BootstrapSolar

When (profitable) small businesses can’t raise money… kittens cry.

In 11 months, BootstrapSolar has developed a product, brought it to market, and has almost sold out of the first production run. It is profitable and only slightly in debt, which is a rare thing for a business less than a year old. We have an improved version of the kit that’s almost ready to go into production, and a 2nd product line is in the works.

Except, there’s one minor issue. The battery manufacturer has decided not to accept orders of less than 500 pieces, which increases the cost of this next production run by $4k. That’s an additional $4k that we don’t have.

So, what do I do? I do what small businesses ought to be able to do: get a loan. So I walk in to Wells Fargo (where my business account is) and ask about loans. I even show the banker the power pack, who seems genuinely impressed. He types into the terminal to get a loan application going, and the terminal responds: “Rejected. You haven’t been in business long enough.” They require a business to have been operating for 4 years to open a line of credit. Well, geez, how do you expect a business to stick around ‘til Year Four if you don’t help it in Year Two?

If a profitable business can’t borrow money to make more of a product that’s proven to sell, what does it take?

We need to fix unemployment, and small businesses like BootstrapSolar are part of the solution. I don’t make any money from BootstrapSolar, so 80% of the money that comes in goes back out to US-based manufacturers, vendors and services (the other 20% goes out of the country). Approximately $15 out of each kit goes to a local small business that’s helping with laser cutting and kitting, and of that, about $9 goes to the employees, Nick and Jon (the other $6 goes to taxes, expenses, and benefits). Nick and Jon use that money to pay rent, buy food, and maybe occasionally go out. If you want a trickle-down economy, small businesses are where the trickling down actually happens.

There is a systemic problem with how funds in our society get distributed and allocated. Facebook raised $15,000,000,000 in their IPO. There are small businesses that could use investments of $50,000. Heck, BootstrapSolar just needs $5,000 to keep going. Which is better for society: Fattening one Facebook, or supporting 300,000 small businesses (or keeping 3,000,000 BootstrapSolars afloat)? 

I name thee…

A bunch of people (mostly on Kickstarter) pointed out that I (well, my kit) needed a better name. I thought hard, I took long contemplative walks, I talked to fortune tellers and oracles, I sought guidance from the heavens…

And decided to call it: Chi-qoo (“chee-koo”)

Well, here’s the real story (although, if you don’t like the name, I still blame the oracles). The name is derived from the Japanese Chinese-derived pronunciation of the Kanji character for bamboo (“竹”): “chiku”

Wait. What? Okay, here’s a lesson in the history of the Japanese language. Long before Wal-Mart started importing cheap plastic things from China, Japan imported many nifty things from their neighbor. One of the many things that got imported was the Chinese writing system. The Japanese also developed two separate syllabaries (kind of like alphabets), but the Chinese characters are still used today, and are called “Kanji” (Kan=Han=China). To make things a bit more complicated, the Japanese assigned multiple pronunciations to most of the characters. There’s the “kun-yomi” pronunciation which is native to Japanese, and then there’s the “on-yomi” pronunciation which is derived from the original Chinese pronunciation. So, to get back to the name, “chiku” is the “on-yomi” pronunciation (the Chinese-derived pronunciation) of the Kanji character for bamboo (“竹”).

From “chiku” to “chi-qoo” took surprisingly long. I decided early on that hyphenating would help people figure out how to pronounce it. It also took a while to decide how the “ku” sound would be transcribed. The hard K sound can be “c”, “k” or “q”. The long “oo” can also be a slightly shorter “u”. So, the combinations were numerous (which is why I needed long contemplative walks). I sat on the name for a while, and at some point (actually, I think it was the corner of Waverly and  Lincoln) I decided that “Chi-qoo” was right. As luck would have it, the domain chi-qoo.com was available so that was that.

The Chi-qoo Solar Kit is available for pre-order on our shiny new web store.

It’s happening!

The Kickstarter campaign ended successfully last night, with over $30,000 (or 400% of hour target) raised! So, we’re working hard to get the designs finalized, and get them off for manufacturing. There are still some details to work out, but it’s gonna happen. It’ll take about 2-3 weeks for the funds to show up in the bank, so current estimated shipping date is early November.

If you were not able to get in on the Kickstarter to reserve your kit, don’t stress. We’ll be cranking out more, as fast as we can, and make them available on our web store (coming soon).

