Maker Paradise - Hear tips from the creators of crowdfunding projects daily.

Inspiration?You want navigation on your bike in the safest way possible, but traditional GPS systems can get stolen, and are not designed to be easy to read at night or in traffic. In comparison SmartHalo becomes part of your bike. It is so strong that it doubles as a bike lock. With SmartHalo, your bike knows when you are going on a ride, so it tracks your fitness without you having to open your phone! What’s unique about SmartHalo?Navigation is much easier than with any other device because of the circle of light. The SmartHalo circle helps you know if the turn coming up is a sharp turn or a gentle turn. This is ideal for biking, because you know how to adjust your speed for the upcoming turn. Who are the makers behind SmartHalo?The team includes a combination of Mechanical Design, Industrial Design, App Developers, and User Experience experts. The reason we have this team is because we want the bike rider to enjoy their ride, increase their safety, and do all of that without having to touch the devic

Inspiration?People spend thousands of dollars to make their space beautiful, but what if you want to add a computer to your living room or studio? Until now, you have been forced to settle for something made of plastic or that doesn’t look organic, doesn’t look like it belongs in a beautiful design setting. Wood Kubb is a powerful computer that comes in a beautiful organic wood finish, and in the future possibly a brushed metal finish, that complements any designer space. Let’s face it, in most cities space is limited. Take New York City, San Francisco, Paris, or any other major city. We have only so much space on our desk or our entertainment center. What is unique about the Wood Kubb?First, Kubb is ideal for people who do not want to sacrifice design aesthetics for computer performance. Think architects office, or the front desk area of a dentist, or any design firm. Secondly, there are millions of people who live in cities where every inch of space counts. There are a lot of minimalists w

Sneak Peak* Vahid and his brother have put together one of the coolest videos we have seen on Kickstarter (you can watch it below).* Specific and helpful advice on how to engage with journalists, the timing, and what worked best. Inspiration?Until now you had to choose between wired headphones, or taking your headphones off to charge them. PUGZ lets you charge your headphones while you are using them by clipping on and off something called a Squircle (gold plated to make charging efficient). The Squircle is a gold plated connector with a powerful magnet, that lets you charge your headphones directly from your phones battery. Importantly it uses very little power to charge. Vahid told me that it’s only about 3% of your phones charge to get about 4.5 hours of headphone usage. What’s unique about PUGZ?PUGZ gives you freedom when you listen to music. They are light weight, designed to give good sound, and allow you to continue listening while they charge. Charging your headphones from your phone was n

Inspiration for MonoShot?Zack wanted to film his golf swing, and realized that there was no simple way to setup your camera to do this. So he created MonoShot, and found that it is useful for lots of situations that normal tripods won’t handle. Imagine being on the beach and wanting to take time lapse photos of the sunset, or catch your friends jumping in the air. Since MonoShot comes with a spike, you can put it directly into the sand, dirt, or the golf course. What’s unique about this product?MonoShot allows you to take positioned photos and videos in places you normally would miss the shot. These include the golf course, the beach, yoga studio, soccer field, and so on. The height is also a unique factor. MonoShot extends up to 5’11” which allows you to shoot at eye level with a lot of stability, and also with the remote control. MonoShot is also light weight and adaptable. It has both a spike attachment, a tripod base option, and a selfie stick option. The bluetooth remote is really

Inspiration?Ever had your phone fall off the mount on your car dashboard? Joel hated this experience. It’s not good for the phone, and actually it’s not safe either. When you are driving, your phone should be stable and secure so you can use it in a hands-free way without worrying. That’s why Joel designed MagMount. What’s unique about this product?MagMount is designed to work with MagCase, which Joel introduced a while back. Because the case has metal strips on the back, the combination of MagCase and MagMount is secure. MagMount is also designed to be installed wherever you need it. Joel mentions people using it on boats, kitchens, garages, and even in security monitoring centers. Most cases stop working after a while because the mechanical joints wear out. But with MagMount you are going to get a much longer lifetime of usage on top of security and stability. If you are going to buy a mount for your phone, you might as well get one that is going to be able  to take the bum

