It’s been a whole month since launching the Kickstarter prelaunch page, and I am delighted to announce that it has reached 200 followers. These people like yourself have been following this project for many months and are keen to get their hands on one of our smart nest boxes and app, so thank you.
If you are reading this post, you have probably clicked through from the email newsletter and are keen to find out more information about the product, such as price, availability etc. Many people have been asking about the price. However, I can still not publish this just yet for several reasons. One of the main ones is that discussions are still ongoing with several suppliers regarding parts and manufacturing. I want to make this as affordable as possible. Bear in mind that this is a first-generation product, so I don’t have the benefits of economies of scale to purchase components in bulk and at a discounted price. There is also a global microchip shortage affecting prices and availability, which has a knock-on effect. I understand peoples’ frustration, but I would kindly ask for your patience as I am working as hard as I can behind the scenes.
As I have mentioned previously, there will only be 100 units available for the Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, and this is for a simple reason. I don’t have the means to produce more than this amount on my own.
As this project has been growing, I am keen to take one step at a time and not to overwhelm myself. If you remember, the ambition to create a worldwide network of nest boxes started three years ago with a single nest box on the back of my house. Today, there are 30 of my nest boxes located around the world with the aim to add 100 more, should the crowdfunding campaign be a success.
Several posts have circulated on social media suggesting that what I am doing is a scam and the product’s features are not what they seem. These claims are not valid. Everything I have demonstrated on the website, blog posts, and Kickstarter is genuine. I have not posted pictures or videos that mislead you about what my technology can do. This combines three years of hard work developing everything from the smartphone app to the AI software that runs on the nest box to recognise birds.
If you are still unsure, please follow this link to see a full demonstration video of the product. I was required to submit this, along with other documentation, to get approved on the Kickstarter website.
One of the problems I foresee happening in the future is the possibility of scammers impersonating my product and marketing it to the same group of people who are backing my project. I recall a bird feeder that launched on Kickstarter earlier last year, subject to scams. This was not the fault of the company launching the bird feeder. They had an excellent product, but scammers copied the design and made poor quality versions that did not function. These imitations were then marketed to people at a significantly lower price, and ultimately, the products were either not delivered or arrived and did not work.
So what can I do to prevent this from happening to me? Well, nothing at this stage. Start-up companies such as myself, and the one mentioned above, don’t have the resources to mount legal challenges to stop scammers in their tracks, and they know this! The best weapon in our arsenal is information. Making people aware to only follow legitimate information sources such as official websites and social media channels. Ultimately, if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. The best I can do is learn from others and make you aware of what might be around the corner, although there have not been any signs of this to date.
Should this happen in the future, I shall refer back to this blog post.
Once again, thank you for your continued support of this project.
