This contemporary all-in-one container can be used to collect, rinse, measure and pour ingredients being chopped on a cutting board.
Dear Backers,
As a reminder, we just launched our new Kickstarter campaign, the Knife Buddy.
Here is the link for your convenience. Go get your Early Birds now : )
http://kck.st/1S68RKi?ref=launchemail
Looking forward to your support!
Thanks.
Shilpi and Shrenik
Thanks to all 784 of you wonderful backers, we just ended our campaign for the ChopTainer with great success. It is just pure delight to see backers coming from every corner of the world, covering 6 of the 7 continents (supposedly no one cooks in Antarctica plus the shipping would be prohibitive)! We would like to sincerely thank every backer and everyone else, including friends, family and online bloggers who shared the ChopTainer campaign on email, social media and other means.
The past 30 days have been amazing, many with sleepless nights (too excited!) and lots of behind the scene work going on. Although we couldn’t make the stretch goal (bummer!!), we ended up with 278% of our original goal of $10,000. This has helped expedite our production by moving up on our manufacturers’ schedule by around 2-3 weeks. Hope we can keep that lead moving forward. We are keeping our fingers (and toes) crossed, and all mitigation plans in our back pocket, in the event that something does not go according to plan.
People move! So surveys for your rewards will be sent out closer to shipping as we would like to maximize the probability of you being at your recorded address.
Kickstarter confirmation of the pledges and credit card checks
Over the next 2 weeks, Kickstarter will be confirming all the pledges by checking validity of credit cards used by our backers. They will be communicating to you if your card is declined for any reason. It is imperative that you respond to them with corrective action ASAP, in order to get your rewards. Only after all the cards are resolved (successfully or unsuccessfully), will the funds be transferred to us.
Completion of the Stage 1 molds for the ChopTainers
This includes getting the mold and getting the first production prototypes to perform a “dimension check” to ensure that the overall size and all critical dimensions on the parts are as designed and intended.
Completion of the Stage 2 molds for the ChopTainers
After performing a thorough dimension check on the parts, the molds will go through automatic as well as hand polishing to get to the desired finish on the various surfaces of the ChopTainers.
Detailed Quality Check on Molds and Parts
The final molds will be used to produce injection-molded parts that will be used to check the quality of the parts, including size, surface finish, color, etc.
Food Certification
Some of the final production samples will be sent to the lab for testing and getting food-grade compliance certification.
1st Production Run
After getting the final approval from us, the factory will start the first production run for the ChopTainers.
Packaging
Similar steps will take place for the packaging of the retail packs (Set of 3). A die will be used to make and print the packaging card.
Packing and Shipping from China
The ChopTainers will be packed and start its loooong journey by sea, from China to the East Coast of the US in New Jersey, where our warehouse is located.
Final Shipping to our Backers
This is the most exciting and rewarding part (no pun intended!).
From our warehouse in New Jersey, the rewards for the domestic backers will be shipped to various Amazon warehouses. For our domestic backers, we have picked Amazon’s world-class multi-channel fulfillment service to get the rewards delivered to your doorstep. Once we deliver the goods to Amazon, they will be handling all the final packaging, shipping and communicating the tracking information to you. Of course, we will be there if you have any questions or concerns along the way. For the international backers, the rewards will come from our New Jersey warehouse to our California warehouse, from where we will be shipping the rewards to all the International backers using USPS service. Unfortunately, Amazon does not ship internationally unless its media (Books, CDs, DVDs etc.).
We will keep you updated at every stage of the above process. You will hear from us soon.
Until Later,
Shilpi and Shrenik
Yayy, we are in the home stretch! Last 2 days have seen a lot of you wonderful backers getting behind the ChopTainer, so thank you all : )
Just over 24 hours remain for this campaign and we are falling around $4K short of our $30K stretch goal. It looks like Facebook posts have worked the best in terms of spreading the word. For your convenience, we have made "post-ready" links that you can just click on to share on social media, so please share away : )
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1LDABoY
Twitter: http://bit.ly/1LDyl0Y
Thanks and see you at the finish line!
