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Today, Studio Neat turns 10 years old! Inspired by @czeins thread about the 10 year anniversary of @sandwich, I thought it would be nice to look back on some memories from the past decade of business.
Tom ( @tomgerhardt) and I have been friends since freshman year of college at Texas A&M. We both then headed to New York City for grad school, and were beginning our careers as designers when inspiration for the Glif struck. Here we are in college during study abroad, circa 2006.
This is the original text message I sent to Tom in July 2010. Kind of embarrassing that I framed it as a money maker, but the point was more that this was something other people might want to buy, not just a personal project.
The iPhone 4 was brand new, and the camera was a huge leap forward. As someone who loved making videos, it was clear being able to mount an iPhone on a tripod would elevate its usefulness. And the stand seemed like a natural pairing.
Here are some early 3D printed prototypes from Shapeways. Notice the protruding phallus; our original plan was to have that bit attach to the headphone jack for added security. We soon realized it was unnecessary, and also impossible to injection mold (we had a lot to learn).
Once we had the design in a good place, it became a question of how to sell the thing. Kickstarter was only a year old at that point, and no one had really used it for a commercial product.
The closest thing we could find on the site was Pinch, by @craightonberman (who later became a good friend!). https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/craightonberman/pinch-a-gourmet-salt-and-pepper-set
We considered various options, including just selling the 3D prints as is, but we had a strong hunch that Kickstarter would be the right way to secure the funding to do a proper injection molding run.
So we set to work on building our campaign page, and making the video. We had a few false starts with the video, specifically the talking heads sections. We were extraordinarily uncomfortable speaking in front of a camera in a genuine way, but we finally got it.
The montage sequence in the video is a direct homage to the Margot “background file” scene in The Royal Tenenbaums. After we launched, Kickstarter advised us to change the song (“Judy is a Punk” by the Ramones) to avoid any legal troubles. Here it is with the original song.
(Here is the Royal Tenenbaums scene for comparison).
And you may notice the @adamlisagor cameo. I mentioned @sandwich also recently celebrated 10 years in business. Adam was nice enough to lend his face to our video even though we were unproven randos from the internet, and he’s been a friend ever since.
On the evening of October 3, 2010, we pushed that big green Launch button for the first time. The Glif was live on Kickstarter! We sent an email to friends and family, as well as a few press folks. We raised a few hundred dollars the first day, which felt like a great start.
However, everything changed on October 4, when John @gruber posted this short, 167 character link to his popular website, Daring Fireball. https://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/10/04/glif
We had been “Fireballed,” and our lives were forever changed. The pledges were pouring in. I remember sitting at work, constantly refreshing the browser, unable to get any actual work done. We reached our $10,000 funding goal less than 2 hours after the post when live.
We were getting more press now, from sites like Gizmodo and even The Economist. Our friend @campbelltodd was following along in the excitement, creating these increasingly ridiculous images and sending them to us as the funding total grew larger.
The images didn't stop there.
Here is a screenshot of the project page from the Internet Archive right after the campaign ended. I miss the old Kickstarter design! It fills me with warm feelings.
After the campaign ended, we of course had to figure out how to make the thing. This old blog post dives into the details of how we did that. https://therussiansusedapencil.com/post/2794775825/idea-to-market-in-5-months-making-the-glif
I always liked these pictures we took once we had the final production unit. The iPhone 4 still looks so good.
The original Glif campaign taught us the importance of video as a communication tool. Here are a couple videos we released as project updates. This one is us assembling the 3D printed prototype Glifs (available as a higher lever tier).
This one is our visit to the factory in South Dakota as the first production Glifs came off the line. https://vimeo.com/17275305
In January 2011 we headed to Macworld for the first time to sell our wares. Look at these baby faced business people.
2011 also saw the release of our second Kickstarter, the Cosmonaut, the idea for which began as this blog post: https://therussiansusedapencil.com/post/1521469842/the-right-feel-for-an-ipad-stylus
The success of this second campaign meant two things: one, we needed to quit our full time jobs and take Studio Neat full time, and two, we confirmed we had an existing audience we could launch to instead of relying on a “Gruber Bump.” We seemed to have gained a foothold.
The next few years of Studio Neat found us trying all manner of things: a stop motion app, a book about crowdfunding, a March Madness app, some cocktail tools. We didn’t want to get pigeonholed as Apple accessory makers.
(I still kind of like our Simple Bracket video. The shot at the end took 22 takes in freezing cold New York weather). https://vimeo.com/58323343
Fast forward to 2015, the halfway mark of Studio Neat thus far, and the most pivotal. It was when we launched, and unsuccessfully funded, Obi, our laser cat toy.
It was our first public failure, and really threw the survival of Studio Neat into question.
Because of the capriciousness of our past product portfolio, we thought we had the license to make anything, but finding a new audience is difficult. We learned the hard way.
We took this moment to regroup, and reassess what it is we do and how we can best serve our existing audience.
After Obi, the next five years of Studio Neat were much more laser focused (pun intended). The 5 Kickstarter projects we launched raised more than every project that came in the first five years.
We also launched the Gazette and our podcast with @imyke, Thoroughly Considered, which both continue to this day.
https://www.studioneat.com/pages/gazette
https://www.relay.fm/tc
https://www.studioneat.com/pages/gazette
https://www.relay.fm/tc
The new Glif was our first post-Obi Kickstarter project, and its success was super encouraging. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/danprovost/the-new-glif-a-tripod-mount-for-smartphones-redesi
Lately, we’ve been focused on stationery products (Mark One, Mark Two, Panobook, Totebook) and we plan to stay in this space for a while. But we definitely have some exciting things in the works in other product categories.
Tom and I are thrilled we made it 10 years, and are looking forward to another 10, and beyond. I feel like we say this often, but we really can’t thank everyone enough for supporting us, in the early days all the way to today.
Our business is incredibly simple. We make things and then ask you if you want to buy it. If you’ve ever purchased something we’ve made, you’ve helped us keep the lights on. So, thank you!
