“In times past, if you want to start a business, you would get a whole bunch of capital together, get a five- year business plan, find a storefront, and you hit the ground running. You’re going to gamble and hope that consumers come in,” he said. “On Kickstarter, it’s the opposite — you don’t have a product, and you actually sell something that doesn’t quite exist, and you get your customers around you, and then you start the business.”

But that doesn’t mean you should start a Kickstarter with nothing but that idea in your head and hope people are interested. “Lay pipe before you actually launch,” Chevassus said. “Get all of your contacts in a row. Get all your marketing stuff in line.”

He admitted that for his first projects, ones that started before 2016, he didn’t follow his own advice.

“I was like, I’m going to wait until the capital comes in. I don’t want to waste time on something that won’t be funded,” he continued. “I’ve learned the vital importance of actually buying proof- of-concept products from multiple factories, which takes some money to do.”

In other words, you have to spend money to make money; Chevassus is doing this with a new clothing product he expects to launch soon.

“They’re like, ‘You want a kevlar, bullet-proof, slash- proof, fire-proof scarf? Well, that’s going to be $70 shipped from our factory,’” he said, adding that situations like that can be scary, especially for someone just starting out. “But I’d much rather have a tangible prod- uct before I go to a thousand people and promise it can be done. “It’s kind of the chicken or the egg — you need the capital to create it, but you have to create it to raise the capital,” Chevassus continued.

But that does not need your prototype needs to be perfect and complete. In fact, Chevassus warned against what he called “analysis paralysis.”

“‘Done is better than perfect,’” he said, quoting Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook.
“I want to be careful with that, because a lot of people then say, ‘Does that mean you can’t strive for perfection?’ No, it means don’t get obsessed with all the little details to the point where you don’t progress.”

Beau Chevassus in Nicaragua, field testing the Ballistic Scarf

As for the marketing portion of the Kickstarter, you may want to get in contact with “influencers” — people who review and market products online — to talk up your idea or product around the time your campaign begins. However, Chevassus believes there’s no real formula for success- fully finding an influencer who would be interested in helping you out.

“It’s saturation. You just have to tell yourself, for every 10 people I contact, one person is going to say, ‘This matches my blog audience, I’d love to do it,’” he said.  All of this, Chevassus said, is a lot of work—more than what some people expect.

“Be prepared to work 16 hour days. It is not easy. A lot of people are like, ‘They float this out there and they’re just going to relax and retire early in the Bahamas,’” he continued. “No, no, no. When people say passive income, there is nothing passive about [it]. It takes so much hard work to get to the point of automation.” At this point, a crowdfunding campaign should be well prepared: there’s a working prototype and a manufacturer that is willing to create the product; there are people who are talking up your product and sending their followers to the campaign; and the campaign is active and engaging its investors with updates on what’s happening behind the scenes, keeping the anticipation alive.

But nothing ensures a successful campaign, and at some point, you may want to consider quitting while you’re behind.

“To answer the question, ‘When do you quit?’ is when you are no longer providing a solution,” Chevassus said, “Again, that sounds
like a ‘no duh,’ but you won’t believe how many people don’t actually bring their head above water and go, ‘the market is saturated with these things, I should pull the plug and focus elsewhere.’

“The old way of business is that you never quit — you have your five-year business plan and you’re going

to stick to this no matter what. You’re going to ride the market for five years, because banks want to see that five years. The want to see that you’re bought in and committed,” he continued. “Now, the new way of doing things is you have to adapt, which is a euphemism for quit. Quit things that aren’t working… Every successful crowd funder can relate to ‘giving up your Isaac’; that is, at some point it is necessary to let go of something. Some- thing you’ve invested count- less hours in. Something you’ve made that you’re emotionally committed to. This is extremely difficult to let go, but wildly necessary to focus like a laser beam on what’s truly important.”

To learn more about Chevassus, head to his blog at chevassus.com.