Update #2: The Experiment
Hello everyone!
Well, even with the Kickstarter server troubles today, we still managed to fill all 3000 slots! Doing so in less than 48 hours has definitely exceeded our expectations.
While this has been a great experiment, let’s be honest, we want to make the Cosmonaut, and we want you to have it! It would be a shame to sit here for 21 more days, begging the $1 backers to raise their pledges. When it comes down to it, we think making this project a reality is more important than our pricing model.
This has ended up being a fascinating case study in game theory. We are looking forward to analyzing the backer breakdown and seeing how the pledge amounts were distributed. As of this writing, the pledge average came to $14.85, just shy of the $16.67 we needed to reach the goal.
So, we have decided to add two more tiers, which are both unlimited. One for $25, which will get you a Cosmonaut, and another for $50, which will get you 2. You are of course more than welcome to switch to either of those tiers if you so choose, but there is no need to. All current backers will be getting Cosmonauts. The advantage you all gained by being one of the first backers is you could set your own price, and will still be able to do so up until the campaign ends.
We want to thank you all so much for being the first out of the gate to support our project. We are blown away that we came so close to meeting our funding goal. A pessimist would have said we would raise exactly $3000 - one dollar for every backer. But clearly, the vast majority of you have an inherent sense of fairness.
We had considered just letting this campaign ride, and crossing our fingers that the community would collectively raise their pledge amounts. Our concern though, is that the people that would be raising their pledges are the same people that had already pledged more than their share. And we don’t want that to happen.
So again, thank you all so much for your support. We are looking forward to making this thing a reality, and keeping you guys all in the loop along the way!
Tom & Dan
6,192
Backers
$134,236
pledged of $50,000 goal
0
seconds to go
Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on April 20, 2011.
Pledge $1 or more Pledge $1 or more
PAY WHAT YOU WISH. What is a comfortable, minimal, well-designed touch screen stylus worth to you? Every backer will receive a Cosmonaut, regardless of their contribution, so long as we reach the funding goal. The Cosmonaut will ultimately retail for $25. The cost of shipping should be included in your pledge, whatever you think is fair. We will ship worldwide.
Pledge $25 or more Pledge $25 or more
FIXED PRICE - ONE COSMONAUT. If you missed out on the "pay-what-you-wish" tier, you can pledge here to receive a Cosmonaut. Worldwide shipping is included.
Pledge $50 or more Pledge $50 or more
FIXED PRICE - TWO COSMONAUTS. If you missed out on the "pay-what-you-wish" tier, you can pledge here to receive two Cosmonauts. Worldwide shipping is included.
Project By
Connected as Dan Provost (360 friends)
Tom Gerhardt and Dan Provost are two designers who work under the moniker Studio Neat. We enjoy making simple things and making things simple.
Amazon sent an email that explained it was a premature payment. 2.5 weeks to go.
Well, on the other hand... I pledged $15 and here was my reasoning. If they had asked for $25 I would have paid it. I am looking forward to seeing the cosmonaut too, and am still ready to kick in extra money if they need it (doesn't now look like they do.) but since this was an experiment, i did my calculus like this: I would expect to pay $30 for a top notch stylus (and did, for my Just Mobile stylus), one that had been reviewed and endorsed my users. This one is merely an intriguing concept, so there was a discount on faith. Then I thought, at what amount, if I saw this on eBay would I pay for it to be a fantastic deal? And that price was $15...half of the $30 I paid for the JustMobile. Now even though the JustMobile is good, it is mostly metal and that's not so good around glass screens, especially when the stylus is heavy. So the Cosmonaut has a really good opportunity here to be a better product.
Is it fair? Dunno, maybe. It depends. If the Cosmonaut is a fantastic product then it was a steal. If it sucks, has durability issues, too light, too heavy, etc. then no, it was a loss. That's kickstart for ya.
Having done the experiment, if there is a call for more funding, I will be happy to pitch in some more dollars to make this happen. It's good karma.
Owning a Glif I know the build quality will be there for the cosmonaut. I already own a stylus which I don't use, so I ignored this when I first saw it. I recently found more apps where I'll use for it, so $25 seems reasonable. For this to actually show up in stores it'd have cost $10 and sell for $25, I don't think there is a market for a $40 stylus so this won't. I see this as a great opportunity to buy luxury item that otherwise wouldn't be made at all. Keep up the quality and I'll be blindly funding Studio Neat projects in the future. I'm sure/hope that the $1 backers didn't realize that you previously sourced the Gilf in the US and made an impeccable product. Thank you.