A BeatBuddy demo at the January show of NAMM, the National Association of Music Merchants, in Anaheim, Calif.
By Nancy Dahlberg / ndahlberg@miamiherald.com
If you are an entrepreneur, never underestimate the power of a passionate fan base.
Musician-entrepreneur David Packouz of Miami, the 31-year-old inventor of the BeatBuddy, the first guitar pedal drum machine, rocked out with his Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign, blowing past his $75,000 goal in the first 24 hours. As the 50-day campaign closed Tuesday evening, he had raised $349,236 from 1,802 funders. That's a 466 percent increase.
That’s no easy feat, as most campaigns never even make it to their goal. While Indiegogo does not release success rates, its dominant competitor, Kickstarter, does: Just 44 percent of Kickstarter campaigns make their funding goals. Indiegogo’s rate is estimated by various tech publications to be lower.
The amount raised also placed BeatBuddy as the 45th “Most Funded” campaign on Indiegogo, which launched in 2008 as a platform to help innovators get their project funded through campaigns to the public. So far, Indiegogo has hosted more than 190,000 campaigns from nearly 190 countries, with about 7,000 campaigns going at any one time, a spokesman said.
So how did Packouz stand out? “The most important actions to take in order to achieve success in crowdfunding include being proactive, having a good pitch and finding an audience that cares. David is a great example of the incredible results that can be achieved by executing these key actions,” said Kate Drane, Indiegogo's Hardware Lead. “It's important to make a campaign personal.”
Packouz developed and patented his first product to give a musician creative pedal control over a variety of drum beats and sounds after he searched in vain for a similar product for himself. “It literally puts the power of a live drummer right at your feet,” said Packouz, who studied engineering at Miami Dade College and has founded electronics import, government contracting and app development businesses. “My philosophy is keep it simple and keep it useful.”