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Flybrix<\/a> first dreamed up a\u00a0drone that\u00a0kids could build with\u00a0LEGO bricks<\/a>\u00a0in 2015. At the time,\u00a0co-founders Amir Hirsch, Robb Walters and Holly Kasun debated the merits of launching with a crowdfunding campaign. They craved the exposure that brands like Pebble<\/a> and Oculus<\/a>\u00a0or Scanadu<\/a> attracted on Kickstarter and Indiegogo, respectively, but they knew consumers were growing suspicious of promises made by crowdfunding hardware startups.<\/p>\n According to research from the University of Pennsylvania, about 9 percent of projects<\/a> that raise funds on Kickstarter fail to deliver the \u201crewards\u201d they promised backers. While Kickstarter commissioned this independent study and published it in March 2015, other crowdfunding sites, notably Indiegogo, haven\u2019t disclosed their numbers. At least the crowdfunding platforms set terms of service so that users are braced for the potential they may not get what they\u2019re hoping for when they back a project.<\/p>\n Kasun said, nothing seemed to draw irate responses online like failed hardware campaigns in the world of crowdfunding. Users seemed to be more patient with artistic endeavors. But they were furious if they didn\u2019t get their Coolest Cooler<\/a>\u00a0or Kreyos<\/a> smartwatch on time \u2014 or at all. Drones were no exception.<\/p>\n By the time her company was getting ready to\u00a0manufacture\u00a0its LEGO drone kits, projects like the Torquing Group\u2019s Zano Nano drone, and AirDroid\u2019s Pocket Drone had failed to materialize. Kickstarter even hired an investigative journalist<\/a> to try to track down answers as to what happened to the Zano for the project\u2019s 12,000 backers.<\/p>\n Back then,\u00a0Lily Robotics\u2019 flying and following cameras<\/a> were delayed. Soon, that startup\u00a0would\u00a0face a lawsuit<\/a> from the San Francisco District Attorney\u2019s office over false advertising. And by 2017, Lily would shut down<\/a>\u00a0completely, despite having raised $15 million in venture capital.<\/p>\n Ultimately, Flybrix decided that to make a crowdfunding campaign work, its drones would have to be past the prototype stage, and the company would need to test its supply chain to make sure its contract manufacturers were ready to churn orders.\u00a0Kasun said, \u201cIt\u2019s not a universal number, but if you can get 1,000 units through your system, you will have a statistically high enough sample set that you can see and solve problems that may show up intermittently in a smaller run.\u201d<\/p>\n To finance its early manufacturing efforts, without crowdfunding, the\u00a0company raised about $1 million in seed funding. Admittedly, the co-founders said, it would have been easier to raise seed funding after demonstrating consumer demand for their toys, in part, through responses to a crowdfunding campaign.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, the company still feels it made the best decision, skipping crowdfunding to make its first run of drones\u00a0available to a private group of customers. As of\u00a0September of 2016, Flybrix made the drones generally available to the public, selling directly on their own site. They found the exposure they wanted, without relying on Kickstarter or Indiegogo.<\/p>\n Within 90 days of their official launch, the company sold $1.9 million worth of these drone kits. And to date it has shipped more than 8,000\u00a0units. The startup is now winning big orders from schools and districts, without the aid of using a distributor. And it even landed its crash-friendly drone kits in a tech-minded store called b8ta<\/a> in Palo Alto.<\/p>\n \u201cOur first product is nowhere near as sophisticated as an early Apple computer. But drones are tiny flying robots. We want to be in education for a really long time, like Apple was from the start. But ultimately, we want to go into consumer electronics more broadly,\u201d\u00a0the COO said.<\/p>\n Next, Flybrix plans to raise additional capital, create new kits and mobile app features and develop educational curriculum that can work in conjunction with its drones.\u00a0The company has not yet decided if a crowdfunding campaign is in its future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com\/2017\/04\/screen-shot-2017-04-10-at-16-54-43.png?w=680\")
Flybrix first dreamed up a drone that kids could build with LEGO bricks in 2015. At the time, the co-founders debated the merits of launching with a crowdfunding campaign. They craved the exposure that brands attracted on Kickstarter and Indiegogo, but they knew consumers were growing suspicious of promises made by crowdfunding hardware startups. Read More<\/a><\/p>\n\n<\/img><\/a>
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