restlessdreams

It was honestly terrifying. I had spent so much time working on the site (some days sitting 8AM - 3AM on my laptop!), and I was really scared it would just flop.. It was like jumping into a swimming pool after months of training and not knowing if it was full of clear blue water or concrete.

At the time, I was using a shared hosting plan with InMotion Hosting for about $8.00 a month. It was even called the "Power Plan." As you probably can imagine, the server melted within the first 5 minutes of being on reddit.. That was a nightmare.

Overall, it was a really incredible learning experience that gave me a complete crash course on web servers, caching, CDNs, load balancers and a lot more techy terms I had never heard of.

I think the scariest part was that I knew how amazing of an opportunity reddit was giving me, but I was scared I wasn't capitalizing to the fullest extent. In the end, the reddit community was really supportive and I received a tremendous amount of useful feedback and insight. The exposure even snowballed into a ton of tech news PR!

EDIT: Had another thought.. :)

You'll never know until you try. Every person who visits your service is a tremendous resource for feedback and insight. Just make sure to have a direct way to collect thoughts from visitors. I've found that using Olark to chat with visitors is extremely useful in that regard.

And about the beard..

I've found Codecademy to be an incredible resource. Unlike many sites with tutorial videos, it offers a really interactive, hands-on learning experience. I think the best way to learn (and how I did it myself) is to use Codecademy while simultaneously working on a project. That way, while you're learning, you can actually see how it can be applied. At the same time, online communities like stackoverflow and reddit (/r/learnprogramming /r/HTML /r/csshelp ) are extremely supportive and can give you guidance when you get stuck.

Oh, and you can even read my Codecademy interview :)

A much larger percentage than you'd think! I usually interact with people via email or on the phone, but when I meet people in person I always see the look of surprise on their face. They do not expect to see a bearded Jewish guy in a tailored suit working in something as hight tech as crowdfunding.. Once we start talking though, the response I get is always positive, and I think people respect me even more for shattering their expectations.

TL;DR I try to capitalize on people's prejudices.

Crowdfunding definitely gets a lot of slack for projects not delivering rewards on schedule. I think the problem is that people think they're pre-ordering a product, instead of backing a creative and innovative endeavor. Like any startup, there's always going to be hiccups, delays, and mistakes. Backing a project means that you're ready to go on the journey.

I think the biggest reason for the backlash is that project creators sometimes don't communicate properly with backers. As a backer of the Pen Type-A project, I saw firsthand just how crazy manufacturing a new product can get. Despite waiting over a year to receive my reward, I was completely understanding of the the designers CW&T because they kept me in the loop throughout the entire process. There wasn't months of silence only to hear about another screwup. They kept their backers informed throughout all the craziness. In the end, they delivered a beautifully designed product, and I'd back them again.

I always mention a study that showed the rude doctors get sued more often (source after a quick google search). In the same way, project creators need to treat their backers properly.

To answer your question more particularly about Outgrow.me, at the moment, we generally don't process pre-orders directly through the site. Instead we direct customers to where they can place the pre-order. We're working on getting a pre-order system set up where your credit card isn't charged until the order ships. I hope to have that up sometime next month.

In terms of scams, beyond one or two stories I recall, we haven't had any issue with that at all.

EDIT: As an aside, people seem to spend a lot of time on our FAQ page. If anyone has any thoughts on what seems unclear, please drop us a message!