Campaign Update #39 9/19
over 6 years ago
– Wed, Sep 20, 2017 at 01:52:36 AM
Hi Backers,
Peter here. I apologize and would like to take responsibility for the gaps in communication and any feelings of disappointment with the campaign.
For lack of consistent updates, here’s a full and honest one that we hope will answer many of your questions and shed some light on what’s been going on behind the scenes.
I’ll likely overshare but that’s kind of why we chose Kickstarter.
You’re not just customers, you’re a community who is helping us grow while we try to do something fun and different. We are the furthest thing from perfect but hope that by the end of the campaign it will all feel worth it as you see the products you helped create.
For those who just want straight answers, the following seem to be the most pressing items.
1. You took my money and I'm unhappy with the campaign. We understand that you are paying for an experience as well as products.
If for ANY reason you are not happy with the experience please just send us an email to [email protected] and we will be happy to issue you a refund immediately. We need to stress to all of you that you WILL be receiving the products that you paid for, no matter what.
The threats and bullying on our social media feel entirely unnecessary- of the small handful of backers who have asked for a refund, not a single one has received any pushback from us.
Please just ask.
2. Shipping delay.
Based on our past experience developing products, we set an "estimated delivery" for September. One of the reasons we chose Kickstarter is because it is a community that understands that there is a process to product development and sometimes it doesn't go perfectly smoothly.
We started all these products from scratch with you, at the concept phase, and this is our first time working with a license so there were new steps and things to learn. Hiccups have ranged from trying to find the right fulfillment agents to some of the packaging samples we received not being up to our standards.
We were clear from the beginning and in previous updates that things might get delayed as the process played out. We realize that September will be over within a few short weeks which means we will unfortunately not be on target with our hopeful September estimation.
Backers still want to vote on characters and have a little more interaction with Lisa and so we are trying to squeeze all of it in. We have several updates lined up for you and you will be some of the very first eyes to see it.
You can't make all of the people happy all of the time but we are trying our hardest to get you all of the little interactive perks that we can as well as a few truly exclusive items while making the best possible products.
3. Lack of consistent communication.
Guilty. As this campaign went bigger than we ever expected Jess and I both have been living in a fishbowl trying to keep things on track while still growing the business, hiring the right people, servicing our retail accounts and making sure that our delays are not excessive. You all have heard from us more than our family and friends this year- we appreciate everyone who has supported us and come to our defense.
Everyone has been working around the clock, literally, and I can only ask for your understanding. Over the past six months, there have been 39 updates averaging over one per week and when we have been quiet on certain topics, it is only because we've been solving problems or waiting on information and updates ourselves.
4. Other people are receiving products before us.
The only products from this collection that are in the market are the Lisa Frank Blush Brush and Lisa Frank Blending Brush. Those were developed six months before the Kickstarter (along with the eyeshadow and travel bronzer) for a specific customer and were offered during this campaign as an additional perk or add-on so that you can truly have everything in the collection. Beyond that, we can assure you that anything being developed through Kickstarter will be in your hands first.
5. Lisa Frank is absent or has left us hanging.
No she isn't and no she hasn't. Lisa and I just returned from a week-long sourcing trip while Jess held down the office to try and speed up the process and come up with a few more fun ideas before this campaign is over.
I can assure you that Lisa is dealing with a huge workload herself creating some really cool stuff with her other trade partners in addition to this collection. We can't tell you everything that's coming out but we can tell you it's going to be awesome and exciting. All of us share the mentality that it is better to take a little extra time to put out really great products than to put out mediocre ones quickly.
6. You raised way more than your initial goal of $30k, shouldn't that make everything easier?
Surprisingly no! There's something true about the old adage of "mo' money mo' problems." Certain items that require hand-painting- one example- became more complicated as the order size increased and fulfilling a few thousand orders rather than a few hundred has presented its own unique set of shipping challenges that we've had to figure out over the past few months.
For your contributions and early support, you'll be getting most of the items below retail price and in some instances, we are breaking-even or losing money (the pallets for example will be sold for $18.99 by one retailer) but are ok with that as we keep an eye on the positive long-term impact on our business.
----------------------------------------- What does this mean practically for YOU?
-All of the products have been finalized and physical production samples have been approved
-Starting Thursday you will begin getting individual product updates that include sneak peeks of artwork and what stage of development or production they're in
-We've finalized but left three products "blank" so that you will be able to vote on characters before Lisa creates the final design
-Because we know how excited everyone is to get their hands on everything, WE WILL BE SHIPPING OUT the Travel Eyeshadow and Travel Bronzer early on October 1st, for anyone who has backed a tier that includes them or added them to their pledge afterward in Backerkit (please note those two products were in development prior to the Kickstarter.)
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This campaign has been one of those life-changing experiences for us and we are trying our best to treat all the attention we've gotten responsibly and with care.
In addition to the press, we were reached out to by a few major retailers all of whom require time and energy to onboard with. There have been many sleepless nights and it has been a journey as we try to build our team and turn this opportunity into a solid foundation.
We want to give a special shoutout to Abigail, Victoria, Saranda, Renee, Norky, Christina and Matt along with our spring and summer interns. They have all been amazing and gone above and beyond.
Jessica and I are both people too, bear with us, the workload has been incredible. Jess is getting married in November and has barely had time to plan her wedding while I have missed out on some of my friends' and families' major life events. We like to think that if you were able to see our day-to-day those of you who feel the need to be critical would be a little less so.
To reiterate the most important point though, for those of you unhappy with this campaign please email [email protected] for a quick and full refund.
For everyone else, we can't wait to have fun with the rest of the campaign =)
It's surreal and exciting to see things you've dreamed of and created out in the open market and we hope that you will feel some of that as well in the very near future.
If any of you will be attending the Generation Beauty trade show in NY this weekend, please stop by our booth we'd love to meet you!
Speak soon,
Peter and Jessica