Shrenik and Shilpi
Here are some projects that are either ongoing or have already been successful. These are just awesome projects we would love to recommend.
This project was successfully funded and belongs to Chuck, a very good friend of ours. He has had more than one successful campaign and has helped us with his advice on our Kickstarter campaigns on many occasions.
Clip it, cling it, bring it - to the Kitchen, gym and workplace! How will you use yours?
2. Apex
We’ve all got laptops now! And lots of us use laptops for everyday use at our our desks. Introducing… the Apex Laptop Stand! It’s good looking, lightweight, portable, and has spots for your laptop, tablet, and cell phone. This thing is nice!! .
A favor to ask - Could you please copy the below text and link and share it on your Facebook to help spread the word, if you haven't done so already? We have a few days left and this push on social media can go a long way! Thanks!
Please share this -
ChopTainers will change the way we interact with the cutting board. These contemporary all-in-one containers can be used to collect, rinse, measure and pour ingredients being chopped. More space on the board and no need to lift it. Prepping made easy! kck.st/1EzZgtf
Steel for the the ChopTainer molds was procured by our factory and the mold making has already commenced. They have sent us a preliminary video of the machining process (using a CNC). Please excuse us as the video quality is not very good and since it is dark inside the equipment, video might be a little dark, but you can clearly see the mold taking the shape of our ChopTainers.
3.ChopTainer was also chosen by Adobe to be featured in advertising their new iPad App, Slate (available on iTunes). Look for ChopTainer featured in "Slate Stories" from around the web.
We were approached by a show on FOX (shot in the Warner Bros. studio right here in L.A.), that was supposed to feature a startup with a cool product to be selected to be in front of two of the Sharks from the "Shark Tank". There seems to have been many contestants and it came down to two - the ChopTainer and one other product.
Unfortunately, they went ahead with the other product (pet friendly product) to suit the audience more. Oh well, maybe next time! Overall, it was a great experience to submit the audition video for the show and the hope to be on the show!
5 backers have already signed up for being a "Booster" where they share their own dedicated links generated for them when they sign up. You then share this personal link to our campaign with your friends on social media and can earn 10% of the pledges from all your friends who back the ChopTainer campaign.
Until later,
Shilpi and Shrenik
Check them out!
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3. NovelTea Tins: Beautifully illustrated tea tins with a novel twist. Don QuixoTea, War and Peach, and Pippi Oolongstocking
4. COOLMORE: COOLMORE is ending soon, it is an AC, Cooler, and Fan, all-in-one and it is a great low-energy way to cool off small areas of the house where you need it without increasing your electric bill. It is a must-have for the hot summer! You can check it out in detail by clicking on the picture below!
Dear Backers,
We are pleased to announce an alternate color for the colander in the Set of 3 ChopTainers. The new color offered is YELLOW. This option will be available at the end of the campaign IF and ONLY IF we reach the $30,000 mark.
Note: These choices will be picked by the Backers through surveys sent by us after the campaign ends.
Backers who picked Reward Tiers containing only one Set of 3 ChopTainers
You can pick your choice of colander - either GREEN or YELLOW.
Backers who picked Reward Tiers containing more than one Set of 3 ChopTainers
You can pick any combination for your colander colors.
For Example: Backers pledging for Set of 2 ChopTainers can pick both Sets to have GREEN colanders, both to have YELLOW colanders, or one Set to have GREEN and the other to have YELLOW. Same goes for higher reward tiers.
So the Crowdfunding community has become really innovative by coming up with smart ways of marketing the campaigns. The most commonly used is Social Media and Blogs, but Affiliate Marketing in Crowdfunding is just beginning to happen with many campaigns going viral by using this. When we were approached by crowdfunding enthusiasts, Kickbooster to beta test this new Affiliate Marketing platform for our campaign, we were like, SURE!! It will be a win-win situation for you, our Backers, and us, as our campaign can reach a higher level of funding to unlock the Stretch Goals.
Until later,
Shilpi and Shrenik