If a product is to succeed, it must raise atleast 90 percent of its funding in the first two days on Indiegogo. That is why a startup needs a large and loyal community.
This is only one of the lessons that the team behind Travis the Translator, the start-up of the year, wants to share with other ‘inventors’. Therefore it has launched The Product Garage, a company that helps hardware producers to optimally launch an innovative product.
Marijn Booman, one of the founders of The Product Garage, regrets that not every good idea comes to fruition.
“There are many individuals and startups with a great idea, but they often lack a team that can support them optimally. Not everyone with a creative talent is also a great entrepreneur. That is why we help these inventors, with marketing, sourcing, web development, community management and the validation of ideas on Indiegogo. Corporates that want to innovate faster also benefit from the approach of The Product Garage. “
Volareo and Travis
The first products that walk out of the stable of The Product Garage are innovative and have an idealistic character. For example, Volareo is a smart speaker, which makes it possible to give artists a ‘tip’ by applauding.
Bentokai is a leather notebook, which aims to change the leather industry. The expertise from Travis de Translator has been used for the development and launch of these products.
Booman adds, “There are countless people who have an idea to improve their industry or the world. For those people, it is still too difficult to bring products to the market. Corporates also want to release products faster. That is why we develop a prototype together with participants of The Product Garage, validate it and eventually launch the product. Via Indiegogo or Kickstarter we quickly recognize whether there is a market for a product.”
International and experienced team
The Product Garage aims to grow more Dutch startups into successful companies. “By supporting them with knowledge and experience, we also solve another problem: the lack of serious growth capital in the Netherlands.”
Booman has worked for the last ten years in various companies in different Asian countries. He was a marketing manager at Rocket Internet (in Singapore) and FreakOut (a listed, Japanese Ad-tech company). In addition, Lennart van der Ziel (founder of Travis), Brend Kouwenhoven (founder and CEO of Travis) and Nick Yap (founder of Volareo and Travis, more than 20 years of international tech experience) are involved in The Product Garage.
— Press Release
