August 13, 2014 at 09:53Cubic Robotics: why we decided to go for global crowdfunding
This spring, our startup, which develops and manufactures a Cubic home assistant robot, received an investment of $ 500,000, we showed working prototypes of the device, and sold 10 test copies. We planned to sell the first production Cubic this summer. However, at the very last moment, we decided to go for crowdfunding. Why - we will try to explain
our design in this article.
We will begin, perhaps, with the fact that since the first presentation of our product in the winter of this year at Geek Picnic, we received 2357 letters from you. All these people clicked on the “buy” button on CubicRobotics.ru website and left their address for feedback. This is a very large number. And we are very glad that you all believed in us and in our product.
Undoubtedly, such faith on the part of a wide variety of people could not spur us on, and we had to hastily develop the product to a higher level.
Therefore, we made a new industrial design. We drew the new Cubic Objectlab guys, with whom we work in the hackspace Neuron.
Today, Cubic looks like this.
Or so.
Well, and so, for comparison, our prototype looked.
Secondly, we finally made a new site . Probably, only the lazy did not reproach us with the fact that on our page it is not clear what kind of project we are doing. We tried to create a site that would explain what Cubic is.
In addition to the new design and website, CubicRobotics has new partners: for example, we agreed on the use of speech recognition algorithms from Yandex. Just a few days ago we were visiting ABBYY, discussing partnership. Especially in terms of using ABBYY Compreno technology. This is a developed system for understanding and analyzing text. This technology will help us greatly in our future work on Cubic intelligence.
We also shot a video that explains the essence of the project.
Project management
Like everyone who releases a new product for the first time, we are faced with the question: what to do next? How to build project management as efficiently as possible?
We decided to join the international experience and listen to experienced, knowledgeable people. Therefore, our CEO, Yuri Burov, went to Boston to listen to American mentors and understand how startups are launched abroad.
A trip to Boston gave a lot: acquaintances, contacts, and most importantly - a healthy view of things. We finally realized that the main thing in the process of creating any product is focus. This understanding came to us after a trip to the USA - we spent about 3 weeks first in Boston, the alma mater of robotics, and then in Silicon Valley.
By the way, who guesses what kind of house is in the photo?
When we first started working on Cubic, we did not concentrate on one product, and tried to do 10 things at a time. Experience in communicating with children from various technology companies has shown that we need to focus. What we did on returning home.
We decided to put aside our ideas for creating automotive solutions, as well as creating separate helper applications for smartphones.
All focus on Cubic. In general, the idea of "focus" will be interesting to anyone who wants to achieve what they want. Do not try to make several products at the same time.
Extraordinary people
Due to the fact that the project seemed interesting not only to ourselves, many people learned about it. Even those that seem to be far from the technological environment.
For example, in New York, our CEO, Yuri Burov, got into a taxi, and after hearing the driver’s Russian speech, he talked to him. We give him the floor.
- The taxi driver said “let's go,” and I decided to talk with him. It turned out that the driver, Uzbek Ozodbek, won the green card three years ago, and has been living in the United States ever since. We drove, chatted about life in Russia and abroad. I talked about the purpose of the trip, the search for new partners. He told me that we are doing a project in the field of artificial intelligence and voice control. What Ozodbek asked me if I did not know about the “Cube” project, which was created in Russia, and which can talk with the user and control devices.
Yuri, who had Cubic in his bag, showed him to an Uzbek who laughed and rejoiced like a child for a long time.
About the current situation
Despite objective difficulties, we continue to move forward. For example, all summer we are engaged in launching production in China. We found partners in January in Shenzhen. It turned out to be quite difficult to create a new product, the deadlines have moved, but we are working hard. Our engineer Alexander Brad has already found a common language with the Chinese guys, and things are going well.
We were supposed to show you the finished product and start selling the first 100 pieces in June. In the old design, with flaws. However, as you probably noticed, we did not.
No, of course we could collect 100 devices, and give them to users. But these would not be the devices that you and we would like. Unripe apples - that’s what it would be.
But we are optimists. Seeing faith in us, we want to continue to grow and develop. To be not a small Russian company, but an international company. Go internationally. The money that we now have for such a start is not enough.
Therefore, we have already decided for ourselves - to launch a crowdfunding campaign this fall. On which platform –Indiegogo or Kickstarter have not yet decided.
