Although it seems like an eternity ago, it’s been just about 22 months since WobbleWorks LLC initially made a name for themselves, bringing in over $2.3 million on Kickstarter, and starting a technological and artistic revolution of sorts. Back in March 2013, WobbleWorks launched the 3Doodler 3D printing pen. Although I, myself was one of the 3Doodler’s biggest skeptics, that didn’t keep some 26,000+ backers from pre-ordering the pen on Kickstarter.
Maxwell Bogue, Co-founder WobbleWorks LLC.
I had the opportunity to have a lengthy discussion with co-founder Maxwell Bogue at CES the other week, in which he revealed to 3DPrint.com that the company has since gone on to sell over 130,000 of these unique pens. Additionally CES coincided with the launch of the company’s second Kickstarter campaign, this time for the 3Doodler 2.0.
This new pen, which we have written about in length, launched on Kickstarter with a goal to raise just $30,000. Here we are just 12 days in, and the campaign has already eclipsed a staggering $1 million in funding, thanks to over 7,400 Kickstarter backers (as of the time of writing). With 8 days remaining, it’s anyone’s guess as to how high this campaign will ultimately reach.
“It’s incredible that 3Doodler is the first piece of hardware in Kickstarter history to hit $1 million twice on the platform,” explained Daniel Cowen, Co-Founder. “The odds of reaching such a milestone again are extremely low, so we want to thank our loyal community for their support. This is proof that the right product can succeed on Kickstarter for a sequel campaign, and we’re incredibly proud to be the first hardware project to do it.”
Just how rare is it for back-to-back successes like this on the world’s most popular crowdfunding platform? The team at WobbleWorks has put things into perspective for us.
These numbers have already risen
A total of 87 projects have ever hit $1 million on Kickstarter, out of a total of 194,616 projects to ever have launched. This equates to just 0.0004% of campaigns. Expressed in an easier to understand way, there is a 1 in 2,236 chance of a Kickstarter campaign hitting the $1 million mark. How about two separate campaigns hitting the mark twice in a row? That’s much more rare, with only a 1 in 48,654 chance.
The $30,000 goal was eclipsed in just 16 minutes, thanks to a very smart marketing strategy by the WobbleWorks team, who had offered the $99 3Doodler 2.0 to their first 100 backers for just $50. Additionally, anyone backing the project on the first day (1,850 people in total) had an opportunity to pre-order the device for just $85. To put things in perspective, the original 3Doodler took 3 hours and 38 minutes to reach the same $30,000 target.
The pen itself is a vast improvement over the original device, featuring a sleeker design, new capabilities, and is less of an energy whore. The company expects to begin shipping the first units sometime next month, and has also introduced a flexible plastic filament to expand the number of possible applications made available for this device.
Have you contributed to their latest Kickstarter campaign? Why or why not? Discuss in the 3Doodler 2.0 forum thread on 3DPB.com.
3Doodled with new Flexible Filament by Maxwell Bogue
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