In this episode of the podcast, Salvador Briggman interviews Chris O'Neal from Brotherwise Games on his most recent Kickstarter for Overlord: a Boss Monster Adventure.

You'll learn about what goes into building a successful board game company, how to get funded on Kickstarter in 2020, along with some tips and tricks the team has picked up along the way.

Links Mentioned on The Show

• Become a guest on the podacast
• Overlord: a Boss Monster Adventure
• Brotherwise Games

Want to become a podcast sponsor?

Email: [email protected]

Bobby Fiorentino launched the Kickstarter project "This Game Is A Disaster!" and raised  $8,420.

He came on the show to share how he was able to do this, along with advice that he has for beginning board game entrepreneurs.

Links 

• Become a guest: http://fundingthedreamonkickstarter.com/
• Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/boardgameclub/this-game-is-a-disaster
• Coaching w/ Sal: https://www.crowdcrux.com/coaching
• The Board Game Club FB
• Board Game Club FB Group 

On this episode of the Funding the Dream on Kickstarter podcast, Salvador Briggman talks with James Takenaka, who has over 25 years of experience in the collectible and tabletop games industry.

Apply to Be on the Show: Funding the Dream on Kickstarter

James started selling at collectibles shows in 1990 and then was a co-owner of the Comix and Cardz Etc. hobby store.

In 2001 he co-founded Hero Factory Inc. to produce licensed trading cards and served as a consultant for Bandai America Inc. in the collectible card game market.

From 2007-2012 James served as Bandai’s Games Division Sales & Marketing Manager, working with hobby game distributors, overseeing their Organized Play Network and co-creating the Star Trek DBG. James joined  Hit Point Sales in March 2012.

https://www.hitpointsales.com/about-us

On this episode, you'll learn an effective Kickstarter community-building strategy from Gamedec, a project that attracted 4,911 backers.

In this game, you are a detective who solves crimes inside virtual worlds. Use your wits to gather info from your witnesses and suspects, getting to the bottom of deceptive schemes. The game continually adapts to your decisions and never judges.

Salvador Briggman is the new host of the Funding the Dream on Kickstarter podcast.

Links and Resources Mentioned: 

• Become a guest on Funding the Dream on Kickstarter
• Gamedec Kickstarter Campaign

After eight years and more than 330 episodes, it is time to say good-bye on Funding the Dream.

The podcast has been a fantastic way for me to meet some incredible people. It has also been a means for me giving back to a community that I believe in.

In this last episode, I share a little behind the decision and how we got so far.

Thank you to everyone over the years who have been so supportive and contributed their knowledge and experience to help those who listen.

Hopefully, you've been inspired. I know I have.

Thanks for listening, Take Care.

Salvador Briggman has been teaching people about crowdfunding for a long time. He is an author on crowdfunding, he produces a Youtube channel, as well as hosting the successul podcast, DeMystifying Crowdfunding.

He joins as a guest on Funding the Dream to break down the basic elements of being successful before you launch your campaign.

He provides excellent advice and is well worth listening and taking notes.

Here's a link to Demystifying Crowdfunding

With more than 10 successful projects on Kickstarter, you can't always anticipate the sudden failure of a project. But what you can do, is learn and adapt.

Brian Henk is the guest and co-founder of Pull the Plug games. You may also know him as the creator of the hit game, Good Cop/Bad Cop. He shares how a string of successes on Kickstarter suddenly became a short string of failures and how the experience taught him to pivot his expectations, adapt to his new understanding, and to launch again.

It is always beneficial when guests open up about what went wrong. If you were to lose $40,000 on your next Kickstarter project and fail to fund, you would want to share that knowledge so others can avoid a similar fate. Brian does just that, teaching listeners what went wrong and how he adapted to the situation.

His newest Kickstarter is called The ZORRO Dice Game. You can find it here

How do you choose a manufacturing partner in China for your Kickstarter project? You ask Josh Fairbairn.

Josh delivers specific advice to help those looking to work with Chinese manufactures for the first time. 

His first piece of advice? Don't make a decision based on pricing. There are other, much more important qualifications rather than pricing.

He qualifies this with an understanding that when you are creating a few thousand units, a few cents of savings is not going to help your project be successful, it will actually contribute to its failure. You will end up creating a bad product and have a bad experience.

Instead, you must focus on four main areas to evaluate a manufacturer:

1. Communication, Communication, Communication - Language, Culture, Distance, and Time Zones means the opportunity for misunderstandings are high. Become proficient with WeChat and watch your initial communications carefully for indications on problems that may arise in the future.
2. Process - How they make the product and how they work with you to bring it to market are critical
3. Quality - This is where price focus can hurt you. Be sure to look for good quality in the early prototypes...if there is a problem with the prototype there will be a problem with the final product
4. Quality Control - After you have signed off on everything, keep the communication going to ensure that the quality stays high through the entire manufacturing process.

Josh shares other excellent pieces of wisdom and advice. If you are doing business in China I strongly recommend you reach out and connect. You can find Josh on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuafairbairn/
And his website is https://www.morphomfg.com/

Jessica Kelly has successfully crowdfunded $22,500 for her company, THR3EFOLD,  and has grown her company to be a leader in the ethical fashion space.

Using crowdfunding to first scope her business with a trip to India, then using crowdfunding on iFundWomen.com, she stepped out on her own as a social entrepreneur four years ago and launched Thr3eFold.

She has spent a decade helping hundreds of fashion & lifestyle brands grow their business through marketing, sales, and PR. 

She discusses the power of using iFundwomen to crowdfund her business ideas rather a traditional platform like Kickstarter. 

Storyblaster, a previous guest on the podcast, was also instrumental in helping her tell her story to a new audience.

www.Thr3efold.com
www.ifundwomen.com
www.storyblaster.com

Guest, Leesa McGregor, is the author of the book, A New Alphabet for Humanity, which is on Kickstarter. It is a beautifully illustrated children's book featuring 26 empowering alphabet words designed to nurture emotional intelligence, activate the potential of our children and create a brighter future for humanity.

A New Alphabet for Humanity teaches children the power of positive words so they can build empathy and compassion, unlock their imagination, and feel empowered to live their dreams.

Leesa shares her passion for shaping the world through social good and shares her insights into how she began to journey to publish this book.

She also introduces us to GenM, a website to hire interns for a three-month project. Many Kickstarter project owners could take advantage of this service.

You can find a link to GenM.com here 

Her Kickstarter campaign is here: A New Alphabet for Humanity

Crowdfunding for Social Good is what sets Devin Thorpe apart from many who use Crowdfunding as a means of raising money. 

Devin is a deeply optimistic person. He is an author, educator, and speaker;  a champion of social good. Through his work, he aspires to help solve some of the world's biggest problems--poverty, disease, and climate change. 

His Forbes articles often reach more than 100,000 readers and his books—read over 1 million times—on using money for good, personal finance, crowdfunding and corporate social responsibility draw on his experience as an investment banker, CFO, treasurer and mortgage broker. 

He has delivered a keynote speech at the United Nations and spoken in countries from Brazil to Russia and across the US. 

Most recently he sat down with Bill Gates and asked him a question, What's Your Superpower?.

You can follow Devin on Twitter @devindthorpe or email at [email protected].