CNBC has agreed to call "Jack" wired $70,000 to a factory in Shenzhen, China, praying that the money wasn't going to disappear.
Weeks later, 15,000 plastic toy cubes with joysticks and clickers on their sides, designed to help people who fidgeted too often, arrived. A whole team exhaled, excited about the possibility of making $345,000 in just two months.
The Stress Cube staff knew they were taking risks as they tried to capitalize on the success of various products on crowdfunding sites. They also knew the rewards could be enormous.
For Jack, this all started with an inflatable chair.
After graduating from college in Canada, Jack found himself bored of working on behalf of yet another social app hoping to one day garner a billion-dollar valuation.
"I started realizing I wanted to run a company that actually sold something," he recalls.
Around the same time he noticed a start-up that appeared poised to do that faster than anyone. It was an Indiegogo campaign for KAISR, an inflatable lounge chair made of parachute material that had surpassed its goal by raising $18,500 in 12 hours last March (and eventually over $4 million).
Weeks later, 15,000 plastic toy cubes with joysticks and clickers on their sides, designed to help people who fidgeted too often, arrived. A whole team exhaled, excited about the possibility of making $345,000 in just two months.
The Stress Cube staff knew they were taking risks as they tried to capitalize on the success of various products on crowdfunding sites. They also knew the rewards could be enormous.
After graduating from college in Canada, Jack found himself bored of working on behalf of yet another social app hoping to one day garner a billion-dollar valuation.
Around the same time he noticed a start-up that appeared poised to do that faster than anyone. It was an Indiegogo campaign for KAISR, an inflatable lounge chair made of parachute material that had surpassed its goal by raising $18,500 in 12 hours last March (and eventually over $4 million).
As the Indiegogo gained in popularity,
Jack's research led him to realize that the idea was far from unique. In
fact, the Lamzac inflatable lounge chair had already gone viral, five
years after the idea was presented by its Dutch inventor on Holland's TV
show "Best Idea of Holland."
The only thing that was new about this chair was the buzz from the crowdfunding campaign.
Jack wondered if he might be able to produce his own successful knockoff. A cursory search on Alibaba revealed manufacturers based in China that were offering product samples, and after minor sampling fees and a little back and forth with the winning factory, Jack had his product: The Cozy Bag.
The only thing that was new about this chair was the buzz from the crowdfunding campaign.
Jack wondered if he might be able to produce his own successful knockoff. A cursory search on Alibaba revealed manufacturers based in China that were offering product samples, and after minor sampling fees and a little back and forth with the winning factory, Jack had his product: The Cozy Bag.
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