Now we are studying the experience of other Russian and foreign colleagues. In this regard, questions in the studio: what cool money-raising campaigns do you know which clips you like? And yes, is there someone among your acquaintances who has already come out on Kickstarter and is ready to share their experience?
We will be grateful for your advice in the comments.
our design in this article.
We will begin, perhaps, with the fact that since the first presentation of our product in the winter of this year at Geek Picnic, we received 2357 letters from you. All these people clicked on the “buy” button on CubicRobotics.ru website and left their address for feedback. This is a very large number. And we are very glad that you all believed in us and in our product.
Undoubtedly, such faith on the part of a wide variety of people could not spur us on, and we had to hastily develop the product to a higher level.
Therefore, we made a new industrial design. We drew the new Cubic Objectlab guys, with whom we work in the hackspace Neuron.
Today, Cubic looks like this.
Or so.
Well, and so, for comparison, our prototype looked.
Secondly, we finally made a new site . Probably, only the lazy did not reproach us with the fact that on our page it is not clear what kind of project we are doing. We tried to create a site that would explain what Cubic is.
In addition to the new design and website, CubicRobotics has new partners: for example, we agreed on the use of speech recognition algorithms from Yandex. Just a few days ago we were visiting ABBYY, discussing partnership. Especially in terms of using ABBYY Compreno technology. This is a developed system for understanding and analyzing text. This technology will help us greatly in our future work on Cubic intelligence.
We also shot a video that explains the essence of the project.
Project management
Like everyone who releases a new product for the first time, we are faced with the question: what to do next? How to build project management as efficiently as possible?
We decided to join the international experience and listen to experienced, knowledgeable people. Therefore, our CEO, Yuri Burov, went to Boston to listen to American mentors and understand how startups are launched abroad.
A trip to Boston gave a lot: acquaintances, contacts, and most importantly - a healthy view of things. We finally realized that the main thing in the process of creating any product is focus. This understanding came to us after a trip to the USA - we spent about 3 weeks first in Boston, the alma mater of robotics, and then in Silicon Valley.
By the way, who guesses what kind of house is in the photo?
When we first started working on Cubic, we did not concentrate on one product, and tried to do 10 things at a time. Experience in communicating with children from various technology companies has shown that we need to focus. What we did on returning home.
We decided to put aside our ideas for creating automotive solutions, as well as creating separate helper applications for smartphones.
All focus on Cubic. In general, the idea of "focus" will be interesting to anyone who wants to achieve what they want. Do not try to make several products at the same time.
Extraordinary people
Due to the fact that the project seemed interesting not only to ourselves, many people learned about it. Even those that seem to be far from the technological environment.
For example, in New York, our CEO, Yuri Burov, got into a taxi, and after hearing the driver’s Russian speech, he talked to him. We give him the floor.
- The taxi driver said “let's go,” and I decided to talk with him. It turned out that the driver, Uzbek Ozodbek, won the green card three years ago, and has been living in the United States ever since. We drove, chatted about life in Russia and abroad. I talked about the purpose of the trip, the search for new partners. He told me that we are doing a project in the field of artificial intelligence and voice control. What Ozodbek asked me if I did not know about the “Cube” project, which was created in Russia, and which can talk with the user and control devices.
Yuri, who had Cubic in his bag, showed him to an Uzbek who laughed and rejoiced like a child for a long time.
About the current situation
Despite objective difficulties, we continue to move forward. For example, all summer we are engaged in launching production in China. We found partners in January in Shenzhen. It turned out to be quite difficult to create a new product, the deadlines have moved, but we are working hard. Our engineer Alexander Brad has already found a common language with the Chinese guys, and things are going well.
We were supposed to show you the finished product and start selling the first 100 pieces in June. In the old design, with flaws. However, as you probably noticed, we did not.
No, of course we could collect 100 devices, and give them to users. But these would not be the devices that you and we would like. Unripe apples - that’s what it would be.
But we are optimists. Seeing faith in us, we want to continue to grow and develop. To be not a small Russian company, but an international company. Go internationally. The money that we now have for such a start is not enough.
Therefore, we have already decided for ourselves - to launch a crowdfunding campaign this fall. On which platform –Indiegogo or Kickstarter have not yet decided.
Now we are studying the experience of other Russian and foreign colleagues. In this regard, questions in the studio: what cool money-raising campaigns do you know which clips you like? And yes, is there someone among your acquaintances who has already come out on Kickstarter and is ready to share their experience?
We will be grateful for your advice in the comments.