Well that was fast.
According to PicoBrew, they’ve broken their own record for food crowdfunding in a little over 24 hours after the start of their latest campaign. A company spokesperson has told The Spoon that PicoBrew sold over $1.1 million worth of the new pro product in the first four hours of the campaign and, just a day later, has broken their record with $2.2 million in presales.
What makes this record all that more impressive is the company is deviating from a formula that’s worked in the past by hosting the campaign directly on its website instead of Kickstarter. Company CEO Bill Mitchell told the Spoon that the company was inspired by the success of Glowforge’s 2015 campaign for its 3D printer which, like the PicoBrew Z, was conducted on the company website.
Does the success of PicoBrew with its direct-to-backer campaign spell trouble for platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo? My guess is no. Instead, I’d interpret this as a sign of where a company like PicoBrew (and Glowforge) are in their lifecycle. Because PicoBrew has built a solid brand and following in the homebrew space and has a proven track record of delivering new products on time to backers, it’s not a surprise they could tap into a built-in base of backers to buy their new product. Combine all this with what appears to be pent up demand for a more robust pro-grade product that goes beyond what the company offered with its original Zymatic, and it looks like the company had all the stars aligned for a huge campaign.