Behind the Scenes: Megabeta Climber Sling Bag Launch
How I would do things better and tabling at a climbing gym convention
Hello there,
If you haven’t gotten a chance, check out the Kickstarter for the Megabeta Climber Sling Bag - launched 12 days ago and already raised over $25,000!
I’m at a climbing gym convention this week, so keeping things short again.
Surprising insights and how I’m improving
Making a product for others is incredibly challenging, and one of the biggest obstacles is figuring out how customers will respond when asked to pull out their wallet. I found some surprising insights from our public experimentation with the Climber Sling Bag and wanted to share three lessons:
1. Customers are full of surprises
The reason I set out to make a better climbing gym bag was to deal with the problem of stinky shoes.
But when we ran two different ads to collect email addresses, we saw a surprising outcome: people responded better to a video saying “avoid juggling your gear” rather than an ad about odor control.
I had to accept that my perspective might not be an exact match to my target customer.
2. Smart Moves Save Time
Balancing a full-time job and a startup taught me the value of hiring experts.
I hired a consultant who shared lessons from other small outdoor businesses on building their brand and another who helped me get smarter with marketing and ads.
Time is more valuable than sunlight to a flower, so when you find ways to save time, it helps keep your goals in full bloom.
3. Embrace the Fear of Feedback
Through my experience developing other product ideas, the most intimidating thing is seeking out feedback from real people.
For the sling bag, once we put up our landing page and ran ads to reach actual climbers, the feedback rolled in through comments and direct messages.
We heard all sorts of things, like how climbers hated using outdoor bags at the gym. Some even used pillowcases or cardboard boxes!
These insights sparked further innovation in our design process and underscored the value of real customer feedback in refining our product.
Do it better next time?
I shared these lessons along with a lot of data from my experience with friends earlier this week (which helped me to compile a bit of what I’ve learned).
They asked, “Would you do another Kickstarter?”
My answer surprised me - even though it’s a lot of work, I would totally do it again, probably for the next Megabeta product launch.
How could I improve?
Get samples to friends and target customers sooner
Make more organic content about the product (cheaper way to test than ads!)
Track metrics better for experiments and variations
Great news from the climbing wall conference is that 80% of people who stopped by my table said, “I think I saw an ad for this.” That means I’ve successfully targeted the right people!
Worthy & Remarkable
This Alex M1 Kickstarter is a phone stand // wallet // tripod // selfie stick - another product I never realized how badly I needed!
Cool story of climbing route development with pretty photography from Black Diamond
Funny and informative - my crowdfunding video is on YouTube (and in need of more views!), so check it out even if you’ve seen the Kickstarter page before!
One Thing from Me
Another quote coming at you via the back page of a kid’s book:
“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” — Henry David Thoreau
Seemingly,
Jono
PS - Favorite little joke I’ve seen all week! 😂