Dear Kickstarter backers,

We apologize for not updating sooner, but we have been waiting to get some more concrete details regarding our shipment from the manufacturer.

SHIPPING UPDATE:  First, we’d like to assure you that we’ve been putting as much pressure as possible on our manufacturer to finish up the Koala Mounts and get them sent out to us.  We can now confirm that all of the Koala Mounts have been fully manufactured and packaged and will be leaving the factory tomorrow.  Pending no further setbacks, they should then be on their way out to you, our backers, by mid June.  We understand many of you may be frustrated (as are we) at the additional delay, but we hope you’ll also understand that we are doing everything in our power to get these out to you as soon as possible. 

BLACK KOALA MOUNTS:  We know that several of you were hoping for the option to get your Koala Mount in black, so we are happy to let you know that we managed to get a very limited quantity of black Koala Mounts that will be coming in with this first shipment.  If you are interested in changing your pledge to a black Koala Mount, please let us know via email at info@dockem.com.

Thanks again for all of your patience, and we’ll keep you updated if anything changes regarding timing.  Of course, we’ll also be sure to post a reminder update before shipping all of the individual packages out to you.  If you have any questions at all, you know where to reach us!

All the best,

Chris & Colby

Dear Backers,

First off we wanted to say thank you all for your patience and for being very prompt on filling out your surveys.  At this point we’ve received just about everyone's survey. Again, if you know you are moving or happen to move in the next 4-6 weeks please let us know of your address change (a message through Kickstarter or an email to info@dockem.com is fine) and we will update that on our end. We’ll send another reminder when the ship date comes closer.

As far as the final shipping date, we regret to inform you that it looks like our shipping date will be postponed to late May or possibly even early June due to some necessary tweaking during the mold-making process. We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience and are working hard to get them as soon as we can.  Unfortunately there are always speed bumps and hiccups when dealing with manufacturing a new product.   As simple as the Koala Mount seems, and no matter how much planning is done, it never ceases to amaze us how so many little things can occur to delay things.  Of course, we want our product to be something you will love, so we want to make sure everything is as perfect as possible.  We appreciate your patience and we’re confident the wait will be worth it!

Needless to say, despite the delay, it looks like the final Koala Mounts will be top-notch quality.  We can assure you that we are just as anxious as you are to get the final product, and are doing everything we can to move things forward as quickly as possible.  Again, thanks so much for your patience and understanding!

All the best,

Chris and Colby

Our dear Kickstarter backers,

So far, we’ve received all but 20 of the 516 surveys we sent out to all of you, so thanks for being on top of things!  It’s been very interesting reading through the surveys and seeing what you all have to say.  We thought it would be cool to share some of the results with you as well, since we want this to be your project just as much as it is ours.

First, however, we’d like to cover a few administrative things:

• We take privacy seriously.  When we ask for your emails we promise they will only be used for administrative purposes (filling orders), our marketing survey, or our newsletter mailing list, and only for those things if you’ve given us permission to do so.  Under no circumstances will we share your email or information with a 3rd party.  As far as our newsletter mailing list goes, that will only be used for announcing things going on with us at Dockem, keeping you in the loop about what we’re up to after this Kickstarter project comes to a close.  For those of you who answered no on the survey, if you change your mind and would like to join our mailing list, you can do so here:  Join the Mailing List.  Of course, you will always be able to unsubscribe at any time.

• Many of you left us questions in the comments section of your surveys.  We’ll be responding to each of those over the next few weeks to make sure you’re taken care of.  Remember we're only two people, and we have a lot on our hands, so please bear with us.
  

• One of the common questions left on the survey was about adding to your pledge.   We’ve created an item in our shopping cart on our site specifically for this purpose, where you can add a bunch of fun things to your order such as replacement Command Strips, Water & Heat Resistant Command Strips, and even the Dockem (our first Kickstarter product – a similar concept useful for smartphones and thicker tablets).  Here is the link to update your pledge:  Kickstarter Pledge Update.