The Inspiration:Imagine a water filtration system that increases your survival skill level. Before Oasis, other water filters were limited to single use case filtration - which actually can reduce your survival skill level. Before Oasis, people might used a water filter in situations it wasn’t designed for. Oasis is the first adaptable modular filter so that it can handle different situations. To be safe, you need a system that can adapt to different scenarios. Oasis means you can be prepared for whatever situation arises. It’s a bit like upgrading your tires to rain tires, yes they offer better grip than before but then you would be mistaken to drive with rain tires into a snowstorm. What’s unique about Oasis?Oasis is adaptable. To make it work, Oasis team had to invent a genderless connection that would allow the filters to be exchangeable. Oasis also does something unique by combining water filtration with the option for water enhancement. Enhancement means you can add minerals, vitamins,

The inspiration?Most 3D printers are large, expensive, and are not multi-function. Davide Marin and I talked about how these issues limit makers around the world. Davide and his team really know 3D printers as they have already brought several successful models to market.  That is why Lumi Pocket LT is so special. It fills in the gap for people who want to have access to 3D printing at a lower price point, but also gives them higher reliability and multi-function ability. What makes this product unique?LumiPocket LT isn’t tied to a computer. It is a stand alone and compact unit, where you just insert your SD card and then leave it to do the printing. It comes with it’s own software which makes this an easy process. LumiPocket uses SCARA robotic arm design. Which means that the arms can make very precise and subtle movements, and take up a lot less space. This is usually only available in much more expensive models. This 3D printer also is multi-function. Lumi Pocket can be used for 3D printin

Sneak Peak:* Solving a hidden problem of safety and communication.* Learn how to initiate a collaboration with designers.* Going deeper into the problem to increase your chance of creating something unique. What problem does it solve?Traditional headphones cut us off from our surrounding, which is not ideal if you want to stay aware of what is going on in your environment while you listen to music. In talking with Key, I was surprised how many specific use cases came to mind. A mother wants to enjoy music but she wants to stay aware of what is going on with her children.A college student is working out at the gym, but wants to hear the tips from the trainer.A graphic designer loves to listen to Mozart while they work, but they need to know when their team is getting stuck. For privacy reasons, sometimes when you are in the car you don't want to broadcast the call on the speaker. Traditional headphones are not safe and in many cases illegal. Batband provides privacy while letting you hear your surroundings. Wh

What’s the inspiration behind Mayday?Drones are remote control flying devices, that people use for capturing video from the air. It is an area that is experiencing huge growth. Many movie studios are now using drones to help shoot films. Farmers use drones to track animals and check on crops. Hobbyists use drones for capturing film footage of extreme sporting events and weddings.Drones provide a lot of advantages, but have one big problem.... Drones sometimes crash. Mayday is designed to create a soft landing (even when the power is out). No matter how good a drone pilot you are, you always have a risk of the drone crashing. Really this is about safety. We want to make sure that no one is injured when drones fail. That's Mayday's #1 goal. What is Mayday?Mayday is a ‘smart’ parachute system. It uses an onboard computer to monitor and detect crashes and automatically deploy the parachute before the drone is damaged. Mayday doesn't depend on manual deployment. Manual deployment c

Fox tender is one of the few crowdfunding campaigns we have seen targeted to small business owners (bars, restaurants, gyms, and yoga studios). So it has not been an easy process for them to get backers on Kickstarter. It is really a small business investment, with strong profit potential. So it’s worth learning from this maker. Also we have seen many people come back on their 2nd campaign and turn it into a huge success. Danilo also goes into detail about how they engineered and sourced this product. Really helpful interview. What problem does this product address?Ever been in a bar and had to wait for a drink? Ever gave up waiting and just went back to dancing? That’s lost revenue for the bar! If you own a bar or restaurant, Foxtender is a simple way to increase your revenues and keep your costs low because you don’t have to increase staff. What are the target markets for this product?The first target market would be bars and restaurants because drinks are extremely high margin, and Foxten

