Bunch O Balloons: Crowd Funding Done Right

crowd funding bunch o balloonsIf you haven’t heard about Bunch O Balloons by now, then you must be living under a rock. Bunch O Balloons became a viral sensation hours after a Kickstarter campaign was launched in order to raise $20,000 to bring the product to market.  Bunch O Balloons revolutionizes water fights and changes the dynamic of water fights the same way the introduction of the Super Soaker did in the early 1990s.

Update 8/30/15: You can now get Bunch O Balloons on Amazon for a retail price of $15 for 100 balloons.  Yes it’s more expensive than normal water balloons, but cuts 99% percent of the time it takes to fill em up!

A Great Product:

Bunch O Balloons is a set of 37 water balloons connected to a hose adapter.  when hooked onto the hose all of the balloons will fill. A quick shake and the balloons are self tying and drop into your bucket.  Bunch O Balloons users can fill over 100 balloons in a minute.  I personally just spent several hours tying water balloons for my nephews birthday party.  The entire dynamics of the fight were limited by our ability to tie balloons, at a rate of maybe 5 per minute per adult.  I would have loved to have been able to use these last weekend! Who wouldn’t?

Success:

In the first day Bunch o Balloons greatly exceeded its goal.  As of today, they are just over halfway through the month long kickstarter campaign and have raised over $800,000, way greater than the $20,000 original goal.  With this massive cash infusion Bunch O Balloons should have no problem getting automated production running. The hype associated with this campaign should also ensure that big players such as Amazon and Walmart will be knocking down the doors to stock this product, and at a low cost.  As part of the kickstarter campaign a 3 pack of Bunch O Balloons is given for a donation of $15. I would not be surprised to see the cost of a 3 pack on Walmart shelves within a year to be $4.99.  This would still be a hefty premium over traditional water balloons, but well worth it.

Crowd funding:

There are going to be successes and failures in crowd funding adventures.  Recently on Get Rich Slowly, a guy asked to have his crowd funding story published.  Essentially he is an average middle class guy who wants other people to pay for his house.  Despite spending a ton of time marketing, his crowd funding endeavor has fallen short of his $158,600 goal by about $158,500, and it should.  For crowd funding to work there HAS to be an upside to the people who are sending cash and the product or endeavor must be appealing. I hope for his sake that the shear amount of comments and advice against his idea will motivate him to do what the rest of us do to pay of our houses, work and save.

There is no upside to paying off this guys house, but there is a HUGE upside to funding a product that is useful, creative, and solves a problem. Sure water balloons taking too long to fill up is a minor problem in a small niche market, but being able to dominate that niche can bring substantial rewards.

Would you consider crowd funding via kickstarter or other online tool to finance a business endeavor? I don’t know about you, but I am certainly ready for a super charged water balloon fight next summer!

John C. started Action Economics in 2013 as a way to gain more knowledge on personal financial planning and to share that knowledge with others. Action Economics focuses on paying off the house, reducing taxes, and building wealth. John is the author of the book For My Children's Children: A Practical Guide For Building Generational Wealth.

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