I just had a lengthy messaging conversation with the principal and developer of a very successful solar generator product that used crowdfunding to help fund mass production. He has developed a solid base of loyal customers and garnered an excellent reputation for quality and support. As he is working on developing his next product which has already generated a lot of interest, we got on the topic on how can he get his product to market while avoiding using crowdfunding or paying an influencer who is monetarily compensated for his/her review. Those crowdfunding admin or "advertising" costs can also be passed as savings to the end consumer.
I respect Will’s decision to not do crowdfunded product reviews. Looking at some of the current disasters on IGG and Kickstarter seems to validate his direction. Here is the rock and the hard place however. An unbiased and comprehensive review is gold for the solar product developer but the need to fund production needs enough presales to get the product to a large audience and crowdfunding provides this. Heck even Ecoflow still uses Kickstarter for funding continuity (and market hype). Bluetti is moving to a presales model, but have enough equity in their pipeline to get them halfway through product development and even mass production.
So the question is how does a smaller company that has already proven and delivered an excellent product to market, get "pre mass production reviews on the next generation offering" that would help support the product production funding, support, logistics, marketing etc. (even though the development is largely complete and may only require a few tweaks). I would certainly love to see reviews from Will (who has built his reputation for being unbiased and not holding a quarter to junk products) regarding these up and comers… i.e. companies that may not have the financial backing that the Jackerys of the world have available to go to market first, but have proven that they can and have developed best of breed products. They just need to get the word out and generate the presales needed make full production a reality without resorting to the crowdfunding route.
I respect Will’s decision to not do crowdfunded product reviews. Looking at some of the current disasters on IGG and Kickstarter seems to validate his direction. Here is the rock and the hard place however. An unbiased and comprehensive review is gold for the solar product developer but the need to fund production needs enough presales to get the product to a large audience and crowdfunding provides this. Heck even Ecoflow still uses Kickstarter for funding continuity (and market hype). Bluetti is moving to a presales model, but have enough equity in their pipeline to get them halfway through product development and even mass production.
So the question is how does a smaller company that has already proven and delivered an excellent product to market, get "pre mass production reviews on the next generation offering" that would help support the product production funding, support, logistics, marketing etc. (even though the development is largely complete and may only require a few tweaks). I would certainly love to see reviews from Will (who has built his reputation for being unbiased and not holding a quarter to junk products) regarding these up and comers… i.e. companies that may not have the financial backing that the Jackerys of the world have available to go to market first, but have proven that they can and have developed best of breed products. They just need to get the word out and generate the presales needed make full production a reality without resorting to the crowdfunding route.
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