From Kickstarter Success to a Sustainable Brand [Side Hustle Coaching]

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“Apples to Apples meets Shark Tank” in SideHustle, the party game for entrepreneurs.

After a successful crowdfunding campaign, the team behind the game is looking for ways to raise awareness and stand out on the crowded Amazon marketplace.

In this coaching episode, you’ll meet co-founders Darby Rollins and Tomer Soran, who (along with a 3rd co-founder, Tim Palladino) are looking for some ways to expand on the initial traction and grow a brand in the “productive play” space.

To help out with this one, I enlisted Side Hustle Show alumni and e-commerce and branding pro, Scott Voelker.

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Here’s a quick behind-the-scenes video of the marketplace. (You may have to request to join the Side Hustle Nation FB group to see it.)

Current State of the Business

• Raised over $11,000 on Kickstarter to fund initial production run.
• Listed on Amazon and selling around 1 unit a day.
• Hosting a weekly live game show with entrepreneurial influencers.
• Creating a smaller, less expensive version 2.0 of the game.

The Challenge

For Darby and Tomer, the biggest challenge is raising awareness. How can we get more people to know this game exists?

Advice and Recommendations

Scott and I had several suggestions for the SideHustle crew, including:

• Continue creating videos with influencers playing the game.
• Make it easy for them to share with their audience.
• Consider running video view Facebook ads to their audience to promote their episode.
• Consider a digital version of the game, or a different way to monetize digital content.
• Outreach to “kids entrepreneurship” groups and organizations.
• Consider capturing customer information on your website, either by taking orders directly or collecting emails in exchange for an Amazon discount, rather than just referring traffic to Amazon.
• Target authors of articles like “best gifts for entrepreneurs” and ask to be included.

Links and Resources

• PlaySideHustle.com
• SideHustle game on Amazon
• SideHustle Kickstarter page
• BrandCreators.com
• Scott’s 1st appearance on The Side Hustle Show
• Hot Ones
• Crowdfunding 101

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