1
Trying to branch into data science.
http://www.tachycline.com
I recently launched a Kickstarter project: ( http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1402474606/the-ilex-edc-pen-and-capacitive-touch-stylus ) and have found that it is much more difficult to get people to the Kickstarter page than I had anticipated. The project is a combination pen (either fountain pen or ball point) and capacitave stylus, with a focus on quality and elegant design. The project came about in response to my frustration with the stylus market when I bought my iPad. None of the styluses I could find felt like high quality writing instruments.
There has been some recent discussion on HN about Kickstarter projects, and problems with them (particularly that some proposers have pretty unrealistic ideas about what it takes to get a product to market). I've tried to avoid falling into this trap by involving my brother, who designs and develops products for a living (he's a mechanical engineer working in the knife industry). Based on his experience, we have a pretty good idea of what it is going to take to get this into people's hands in quantity, and our pricing structure reflects that. It's somewhat higher than other pen or stylus projects on Kickstarter, but not out of line with the high-quality writing instrument market as a whole.
Response to the project from people who have seen it has been pretty positive, and conversion rates have been okay, so I don't think there are too many problems with the product itself or with the pricing. The main problem seems to be publicity. There are a host of manly-gear-related sites (uncrate, gear patrol, and the like) which would seem to be the obvious venues for this sort of thing, but they haven't responded to our emails. Does anyone have any suggestions?