The following is my latest Kickstarter update:
Dear Team DoubleSix,
SUMMARY:
The next Kickstarter campaign is on indefinite hold. I am sorry for the silence, and now, the change of plans.
It is clearer to me now that I need to focus on selling the 10s of thousands of dice I already have in stock, and not try to make more. (Edit: some backers just asked where I sell them: www.DoubleSixDice.com. I have also just added a coupon code: BACKERLOVE gets folks 20%off the order).
Once I can start selling significantly more of my current stock (sales, with zero marketing, is currently about $1,500/month), I will rethink Gen 3.
DETAILS:
As with my last two campaigns, I tend to really listen to my backers (some might argue, too much). And in Update #27, Suberbacker Patrick gave me some tough and honest feedback. A lot of what he said was valuable, but the part that most resonated with the back of my mind, in a way I wanted to deny, was this advice he gave me:
"I think you honestly need to reflect on your goals and what you can faithfully deliver without stressing yourself out and go from there."
Yes, I want to make more money now so I can afford a safer car since my daughter just turned 16 and is going to be driving much more. But I do need to think about what I can deliver to you all again, and how much stress I actually want to sign up for.
I have recently gotten to a place where I am considering selling the business, an idea repeatedly pushed by my younger daughter, and more recently, encouraged by my wife.
I am not sure I am ready for selling the business quite yet. In fact, figuring that out also sounds like stressful work. Though the universe/simulation did nudge me in that direction a couple of months ago when I got an email from Flippa, asking me if I might want to sell the business.
So I told my wife, and myself, that I should try to give this project one more year, at which point I might have to sell it, like giving up a dog for adoption to a family that will take better care of it than I have been.
But, I plan to try harder now, if not just to increase revenue so the value of the business goes up, which would help me if I do end up selling it.
I also have been wondering if I can sell some of the business to you guys, somehow. I think the Green Bay Packers did this, and maybe REI? Sell board seats and NFTs or something.
[Right now, I am crying in this coffee shop as the song, "I Wanna Get Better," is playing over the speakers.]
This coffee shop is in the same building as Unstuck Labs, as I finally decided to look for more help today and attend my first Unstuck Tuesdays ("Pitch your idea, get feedback, give feedback, meet with a mentor and most importantly, take action. Bring yourself, notebooks, laptops and anything else you need to pitch your idea and get work done. Once done, feel free to spend the day as our guest and keep working.")
Unfortunately, despite them confirming my online RSVP, they weren't meeting today as it is Startup Week in DC, so everyone was busy with that. So after writing this Google Review of a breakfast sandwich (did I mention I am ADD?), I finally started this next and inevitable update you are reading.
Incidentally, Unstuck Labs also has an Accelerator program I might apply to. Once I can actually start selling more of my dice, I might then try to develop a digital dice roller, as I am wanting to move to a digital product, as I struggle a lot with production, inventory, picking, packing, and the shipping of physical products.
But my next critical step was facing the music, facing you guys, to tell you I am sorry for teasing you, ignoring you for months, and then now canceling the Gen 3 KS campaign. It still might happen, but I need to focus more on what is at hand, before biting off another massive chunk.
So, I will try to wrap up this confession, this update, this apology, this stream of consciousness, this prologue. There might be a couple of more updates via Kickstarter before I switch my personal and business updates to a different and more appropriate platform.
Below, I will leave you with a link to the video for the song that was playing earlier, the one that made me cry as I was writing this update.
I recognized the song, did not know the name of the band, nor the fact that Jack Antonoff sang it (he writes a lot of Taylor Swift's songs). He is the therapist in the video, which, incidentally, is my day job. Not sure why his degree is from "Egypt and Beyond," but I do wear an Ankh around my neck every day. And turns out this video came out soon after the first Kickstarter campaign ended.
As the music video relates to some of you: I thought that in addition to making money, I was also here to help you, by getting you the dice you might want, to improve your play with your friends. But I think I need to sing, more and louder, and I again need your help, your company, your energy, your various talents and skills. For the past ten years, when you guys help me, we share thousands of comments, and over half a million dice got made. Without your help, I work alone, for just half an hour a week packing dice, and the dice sales slow down to a trickle.
I haven't been able to do this well alone, and I am not sure I want to try to anymore. I dream of bigger stages and opportunities, and the music is more powerful when there are more people in the band.
So by the end of this music video, you will see the fantasy, the vision. You are welcome to show up and join me, to dance, to play any instrument you want, whenever you want. Or you can just watch, and hopefully those of us that come up on stage will be able to move you a bit, getting you to smile or bop your head once in a while.
Slow rolling, but ever forward,
Matt
PS. More beautiful synchronicity: So, several days after writing this, in this moment, I now just discovered another video about the writing of this song. But the 30 second part of the video that most speaks to me, and which is also about you, comes right at the end. This might be the universe telling me I am on the right path.
(You can see the backer replies to this post here).