Today marks one year since the launch of our Kickstarter Campaign. That’s one year from when we introduced Story Supply Co. to the world and asked all of you to help us tell our story. One year since I learned that our bodies are quite resilient, that sleep is mostly optional, that the correct answer to “how many hours can one stare at Google analytics in one day?” is All of them.
I hit the go button and started setting up social media blasts and other messaging about the launch. And then I waited. Kickstarter warns that it can take up to three days for a campaign to go live. Part of me imagined we’d go live immediately. We didn’t, and so I waited, and waited. I must have hit the refresh button in my browser a thousand times in those days leading up to the official launch. And then it happened, late afternoon on a Wednesday.
I announced the live campaign to our social media followers and the first pledge came in within a few seconds. Then another one, and another one. It was in that moment I thought, “Holy crap this is really happening,” which was followed by a sick feeling, light headedness and another thought, “What did we get ourselves into?”
I didn’t know what to expect even though I had prepared and researched. I had reached out to others who’d run successful campaigns and had taken note of all their advice. The months leading up to the campaign launch had been a blur of reaching out to potential reviewers, hyping the future campaign and shooting the campaign video, and then reshooting, and then reshooting some more.
The sequence in the video where I speak directly into the camera must have taken more than a hundred takes in multiple locations. The one in the video was shot on a whim, one afternoon in my office, soon after I had decided to skip that part for the finished product. I’m still not sure it’s the best one.
We hit our funding goal within 24 hours, and eventually more than doubled it. We were on our way. Story Supply Co. was a real thing, and now we need to learn how to run a company.
Since last September we’ve launched four new notebooks in addition to the original Pocket Staple. Our products are carried by retailers in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington DC, York, Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Connecticut, Ohio, and the UK. Later this month, products will be available through Jet Pens.
We’ve started making and selling t-shirts, and we’ve even begun to offer custom printing and branding solutions. The coolest thing, though, is that in the past year we’ve donated over a thousand notebooks to kids enrolled in after-school writing and arts programs. Many of them were donated to underserved areas, and we have so many more to give!
We love supplying people like you with inspiring tools to tell your story, and we love putting creativity tools into young peoples’ hands.
Year one has been about figuring out things out and connecting with people all over the world. This coming year we’re hoping continue to grow while staying true to the things that matter to us—sustainability, stronger communities, and quality goods and services for everyone with a story to tell.
We hope you’ll join us, and we'd love to hear from you. What do you want to see from us in the future?
Cheers,
Vito and Gabe @ SSC
Here's the video that started it all: