaign have? And what's next for you?
With the money from the campaign we can build the prototype for the small model ‚Moretti'. And from the feedback from the crowd and the conversations at the trade fair, I learned that 'Raumio Moretti' needs to be even smaller and more compact than it already was. Therefore, we reduced the dimensions of this model even further. Now, an office chair fits comfortably inside, and when unfolded, it creates a 120 cm wide desk and 210 cm of shelf space for files, books, etc. But when folded, the 'Raumio Moretti' only requires 0.78 square meters of floor space.
The prototype is expected to be delivered at the end of March, and in the coming months, we'll focus on marketing and acquiring dealers and business partners. Thank you, dear crowd!
