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.
