LNR Precision has started a Kickstarter crowdfunding effort to purchase fabrication equipment to produce high volume products in the U.S. LNR Precision Inc. was founded in 2011 and is owned by Larry and Ryan Draughn. They started out by making a line of end-fed antennas, and recently they’ve started selling a line of QRP transceivers. My friend, Thom, W8TAM, has a couple of their transceivers and really likes them.
They say:
We seek funds as we are looking to take over the manufacturing supply chain and bring almost all production in house. We will be hiring staff to shorten our assembly times and we will be drastically increasing our production runs. Our demand is extremely high on our products and we simply want to give our customers quality products at a value priced and have a short lead time from order to delivery.
For a pledge of $25, you get and “exclusive LNR Mountain Topper Badge – Made of ABS and manufactured in our plant with our laser engraver. Black with Embossed Logo 3″ Diameter.”
While I applaud the effort, I’m not sure they’re giving away enough. $100 for a t-shirt seems a little steep to me. I’d be more inclined to actually invest in their company if they’d give me some stock. A recent SEC rules change now allows small companies to raise up to $1 million annually via crowdfunding.
What do you think, though? Would you be willing to send them $25? Do you know of any amateur radio Kickstarters that were successful?
Yeah, that’s absurd. The lowest level that has a true reward is $750. The Mountain Topper kit, from their website, is $250. Total misunderstanding of Kickstarter- and I’m dumb enough to have backed hundreds of projects.
Dan,
I completely agree with you! LNR is being WAY too stingy on the rewards. I’ll be shocked if this campaign is successful!
AA7US
I agree with you, Dan. From what I’ve noted, most successful crowd-funding campaigns offer the product for less to backers than it would sell when in final production.
One successful amateur radio Kickstarter was the HamShield:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/749835103/hamshield-for-arduino-vhf-uhf-transceiver/
They offered $1+ website mentions and $6+ QSL cards, but the first 100 at the $98 level received a HamShield with a bonus antenna and power supply. The post-campaign, direct pre-order price is $99 and they are just starting to ship the first pre-ordered units.
To think that folks would be willing to pay nearly triple the normal price for a unit with a custom color scheme is a little far fetched, in my opinion.
They are going to have a tough sell making goal with that offering. No offense intended as their products are really good, but what are they thinking? They are the ones investing in plant and product who will eventually reap the benefits.
Sorry guys, but like the previous post, I just can’t do $1K for a QRP set that doesn’t have KX3 on the label
They need a refresher on Marketing 101. Unfortunately it seems they’ve been in business for awhile without any exposure to marketing, so maybe they think they don’t need it. Dunning Kruger?
…and they think “ham” is an abbreviation. The $40 from a single backer that they’ve raised so far probably projects exactly how this is going to work out for them.
I don’t understand why these companies use Kickstarter to raise capital. Either there’s a solid business case, in which case they should be able to get more traditional funding, or it’s a Hail Mary, and they’re preying on people emotion.
Especially in this case, they claim “Our demand is extremely high”, and they are investing in something tangible (as opposed to R&D cost). That sounds like a relatively low risk venture on the surface, and any traditional bank or investor should be willing to bankroll the deal. But they’re not, which makes me think there’s something rotten about this deal.
Maybe I’m just too skeptical…
Even if it sounds like making fast bucks, it could just be a test to enlarge their fame :)
I guess we’ll find out in 44 hours. It’s not looking too promising though.