What does it take to become a Kickstarter success? First you need a great product. Then you need a plan for the future. Luckily, Austin-based Moniker Guitars had both.
We first covered Moniker back in March when founders Dave Barry and Kevin Tully had already created a small guitar shop and wanted to expand into custom git-fiddles. They built a unique guitar customizer to allow buyers to add colors, designs, and logos, and hundreds of sales later they’ve moved from Kickstarter darling to actual startup.
Since launch, the company has sold and built 43 guitars through Kickstarter and they have built a growing and expanding manufacturing business. In fact, they’ve built “several hundred” guitars since launch, including a special TC model in crazy green.
“Kickstarter has been a huge boost in growing our business,” said co-founder Tully. “In addition to providing crucial funding to make several of our product lines possible, Kickstarter has been one of the better marketing decisions we’ve made as a business; which was a little unexpected.”
The company has used crowdfunding as a platform for customer acquisition and fan-base building. They were also able to build new product lines.
“It was enough to launch our line of semi-hollow body guitars,” said Tully. “However, we still need to be aggressive about getting our product out in front of people and letting them know we’re here. I learned that everything is going to cost twice as much and take twice as long as I thought it would. But patience is a virtue, and we’re seeing the results of our hard work and patience and it’s incredibly fulfilling.”