What problem inspired this crowd funding campaign?People want to participate in solar energy. They want to shift their communities away from green house gas producing energy sources to solar. Until now it’s been expensive and hard for them to do that. Sunport changes that. How does Sunport work?When someone purchases Sunport, they are allocated a number of energy credits. This in turn, increases the demand from the energy company to produce more solar power. In a sense, you could say that Sunport is like time sharing solar panels at the energy utility. The more people who buy Sunport, the more the energy companies will need to invest in solar power. How is Sunport innovative?In the past, people had to spend a lot of money and deal with somewhat complex systems to install solar directly into their house. By using Sunport and energy credits, we can shift the utility towards solar without having to install a lot of equipment at our location. Each Sunport comes with a

What’s the inspiration behind this crowdfunding campaign?Talking to Ian, it becomes clear that the planet’s future is linked to the world’s oceans. To understand the oceans, we need to look at the health of animals in the water. Whales are one of the biggest mammals and studying their health is critical for us to stay on top of what is going on with the world’s oceans. Why do we need SnotBot?The problem is that getting close enough to a Whale to get the data is not easy. Most of the older methods resulted in some trauma for the whales, and that also can effect the data. If you stress a whale out while collecting data, that can effect their hormones, their health and that also effects the data. The old methods were also just too expensive. What’s snotbot?It’s a drone that is equipped with the right equipment to collect whale exhalations. But to keep it simple, we call it snotbot. It will change how we collect data about whales. It’s a lot less expensive than older meth

What inspired you to create this product?People are much more likely to take a Breathalyzer with them if it is small, lightweight, and if you don’t have to worry about blowing on it directly. What is unique about DrinkMate?We are the world’s first breathalyzer that doesn’t require an internal battery. We use the battery of the phone to power the DrinkMate, which means it’s very small and light weight. Another key innovation is that DrinkMate needs less internal technology because we let the Phone do the processing, that again helps to make it smaller and lighter than any other breathalyzer. DrinkMate also lets you request a drive home. Since it connects to your phone, that just makes sense. What were some of the challenges you had to overcome?We wanted to make a breathalyzer that doesn’t require you to blow directly on it, or carry around extra tubes to connect to it. When you are out at a bar, it makes sense that other people might want to test their Blood Alcohol Levels (BAC).

In the audio interview* How did they solve he design challenges* Engaging the right target market* Working with passionate athletes to improve performance What’s the inspiration for this campaign?There are a large number of people who take part in triathlons each year. Many of them are doing it for fitness and their own personal goals and there are also quite a few professional athletes. For the running and biking parts of the triathlon there are things to help you shave your time and improve your performance. OnCourse goggles brings this advantage to the water portion. The second group of folks who can benefit are people who want to enjoy swimming in open waters, and increase their ability to navigate. This brings an element of safety to being in open waters because OnCourse goggles helps to keep you going in the same direction. How does it work?Just line up in the direction you need and press the button. After that, the lights inside your goggles will tell you if you start to go off course. Peter expl

Whats the inspiration for this product? These days are bombarded with messages from thousands of sources including work, friends, and so on. Once we finish our work day and reach home, we want to relax. OrbMi filters who can leave you a message during these times, and glows gently to let you know when you have new messages. The second inspiration is that there are many families with grandparents or young children. If your 2 year old is at home and sees the OrbMi glowing it could mean that they have a special message from mom or dad. OrbMi is a lot more accessible to young kids than a regular phone, and it’s nice to see associate it’s gently glowing with a special message for them! On the other hand if we have parents who are getting older, OrbMi is a nice way for them to get messages from their grandkids or children by just seeing the glowing light and pressing the top. It just is a nice way to engage them and make them feel cared for. How is this product unique?So there are at least three scenari