In the mean time, if you’d like to be notified when the kits become available again, you can sign up here. We’ll email you so you can get in on the next batch.

Here’s to the crazy ones…

A Palo Alto company once bootstrapped a hardware business by hand-soldering circuit boards and selling their first product as a kit that came with a wooden enclosure. 

No, we’re not talking about BootstrapSolar. We’re talking about Apple and the Apple I.

While the Apple 1 may not have been invented were it not for Steve Wozniak’s technical genius, Apple the company surely would not have been if Steve Jobs hadn’t pursued a vision that few others shared at the time. A world in which a computer sat in every home, accessible to even children, would have sounded insane to many of Jobs’ contemporaries. Yet, thanks in large part —directly or indirectly— to him, not only do many of us have computers in our homes, but we even have one in our pockets.

Steve Jobs’ contributions to society are immeasurable and immense. He was a singular genius, and of that I have no doubt. Yet, as idolized and worshipped as he is (and will be), he was no God. I believe the brilliance of the man is shared by all of mankind, if not in specifics, then at least in essence. We can all be a bit more like Steve Jobs, if we so choose. He even tells us how: 

Follow your heart. Don’t settle.

Most of us can’t invent the next Macintosh or turn around a failing computer company. But we all have hearts to follow. And we can all choose to strive for something better. Follow your heart. Don’t settle. If we keep that up long enough, I believe we can all achieve our own insane greatness, whatever that may be. And if each of us could achieve our own greatness, what a wonderful world that could be.

As I’ve been working on BootstrapSolar, that other bootstrapped company has never been far from my mind. My company will likely never be even remotely as successful as Apple. But the mere existence of that precedence was enough to give me the courage to try, despite the odds. So I think it’s accurate to say that Steve Jobs inspired me to follow my heart, and to not settle with the status quo; to believe that I could build a better product, a better company, a better business, and by extension, a better world.

For that, Steve, thank you… May you rest in peace.

Kickstarter Goal Reached!

3 days 15 hours and 5 minutes.

That’s how long it took us to reach the goal of $7500 on Kickstarter. I’m particularly surprised (pleasantly, of course) that the vast majority of pledges were at the levels for which the reward was the actual kit. That tells me that, not only do people think this is a good idea, but that they actually want one too!

Even though we’ve reached the goal, Kickstarter doesn’t let me end the project early, so it will continue to run (and accept pledges) through October 18th. That also means I won’t actually be getting the funds for another month. However, now that I know I’ll be getting the money eventually, I can start the manufacturing process. This should speed things up, and hopefully I’ll be able to send out the kits immediately once the money’s in the bank. (Those of you who pledged at the $500 level will be getting prototypes sooner.)

So, once again, thank you all for your support and enthusiasm! Of course, please do continue to spread the word about the project. While I would like to keep the production run relatively small, more units means lower unit-costs, which means more profit money for me to develop new kits with :-)

World Maker Faire NY Round-up

I finally managed to get a good night’s sleep last night. These past couple of weeks scrambling to get ready for Maker Faire were intense, but I’m glad I made it out here to New York. 

A lot of people were interested in the kit, and judging by the number of people who said “I want one!”, I probably could’ve sold a few if they were available. In fact, the Kickstarter campaign that I started early Sunday morning already has $2700 in pledges (out of a goal of $7500), and what’s more, 22 people have already “reserved” their kit by pledging the higher amounts. During the faire, I also gave out 290 business cards, 127 bamboo tags, and got several sheets of paper filled with email addresses from people interested in the project. I also helped a few people charge their phones, and they seemed surprised by how quickly the power pack can charge iPhones (at 1000mA, it’s as fast as using the iPhone’s wall charger).

I also got some interesting ideas talking to folks too. Quite a few people seemed interested in a similar kit that could power laptops (something I would want too). There were others who were interested in doing cool stuff with solar, but were somewhat discouraged by the cost. One thing I might be able to do is to hook up hackers and artists with cheap solar panels if I start importing solar panels in quantity to sell with the kits. Something someone said also got me thinking about an iPad-specific version of the power pack kit.

All in all, I think the faire was a huge success for BootstrapSolar. I’m looking forward to taking a bit of a breather, though I still need to finish the video and start the mailing lists. And fly back to the West Coast. Phew.