Re-Launch on 6th Feb
Hello all,
Hope you all had a great new year and are making the most out of the new start. Things are looking very positive on the horizon for Livegrid, here's some things I wanted to share.
Release Date
Let's start with the most important bit - Livegrid is re-launching on Kickstarter 6th February, which is less than a month away now. Lots to do until then, make sure you follow us on Instagram to keep updated. For the people who are new here, Livegrid was launched on Kickstarter before, but didn't make it. However this failure was packed with lessons - which is why the re-launch will be much much better.
Frame-less Design + Lower Price
One of the single biggest feedback was that it's simply too expensive. This sent us back to the drawing board - where we made a few significant changes
The base design now comes without a frame. This is hugely inspired from ertdfgcvb's work (design and codes studio based in Switzerland) on LED matrices. This bare look is pretty neat, and comes with a huge reduction in cost. The new early bird price now is £210 (was £245 before) and can potentially reduce even further.
You can still get a wood/white/black frame, but it is optional. The design is still being refined, and will be finalised before the launch.
New Controller
We have a new controller design for the panels, and it's significantly better than ver2. For instance-
It looks way cooler than the last version !
Unlike the last ones which stuck out of the panel (like in images above), this one stays completely hidden behind the panel and can be plugged in from the back.
ESP32-S3 instead of generic ESP32 which gives a lot more oomph and power allowing us to do a lot more things.
Touch buttons added to the PCB, which will be extended out in the frame version.
Rotation sensor added, so the panel will auto-orientate when rotated.
Better ambient light sensor so brightness gets adjusted automatically.
I2S exposed with a stemma-qt connector supported by adafruit/sparkfun and many other DIY shops.SCD40 (CO2 sensor) will be added to this connector.
Lower Goal
The goal for the last campaign was £32,000 which was way too high. It was high because I wanted to be sure that I would be able to deliver the project. Unfortunately, this is not how Kickstarter works. You need to set your goal as the minimum possible you need to make it work - simply because you want to reach there as fast as possible and get into the 'good books' of the algorithm. The new goal will be £8,500, which we actually made last time. Such a simple thing, but this is so important.
More marketing
I definitely underestimated this, and am putting a lot of effort in it this time. Thanks to that, the new kickstarter pre-launch page has 100+ followers already.
I read the 'Dummies Guide to Marketing', an interesting read and definitely made me appreciate the little tricks and games marketers are playing on us everyday. For example, research has shown adding the word 'only' before the cost increases sales by 20%. Obviously, there's a lot more to marketing than that and while all this does not come naturally to me - there's no excuse and I will keep going at it.
New Interns
We have Pablo and Bruno, 2 new interns working at Livegrid now. They are very curious and seem keen on learning. They have a very small attention span and need a lot of sleep - but have shown a lot of potential and we are excited to see their growth with us.
Long update, but sometimes in this fast-paced world, it's nice to go in-depth sometimes. If you have made it here, thanks for reading through and I hope you find this as exciting as I do. Launching a project like this is a lot of work, but it's fun! And this is my attempt at sharing the joy with you. If you have any feedback/questions/suggestions, please fill this form here.
Finally, please follow us on Instagram and subscribe to the Kickstarter pre-launch for more updates.
Catch you next time!