Kickstarter Fulfillment | Hacker News Reader

Kickstarter Fulfillment

teelaunch.com

100 pointsjstreebin40 comments

Very reactive. Name and domain changed to TeeLaunch.

Now you're on good tracks. The idea is great as well as the potential. What's the best way to advertize to KickStarter users though?

...do a kickstarter :)

... sign up for our newsletter http://eepurl.com/tnwV1

They were called TeeLaunch before this and they've been around for a while now. They are competitors to TeeSpring.

How are they competing with TeeSpring?

TeeSpring is entirely focused on kickstarting custom t-shirts. Different arena.

In case anyone else is confused, the previous URL was http://kickstarterrewards.com/.

I like the idea.

Initial thoughts is you might run into issues using the exact "kickstarter" name. Maybe change it to a more generic "crowdfunding" or something similar.

Yes, you'll have a cease & desist as soon as Kickstarter sees the URL and site name.

And the logo used on the page. Bizarre.

Anyway, this has been an obvious opportunity. Good to see someone jumping in on it.

Not "might" run into issues, rather "definitely". This is blatant trademark violation. "Kickstarter" is a registered mark[1]. Given that trademark law requires the holder to defend the mark or risk losing it, this is like painting a target on your back.

[1] http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4808:va...

Edit: site changed to TeeLaunch. Nice responsive time guys.

Not sure exactly what the story is here, but I just sent them a spreadsheet for my kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/252020431/obsidian-porta...

They ship the t-shirts directly to my backers. That's a huge weight off my shoulders and lets me focus on writing the code instead of stuffing envelopes.

Interesting, this is like the second Kickstarter support company I've heard of in as many days - a KS I supported is using BackerKit[1] to help manage their fulfillment.

There's also Topatoco's Make That Thing[2], though that's currently invite-only, mostly to people who're already part of the Topatoco empire.

This is definitely a new flavor of B2B service opening up. If I wasn't so busy working on the content for my next comic-book kickstarter, I'd be trying to see if I can come up with a spin on it myself...

[1]: https://www.backerkit.com [2]: http://makethatthing.com

Do you know anything about how BackerKit works? It seems like it's API connected but I'm positive there's no public Kickstarter API.

As I understand it: Project creators log in to Kickstarter and utilize a Chrome bookmarklet provided by BackerKit, which then reads/scrapes the backer infomation from Kickstarter and sends it to BackerKit.[1]

It's kind of messy, but frankly ingenious considering there's no alternatives.

One of BackerKit's founders is/was involved with Diaspora, which was a Kickstarter project. Having the Kickstarter project admin interface (with actual backers) handy to develop and test the bookmarklet against was probably quite a boon. I could be wrong, though.

tl;dr Kickstarter really needs an API.

[1] https://www.backerkit.com/faq

max from BackerKit here, thanks for the link. guilty as charged. messy but works!

And will they build my Arduino-powered E-ink Watch Card Game for me?

This is a nice niche to cater to. Now, what I would like to see is someone go to conventional businesses (banks, pizzerias, etc) and sell them on the idea of giving their customers "rewards" like these. There is a huge industry for this sort of thing, but everything seems to be centered about Pens, and mouse pads. Hell, I wish I could upload a t-shirt design to you, then through an API tell you to print them on demand and ship them off to my clients.

Wearing a kickstarter shirt: I'm a cool edgy visionary-investor. Wearing a local bank/pizzeria t-shirt: I'm out of laundry.

How many pens with logos do you currently have in? Look around the house.

There are some price points where it is less expensive to buy more quantity. For example, buying 23 1-color shirts would cost us$249.09. Buying 34 1-color shirts will cost us$247.52.

Thus, I prepared this data: http://pastebin.ca/raw/2379519 - also http://filebin.ca/htp59WvLcjl

you rock. toss me an email :)

nick@teelaunch.com

The fact that the site is so blatantly infringing on a trademark speaks volumes about the service in general.

How? Have you used the service?

Anyone else getting tired of this general trend with KS? If I've giving money because I want to see something magic happen. not to get ancillary crap. I've seen some where there's gotta be 30%+ of the budget going in to the "rewards".

For many Kickstarters whose main goal is not to deliver physical products and even for those that do, offering tangible rewards is still essential to getting backers. I don't see that changing.

Although I agree with you 100% on "hey, I have enough junk!"....

I think there's a great (ok, obvious) reason to ship t-shirts to early backers. It's essentially marketing, as you figure a good portion of those early backers are proud, & will wear it around publicly, & then your company gets talked about in new places.

Any thoughts on a better model?

(I am not asking idly. I am contemplating doing a kickstarter and I need to research how, etc.)

Interesting idea. Good luck. Seems like a nice element to add to a campaign and a lot of work off the backs of Kickstarter users.

Who makes the actual shirts? I only go with quality American Apparel base shirts for printing.

You sound like a Woot fan? ;)

The site states

  Prices in USD for 5.3 oz. Gildan #5000 100% cotton.

we print & ship from the same facility. we can provide AA shirts, here's our competitive price chart.

http://cdn.teelaun.ch/pricelist.pdf

Gildan shirts are the worst, I am growing really tired of T-Shirt companies using them just because they are clearly the cheapest stock they can get hold of.

industry standard to use gildan/jerseez/hanes. hanes is cheapest, followed by jerseez, followed by gildan. we offer other brands as well. some people don't need AA.

I had actually wondered if there was company that did this yesterday. Bookmarked.

Do they actually do fulfillment of real rewards, or only of schwag like tshirts?

If you give 'em your email they show you a price list for t-shirts, and say "Contact us for 3D prints, postcards, stickers, posters, hats, …". They're not a one-stop fulfillment shop.

email support@teelaunch.com

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