Now on to the fun stuff!

Manufacturing Update:

We’re on schedule to receive final samples during the first week of March.  Once those are approved, the full production run will take place and the final product will be shipped to us from the manufacturer.  Obviously, once we receive them we’ll get them turned around and out to all of you as soon as possible.  We’ll keep you updated as soon as we can establish some more concrete dates.  For now, here’s a picture from the earlier stages of building the Koala Mount injection mold:

Survey Results:

Country Breakdown:  65% of our backers are having their Koala Mounts shipped within the United States.  The other 35% are shipping to a whopping 30 different countries.  When we started this Kickstarter campaign, we never imagined that our simple little product would have such a vast reach!  Isn’t it incredible what the internet can do?  Here’s a breakdown of our international backers:

Device usage breakdown:  Not surprisingly, a large majority of you plan to use the Koala Mount with an iPad 2.  For the most part, the rest of you plan to use an iPad 1, although there are a few backers who will be using the Motorola Xoom, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, or some other device.  There were even a couple backers who said they plan to use their mount with an iPad 3! 

Koala Mount location usage breakdown:  A big thank you to all who took the time to fill out our open-ended survey questions.  It was really great being able to hear from you, in your own words, how you plan to use your Koala Mount (rather than give you a list to choose from, which we thought would be too constricting).  The following graph shows how many of you responded that you plan to use the Koala Mount in the listed location:

Our favorite comments:  Again we’d like to extend a special thanks to those of you who have taken the time to provide us with more personal feedback.  You all had wonderful things to say, and hearing from you truly helps to keep us going each day. Here’s just a few of our favorite comments that were left for us in the surveys:

“Pandas are better than Koalas.”

“Go Philly!”

“stay hungry, stay foolish ;-)”

“I currently use the Dockem in my truck, mounted on a modified police laptop table.  I may refine the design and use the Koala Mounts as part of the redesign…  This has been one of the most simple items I've found on Kickstarter, but it is amazing how versatile they are and useful they have become.”

“Planning on getting an iPad 3 in March when released, hope it will still fit.”

“Great product, can't wait to see more from you”

“Fantastic idea!  I'm just excited to get the product and you guys have been one of the easiest kick starters I've dealt with.  Kudos to you for the customer service and the great product.”

“Waiting for happiness”

“Love the Dockem so naturally had to get this and try it out.”

 “just keep up the work and DFTBA”

“You guys are awesome”

“Make lots of money, the govt loves taxes!”

“I love the Dockem and I'm looking forward to loving the Koala mount”

As always, thanks so much for your never-ending support and we’re looking forward to sharing more with you as we move on to the fulfillment phase of our project! 

Wishing you all the best,

Chris and Colby

Dear backers,

As our campaign period is coming to an end we would like to take a moment to clarify and explain the pledge amounts one last time.  To avoid any issues down the road, we ask that you please double check your pledge to make sure you have included the appropriate amounts for additional Koala Mounts, Metallic finish, and international shipping.

• Additional Koala Mounts: Add $10 per extra Koala Mount you wish to pre-order (in addition to those included with your pledge)
• International Shipping: If your mounts will be shipping to a destination outside the USA, add an additional $2 per mount.  For example; 3 Koala Mounts at Early Bird level should be a pledge of $36.
• Metallic finish: Add $5 for every Koala Mount you would like in the metallic finish (see update #4)
• Glow Stickers: 2 Glow Stickers will come with every mount.  Add $0.50 for each additional sticker desired.

How will we know what your pledge is for?  When funding ends, we'll send out a survey where you can specify what you intended to order.

Once again thanks so much for all of your support.  We're looking forward to sharing the whole manufacturing process with you so you can truly see this project through from beginning to end.   Once funding ends, any updates we post will be for backers only.  We hope you'll share our project with friends and family so they too can be a part of our adventure!

All the best,

Chris & Colby