What problem does it solve?I spoke with Christian who explained that he had worked for several years helping companies develop tracking technology. He realized that in addition to himself there were quite a lot of people building tracking technologies. Many people do not know how pervasive tracking technology really is. As I learn more about it I realized I had to help people to protect themselves. Who is it useful for?There are a lot of folks who are worried about their privacy, but they don’t want to set up the technical details. This could include your parents who you want to protect. Or it could just be yourself. The critical point here is that it doesn’t take very much time to install. Because it’s easy to use, Christian believes that it will be accessible to many more people and result in much better privacy protection overall. What are the main benefits?One of the critical points of this product is that it is open hardware and open software. This means that other pe

What problem does GNARBOX solve?Tim Feess, one of the makers behind GNARBOX, and I talked about being outdoors snowboarding with friends. You have your camera and you are capturing incredible footage. It’s a perfect moment. But then you run out of space. Now you have to wait until you get back to your lodge to transfer to your laptop. It means you end up missing out on some of the best moments. You have had that happen, right? Folks who love being outdoors, don’t want to be tied to their laptop. Instead, you can now leave the laptop behind. Just take a rugged box which lets you transfer from the SD card, review, edit and share it. Another big problem is that, we end up saving a lot of files to edit them “later.” People want to review and edit their video on the scene, when the footage is fresh in their mind. A critical feature of GNARBOX is that you can edit the video right from your smartphone. GNARBOX also helps by automatically organizing your footage for you by date and locatio

It is estimated over 19 million people compete in public and private leagues online nationally. (Source: Wikipedia). What problem does this product solve?It takes a lot of time and effort to keep track of all the changes such as players physical condition, injuries, and even the mental condition. Edge Up Sports provides a service to keep you updated on the most relevant information via a mobile app (or their website). Who is the target market for this product?People who want to increase their enjoyment (and competitive advantage) in Fantasy Football. I spoke with Ilya Tabakh, who is the CEO of Edge Up Sports. If you are busy, or you want a competitive advantage, Edge Up Sport’s will make Fantasy Football fun again. Who are the makers behind this product?Ilya is a computer science geek who also loves Fantasy Football. He’s put together a team of folks who really understand football dynamics, how to analyze complex information, and how to make it simple and easy to understand. Of course, that in

The product has already got 700+ backers and raised $32,000+. The interview is packed full of interesting marketing advice and specific tips. What problem does this product solve?A portable and convenient way to get a caffeinated energy boost in the form of a vapor stick. Imagine you are snowboarding on the mountain. It’s been a long day of beautiful runs, and as you jump off the lift before your final descent you know you could use an energy boost right about now. That’s where you can pull out Eagle Energy, and take a few puffs. Some ingredients of the vapor include: Guarana + Ginseng + Taurine. Who is the target market for this product?People who need a convenient quick energy boost anywhere, anytime. Specifically, Matt mentions that people who are into outdoor sports like snowboarders, performance sailing, or even hiking on a trail could use Eagle Energy instead of waiting for their cup of coffee at Starbucks. Base jumpers. People who jump off cliffs, need to be very focused before they execu

What is the main problem this product solves?You might have heard of Echo from Amazon. It is a device that sits on your table and you can ask it questions or give it simple tasks. You might ask it, “What is the weather like today?” Or “Play classical music.” These kinds of devices can make getting information, setting appointments, playing music, and even turning on your coffee maker much more convenient. Ryan explained to me that, "these existing devices make you dependent on the company. Your data flows through the company’s servers. You don’t have control over the device." The MyCroft solves that problem because you own it, and you have control over the hardware and software. What is the target market for this device? You might say that we are in the early phases of adoption for this kind device. I like to think of it as a kind of assistant. Instead of opening your phone to ask for the time, weather, or make an appointment - you just say the name of the