Ep 010: Useful Tools to Prepare for a Kickstarter Campaign w/ Nathan Resnick

Startup Life Hacks | Business and Life Advice | Founders | Entrepreneurship

Nathan Resnick is a student at the University of San Diego and the founder of Yes Man Watches. Having launched and advised several successful Kickstarter campaigns, he knows the ins and outs of how to turn ideas into realities. Named #28 on the Fall 2014 Top 50 College Startups List, Nathan plans to empower people to consider the use of time. How do you spend your day?

Strategies used to fund business

We had this idea of a brand, this empowering brand, and get people to there “YES.” We saw this concept being applied to a belt buckle and wanted to use the same technology for a watch to create a perfect fit for your wrist. The hardest part was figuring out how we were going to produce and manufacture these watches. We ultimately ended up going with Kickstarter, a crowd funding platform.

Founders

I am actually the sole founder of Yes Man. That was one of the hardest parts of starting. I originally had the concept with a friend, and when it came time for those late nights and early mornings and really start hustling, he and I both knew that he wasn’t there. For me, I didn’t find someone that I thought was going to be really beneficial to me when I first started Yes Man, so I kind of just dove right into it myself

Top 3 Things When Launching on Kickstarter

1. Pre-launch: Create a community of excited people that are really into what you’re doing.
2. Don’t launch your product on Kickstarter, until you actually know how to produce your product. You want to have that streamline, you want to have that cost of goods and have your manufacturing set before you launch.
3. Have the money to meet your minimum order for your manufacturers.

How do you find your manufacturers?

Fortunately for me I used to live in China during my junior year in high school as a foreign exchange student, so I speak mandarin fluently. It was great to actually use my mandarin to speak with some of the manufacturers in China. A great starting point, if you have an idea for a product, is to go to Alibaba. But the problem about that is finding out who is reputable and who is actually trustworthy enough to manufacture your products.

Describe a moment when you felt like giving up

When we first launched Yes Man, we had some trouble with our patent pending buckle. Basically the buckle was bulky and it didn’t work that well. The strap wouldn’t always stay in, so I didn’t want to put a bad product in the market. What we ended up doing was insert a spring mechanism into our actual buckle so the release of the strap was automatic.

HUGE SUCCESS

One of the more exciting moments was when we were published in the New York Times. I’d say one of the more fulfilling moments as an entrepreneur comes from when you physically hold the product that you’ve been creating for the past 4-5 months, and getting that first prototype in the mail.

Superpower

My superpower is my ability to turn these ideas into reality. I’m very goal driven, so if I tell myself I’m going to launch this company by the end of this month, then I’m going to do everything and anything to make that happen. This past summer I launched 3 kickstarter campaigns, one a month.

Kryptonite

I’d say my kryptonite is delegation. Sometimes it’s hard to manage and trust other people, especially when we work with people around the world.

IF YOU CAN HAVE ANY SUPERPOWER…

It would have to be invisibility because I feel like you can do whatever you want, whenever you want.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE OR APP

Side-Kick for Gmail: Track email opens and clicks in your Gmail. Use Sidekick with Gmail to get real-time notifications in just a couple clicks.

Boomerang for Gmail: Schedule an email to be sent later. Easy email reminders.

RECOMMENDED BOOKS

The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich (Expanded and Updated)

ADVICE TO HACKER NATION

Have a plan, have a strategy, write the steps needed to turn your idea into reality.

Let’s say you want to launch a kickstarter campaign in October.

• Figure out what you want to bring to life
• Figure out how you’re going to make that product
• Put together your marketing assets, which includes your video and photography
• Set up your company and incorporate
• Roll with it

FOLLOW

Twitter @naterez94

Linkedin

Nathanresnick.com