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

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
Pre-launch: Create a community of excited people that are really
into what you’re doing. 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. 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...