Two weeks ago we showed a first demonstration video of the offline password keeper (aka Mooltipass) the Hackaday community had been working on for the last 6 months. We received lots of interesting feedback from our dear readers and around a thousand of them let us know they were interested in purchasing the device. We agreed that preferential pricing should be offered to them, as they have been supporting this community driven project for so long.
For the next few days I will be touring Shenzhen and finally meeting the persons who have been assembling my electronics projects for the last 2 years, including the Mooltipass beta testers’ batch. I’ll also meet with Ian from Dangerous Prototypes, talk with the people behind the Haxlr8r program, visit Seeedstudio offices and a CNC shop. If everything goes well with the camera I just purchased in Hong Kong I should have nice things to show you. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to leave a comment below in case you’re in the area…
On a mobile phone now… Will correct the honk asap!
Having never been to that part of the world, I thought “Honk Kong” must’ve been a reference to a perpetual traffic congestion problem, a la the cities in India I’ve visited.
Nevermind then ;)
Yep, that’s totally what it was.
…and of the 1,000 interested about 3 will actually stump up the cash. Chickens, hatching, etc.
We’d be fools to expect a 100% conversion rate…
Or even 10%
Why so negative? :(
It’s called being realistic.
Even 10% is optimistic, the conversion rate from “OMG that’s awesome can I buy one?!!?!?!” is very low.
People learn this over & over again, here: http://woodgears.ca/jenga_pistol/selling.html is a recent example. ‘Hundreds’ of “I want!!!”, eventually sold ~20. That’s under a 10% conversion rate.
Oh, don’t forget to compare those numbers to the number of YouTube views.
From your article:
“Most of the people that were excited about the Jenga pistol were kids, with no credit cards or money.”
“the maturity and sophistication of the comments had gone way way down. So much so that during the peak of traffic, I disabled the ability to post comments. A YouTube audience is, well, not quite of the same caliber as a regular web audience, I imagine.”
If I’m not mistaken, our market target isn’t the same as a Jenga pistol’s ;)
It doesn’t matter if your target market is kids, nerds or muggles, the result is the same. (Never mind you are both making assumptions about who your audience is.)
Enthusiasm doesn’t convert to cash.
How many people offered to help with the project? How many actually did? How many are still around?
‘Offered’ / ‘Still around’ is your conversion rate for helping. Fewer than that are going to buy one.
I picked the Jenja gun because it’s there, there are plenty of other studies if you want to give money to marketing research companies. Generic numbers for rates via search keywords here: http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article_print.html?id=32658, but success is defined as anything from buying to signing up for spam. Even then it’s only ~15%, which many consider high.
“It doesn’t matter if your target market is kids, nerds or muggles, the result is the same.”
>> Well if the kids don’t have a credit card as previously mentioned, it may not be…
“How many people offered to help with the project? How many actually did? How many are still around?”
>> I’m quite sure offering to spend most of your spare time for several months is different than taking a few minutes to buy something for $80.
We’ll therefore soon see our conversion rate anyways :)
Buying or helping, the principle is the same. A large number of people drop out for various reasons.
And for Mooltipass, a large number of “I’ll help!!!” people DID drop out.
When you release, a lot of the 1,000 will go “erm yeah I’ll just keep using my phone app”. I just use 12345 for all my passwords, so it’s not like I’ll be buying.
Buying or helping, the principle is the same. A large number of people drop out for various reasons.
>> the principle is the same, the percentage is not.
And for Mooltipass, a large number of “I’ll help!!!” people DID drop out.
>> of course, sometimes there are unpredictable events that takes over one’s spare time… or simply people that hadn’t realized how big a commitment it’d be… luckily enough we still got to where we are now thanks to awesome contributors :).
I kind of think that all of Shenzen must smell like the inside of the Harbor Freight store… or maybe a new stack of 100 CD-R disks….
more like noodles and fried chicken/cat/dog
Fun! I’m in Shenzhen for work this week. Will you be around on Sunday?
Yes! I’ll send you an email tonight (using the one you left to comment)
You may have pick the absolute worst time in the year to visit hong kong and shenzhen haha …
My thoughts will be with you… May air condition always be with you… On that note, you might need a jacket indoors…
You couldn’t be more right… The picture above was actually taken from one of my visits. And yes, I had to wear the damn jacket / hat / shoes…