Mark Easley TI 42 Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 Has anyone used the Tindie crowdfunding/market platform before? www.tindie.com TI's LaunchPad team is working on ways to enable independent BoosterPack designers to build and scale their boards. We are taking a serious look at crowdfunding solutions to enable cash flow and capitalization. I'd like to hear about your Tindie experiences, or any other suggestions for effective crowdfunding (KickStarter, indiegogo, etc). UPDATE: clicking link above is creating a url bug with an extra slash but this link seems to work https://tindie.com/shopping/fundraisers/?sort=fundraiser or type tindie.com manually Quote Link to post Share on other sites
yyrkoon 250 Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 Mark, no hands on with any crowd funding market platforms, but have seen a few take off ridiculously well. One a side note however, it would be good if tindie.com was not down right now . . . apparently tindie ate the page heh. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mark Easley TI 42 Posted April 1, 2013 Author Share Posted April 1, 2013 slight url bug adding an extra '/' when you click the link for some reason. try typing tindie.com in your address bar. It looks like a normal store from the homepage but if you click 'live fundraisers' on the left side navigation, it displays their crowdfunding listings, very similar to what people are used to from other sites. https://tindie.com/shopping/fundraisers/?sort=fundraiser Quote Link to post Share on other sites
yyrkoon 250 Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 You want to know what I think is a good idea ? Asus some time ago ( few years ago ) opened up a "creative design" page in cooperation with a few of their "affiliate's" ( Anandtech being on of them ). Where the let every day users come up with ideas, and post them on their pages. Other users were then allowed to vote on these ideas . . . I am sure you can see where I am going. Anyhow point being, if TI wants to be successful, they should listen to their user base more. Take polls, come up with concept ideas, then ask for opinions, and/or potential improvements. Not that I think TI is unsuccessful but there is always room for improvement right ? Past that, what *is* TI without their "user base" right ? LariSan 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mark Easley TI 42 Posted April 1, 2013 Author Share Posted April 1, 2013 Great feedback. We just finished up our BYOB design contest recently, I think exactly the concept you are talking about. http://www.ti.com/ww/en/launchpad/byob_head_contest.html We have awesome stuff going on in 43oh everyday. New BoosterPacks and Energia libraries, etc. How do we get the incentive system in place to keep these new developments flourishing? Maybe crowdfunding is a way to facilitate that? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
roadrunner84 466 Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 @@cubeberg uses is to sell his IV-18 tube clock. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
spirilis 1,265 Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 My only tindie experience was when they first launched--the website didn't work right at all, over 90% of the items listed ended in some infinite-redirect error in my browser when I clicked on the link. Hardly looked at them since. I did see recently someone's selling that new Lightning Detector IC on a breakout board.... thought about getting that some day :-) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bluehash 1,581 Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 Yes, I have a few. Basically the same that is on the Store. 1. It's a good crowdsourcing platform for makers. 2. You really have to have a good design for your board to become popular. The good selling ones stay on top for some reason. You also need to constantly need to churn new design/fund raisers to stay up. The more you stay on top, the more you sell. This is my view though. 3. Tindie takes 5% of the sale price, and you pay Paypal fees. So make sure to add that up in your final price. 4. The fundraiser is really a good idea to get designs to fruition. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bluehash 1,581 Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 My only tindie experience was when they first launched--the website didn't work right at all, over 90% of the items listed ended in some infinite-redirect error in my browser when I clicked on the link. Hardly looked at them since. I did see recently someone's selling that new Lightning Detector IC on a breakout board.... thought about getting that some day They have improved a million times over. You should give them a try. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cubeberg 540 Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 They have improved a million times over. You should give them a try. I agree - the site is constantly improving. Their shipping system could still use some work - integration into shipping partners like USPS or UPS would be nice - but it's also significantly better than it was when I set up a store in early Feb. I've sent a few emails to Emile who runs the site - they're extremely responsive. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mark Easley TI 42 Posted April 1, 2013 Author Share Posted April 1, 2013 So after you have a fundraiser is it pretty seamless to just list your board for sale on Tindie? It seems like the only value add over selling it on your own site or 43oh store is the crowdfunding aspect of it. Are there any glaring restrictions? Can you re-fundraise the same board? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bluehash 1,581 Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 Fundraising is one thing, manufacturing is another pain. Anyone can start a fundraiser, you still need to deliver it. You can list about any board you make on tindie. It's just like a maker's ebay without the bidding. Not sure about re-fundraising the same board. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cubeberg 540 Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 Their ToS states that a fundraiser is automatically converted to a product at the end of the fundraiser. Looks like the system takes care of all of that for you - you would just add more stock after the auction if you're selling more units. Not sure about re-fundraising. You'd probably have to set up a new item - not the same item. You could probably contact Emile about that - I'd guess they'd probably let people. Especially if you have improvements for the second round. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
emile 3 Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 My only tindie experience was when they first launched--the website didn't work right at all, over 90% of the items listed ended in some infinite-redirect error in my browser when I clicked on the link. Hardly looked at them since. I did see recently someone's selling that new Lightning Detector IC on a breakout board.... thought about getting that some day Sorry to hear that - I'm not sure which day that was, but definitely sounds like an anomaly : / spirilis 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
emile 3 Posted April 1, 2013 Share Posted April 1, 2013 I agree - the site is constantly improving. Their shipping system could still use some work - integration into shipping partners like USPS or UPS would be nice - but it's also significantly better than it was when I set up a store in early Feb. I've sent a few emails to Emile who runs the site - they're extremely responsive. Yep shipping system definitely needs work. We're getting there. Just knocking off tickets one at a time...but its def on the list! cubeberg 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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