Tariffs
almost 6 years ago
– Wed, Aug 08, 2018 at 02:42:33 PM
Hello, Backers.
Our surveys are out. Thank you to all who have responded! However, 34 of you have yet to reply. Tsk-tsk. When you get a chance, take a minute to fill out the BackerKit survey in your email inbox. (Check your junk mail filter if you don't see it there.) Once we get all of them back, we can lock orders and close in on purchasing supplies. This is exciting.
On the subject of supplies, we should mention tariffs. The U.S. Government has decided to impose tariffs on certain goods manufactured in China. Many of the components inside Rainsaber--the LED strips and electronic components like resistors, microprocessors, and memory chips--are made there. We don't know the full impact of these tariffs yet, but it could increase the cost of parts by as much as 25%. We'll let you know if that changes anything related to our campaign. For more information about for effects on the U.S. electronics industry, read more on this interesting blog from Macrofab here.
Keep smiling out there!
Ben
Reward Survey
almost 6 years ago
– Fri, Jul 27, 2018 at 02:33:25 PM
Hi everyone, we’re sorry to report we hit a snag with our survey today. Fortunately, the good folks at BackerKit caught our mistake before we sent it out. We will get that to you as soon as their offices open Monday. Here’s to a great weekend anyway!
Ben
Meet Rainsaber One
almost 6 years ago
– Thu, Jul 26, 2018 at 02:15:26 PM
What a time to be alive!
The last month I've been hard at work designing a new Rainsaber handle, and I'm pleased to share the results with you. Behold!
This design has been optimized in three key areas:
1) Ergonomics: Rainsaber One was designed for better comfort, easier activation button access, and one-hand operation. It's easier to carry and easier to wield in the fight against the weather.
2) Battery Life: The design also allows for better organization of internal electronic components, which means we can upgrade from a 3200mAh 18650 li-po battery to a 5200mAh 26650. We haven't bench-tested this larger battery yet, but we expect it to improve LED run-time from 35-40 minutes to up to 50 minutes or more.
3) Manufacturing: The design also cuts down on the number of parts. From a practical standpoint, it means quicker build time, reduced costs, and fewer possible malfunctions. More importantly, it cuts the molds required for mass production in half.
4) Future Proofing: We have some plans in the works to upgrade the soundboard and other components, but to do that we need more room on the inside. This design gives us the ability to stuff the hilt with as many cool features as we can think up.
We still have some tweaks to make to the profile to balance the details, but overall we are quite pleased with the way it came out. More photos are coming soon!
REWARD SURVEYS
Tomorrow you will receive a rewards survey from BackerKit that will be ask you to pick your handle design of choice. If you're not itching for any one in particular, we encourage you to select Rainsaber One. Our original lineup delivers on all our campaign promises, but Rainsaber One takes our vision to the next level.
Stand by for more updates!
Ben
Sign of Life
almost 6 years ago
– Thu, Jul 19, 2018 at 02:47:43 PM
Hello, backers! It's a beautiful day here in NYC. Our Brand Ambassador mostly slept through the night, the weather is breezy and cool, and we've finally found the time to catch up with our Kickstarter friends.
The last four weeks have been fruitful, but not too exciting. For the most part, we've been busy filing paperwork, signing agreements, and refining our prototype designs. The good news is that we are still tracking for our delivery date in December. And so far, I'm happy to say, there isn't any bad news!
Read on if you're interested in the play-by-play:
1) Backer funds have been transferred to our LLC's bank account. After Kickstarter's fees, we received approximately $25,000. About $3,500 must be reserved for shipping, but the rest we will use to make your rewards.
2) We have begun the application process for a trademark in China. This will help us to protect our IP from future competitors when the world sees just how amazing these umbrellas are.
3) We have signed agreements with several partners to help us finalize manufacturing designs, source suppliers, hone our prototypes, and plan for production runs. These partners are real pros, and we are excited to take advantage of their expertise.
4) Our Indiegogo InDemand campaign continues to raise money, which we are reinvesting in tooling. With a bit of marketing and campaign improvements, we think it can take off.
5) We have developed an in-house hilt design optimized for ergonomic comfort, battery capacity, and mass production. (More on this in a following update.)
6) We have brought on BackerKit to help us manage fulfilling our rewards for both Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns. These folks run excellent software to organize surveys, shipping information, and communication with backers.
7) We put our reward survey on hold for the last several weeks while we updated our hilt options, but you will receive this survey by July 27th. Be on the lookout for an email from BackerKit in your inboxes soon.
We've got some other developments to share in regards to soundboard development, the impact of U.S. tariffs, and our general business strategy moving forward, so stay tuned. We promise not to make you wait this long for an update again.
As always, we are incredibly grateful you put your trust in us. Thank you for supporting Rainsaber.
Ben
Trademark!
almost 6 years ago
– Tue, Jun 12, 2018 at 12:28:44 AM
One week since our campaign succeeded, and we're already well on our way. We have several neat updates:
1) Rainsaber is officially trademarked! That's right, we received our U.S.P.T.O certification notice on Friday. Any minute now we expect a deluge of competitors...but we'll be ready.
2) We are now live on Indiegogo. Rather than sell more pre-orders directly through our website, we moved our store to Indiegogo. We think the small commission is worth the exposure to another crowd-funding community. If you know someone with interest in Rainsaber, send them here.
3) Surveys are coming. Look out for backer surveys in your inbox this week. This is your chance to tell us which rewards you would like, your handle design of choice, tee-shirt, etc., as well indicate your canopy logo preference. This will inform our numbers for parts procurement, so changes later down the line might be hard to accommodate. Choose wisely!
4) Manufacturing updates. As a result of our successful campaign, we've been flooded with requests from manufacturing companies all over the world to help bring our product to market. We'll be making decisions soon about what's best for getting you your Rainsabers on time, but if you have any advice or experience in this department, we'd love to hear from you.
There's a lot we're learning--marketing, manufacturing, city regulations, web development, and more--but we are thrilled to be lucky enough to have this experience. Thank you for your support!
Ben
