AZ-based startup Liquid Llama Soft., LLC recently launched a Kickstarter campaign for their product Random Order Audio, a program that allows artists and producers to add infinite possibilities and texture to their songs, giving them the ability to test out their song in different genres, mixes or instrumental additions, and raise $60,000.
Although the campaign totally failed, co-founder Ryan Ries said he learned a lot from his whirlwind experience with the campaign. I spoke to Ries regarding Kickstarter, his company, and plans for the future.
What would you say is the major takeaway from this experience?
We definitely learned a lot through this process. I’m not sure I would say any part of it was “difficult,” as much as I would say it was time-consuming. Unfortunately, Random Order Audio is a tough concept to understand. It’s a very “deep” concept. That hurt us a lot, because, unlike many other projects out there, you can’t just glance down our page and understand what we’re doing here within 10 seconds. You really need to watch videos or read.
I think, if there was another Kickstarter for us (looking like “no,” for now), some form of understanding by a swift glance would be a goal I’d try to figure out and make happen.”
[youtube]http://youtu.be/oIN0f9cQK5Y[/youtube]
So do you believe that people were confused about the product overall?
I believe I did a great job at explaining how Random Order Audio functions and can be utilized, but the question I didn’t quite answer (quickly) was “What does Random Order Audio mean to me?” From the feedback we’ve received, I’m positive that’s what a lot of people are looking for.
However, we have artists, sound engineers, listeners, or even potential business users (labels, media networks, etc) that can all use ROA who need to understand how it works. So, I believe maybe we went too broad. If we’re launching another Kickstarter, we need to pinpoint the greatest audience that will get excited about Kickstarter and want to join us in reaching our funding goal.
Would you say the campaign helped you raise awareness about ROA?
We went into Kickstarter mostly in the hopes of attracting more interest to ROA, and we really thought the money would just be a great bonus. Having put in so much effort, we were a little saddened the funding wasn’t reached (or even close). However, we’re happy to say we received messages from several new artists (from much farther than our reach), as well as additional fans of ROA.
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What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs?
One reason that we were, for sure, unsuccessful, was a lack of pre-launch excitement. This is definitely something other entrepreneurs could take with them. For each type of project it’s going to be different, but, for ours, I wish I had taken all the different groups of people I know and thrown several (pledging) parties. Just show off ROA…show how it works, why it will be so exciting for them, and (most of all) how they are able to support us.
What’s next?
Currently, we’re working towards getting our website completed (discussing the smartest approach), and, in the meantime, working on upgrading our software to make it more easily accessible across platforms.”
Learn more about Liquid Llama., LLC and the ROA.
READ: Our Kickstarter series, from success to fail
If you have lessons learned from a success or failure from a crowdfunding platform, drop us an email at staff writer@aztechbeat.com
