$7,690 pledged,  21%, funded, 108 backers.

Day 15. Midway through the 30 days of our Kickstarter. My Kickstarter is now “middle aged”. A little creaky in the knees but still moving. Youth has flashed by. Like a middle-aged tennis player, we’re not going to win on speed and muscle (aka a big press hit), we’re going to have to win with guile (no, that’s not me in the picture, I’m much better looking). Only, I’m not feeling very guilish at the moment. (I’m also pretty sure guilish isn’t a word?). Tomorrow’s task is to regroup and re-analyze the path to meeting our goal. Current one won’t get it done. But first, today.

Had our first beta customer cancellation, out of about 150. Bummer, but then, to lose only one out of a random crowd of 150+ is actually pretty good. Especially given how many Kickstarter mails they’ve been subjected to 8).

In the good news department: Bost Inno ran a follow-on article about 9 new Boston startups to watch, and we made it into that. And a local town library is interested in integrating The Hawaii Project into their website! Vaguely suggested they (or other libraries) might even be willing to pay for it! I set up an in-person visit for early next week. Failing anything else, maybe there’s a way to get the word out on the Kickstarter that way.

Oh yeah. I was going to give you an analysis of the impact of the BostInno piece. First, it’s great awareness building. It led to another press outlet getting in touch to do a live interview next week. These things build on each other, press isn’t a one-and-done medium – each thing builds on previous work.

Unfortunately the article doesn’t link to my Kickstarter landing-page-with-redirect (I’ll explain that post-Kickstarter in my tips and tricks), so I can’t see how many people visited the Kickstarter page, I can only see who ended up backing. The article got a 1.8k “FlameScore” on BostInno (it’s unclear what FlameScores are exactly – page views is a big component but not a 1:1 mapping), and generated 37 twitter shares and 31 Facebook shares. From watching the backing flow, it’s pretty clear the BostInno piece resulted in 7 new backers and about $500 in backing. If you’re trying to fund a Kickstarter on press, you either need a more compelling product than me, or more press 8).

Commercial: If you want to back us, you can do so here. The Hawaii Project. Do Good by Reading Well.

It’s day 14 of the Kickstarter for The Hawaii Project, Wednesday, April 15.

$7,565 pledged,  21%, funded, 105 backers.

It’s exciting to be across the 100 backer milestone, but I’m a little disappointed how few actual donors the BostInno article produced, even thought it was probably seen by a few thousand people. Tomorrow, I’ll produce some stats on it. Still, it was great coverage and there’s likely a tail to it. I already got one other potential press opportunity from someone seeing the article (from someone in Hawaii no less!).

But this morning, I just can’t face hawking (aka “pushing”, “promoting”, mailing, tweeting, posting, ….”) my product more today. I need to DO something. I’ve had an idea about how to make the recommendations much much more personalized than they are. Hint: it involves interest vectors, dot products, linear algebra and metadata. Sound sexy? I thought so. I hack til about 2pm, and it’s…..working. “It’s Alive”, he said to maniacal laughter.

Working pretty damn well actually. Surprisingly well. Not scalable, but that can wait for another day….psyched.

I have coffee with an old friend who’s leaving his job of 22 years and going back into the job hunt. After 22 years, it’s a little scary, I imagine. I encourage him to take some time off before making any decisions. (Rule 28 in my personal list of Gibbs Rules for worklife – I’ll post those some day). He asks if there’s any good startup events to go to.

Duh. Palm-to-Forehead Slap. I realize I totally forgot about events! Never even considered lining some up! Duh. I scramble. There’s a Mass Innovation Nights event coming, but it looks full. I submit anyway. Startup Stir has an event. I submit. There’s more events out there, but long lead times to get in….gack. Maybe too late for the Kickstarter, but I should be other there talking about….hawking….my product anyway 8). Note to self: next time, don’t forget the events. Talking to real people in person, not through email. Strange concept.

Today’s Music: Massachusetts Americana Singer-Songwriter Jeffrey Foucault. Check out “Train to Jackson”.

It’s day 13 of the Kickstarter for The Hawaii Project, Tuesday, April 14.

Notwithstanding it was day 13, it was a good day yesterday.

Coverage on The Hawaii Project finally appeared in BostInno! BostInno is probably the 2nd biggest online media outlet after the Boston Globe, and likely bigger in terms of startup news. It’s great news for the project, and an interesting case study in how to approach media about your project. I’ll do a deeper dive on this after the Kickstarter is complete – for now, it’s relevant to one particular question – when do you approach media? In an ideal world, your news story hits the same day you launch your Kickstarter – you want as many people as possible piling onto Kickstarter the day you launch.

I had been in contact with them on and off over recent months but not directly talking about THP or seeking coverage. I sent them a note 8 days before the launch with the launch material and asking if they were interested to cover it, thinking a week was enough lead time. Good news, yes, they are interested. bad news: my contact goes on vacation the day of my email, and gets someone else involved. The reporter is extremely busy! Working off a backlog of stories almost two weeks old! So my story goes into the backlog. It hits today, day 13 of the campaign, so start-to-finish time on this story is 21 days. Moral of the story for you entrepreneurs: especially for your most desired outlets (BostInno was one of my top hopes for good press), get to them early so they have time to do the work. They’re busy too, maybe busier than you 8).

I watch the online chatter for a bit, then, I’m off to Porter Square Books, a local indie bookstore. I’m meeting with Josh Cook, who’s been a bookseller for at least a decade, runs online for PSB, and is a recently-published author (I buy a copy of his book, An Unexpected Murder while I am there). I’m hoping to get insights into the book-selling process from the perspective of a bookstore and from an author, and in addition hoping to find some way of working with them.

I learn a lot from talking to him. Since some people might consider what I am doing trying to dis-intermediate bookstores (it is NOT), I’m a little worried about them not wanting to help me. Josh however is an open book (insert bad joke sound effect here). Very helpful, thoughtful, and open to sharing. He is dubious that a machine or an algorithm can just pluck the right book out of the air (I also think that’s too high an expectation), but he gets more interested when I talk about how I’m crawling high quality, trusted sources of writing about books. His take is that is why people come to PSB and ask for book recommendations – they are a “trusted source”. We chat about a wide variety of things including the recent s***storm that is the Hugo controversy. In the end it doesn’t appear there’s an obvious way to work together but I’ve learned a lot.

Head home, go play some tennis (sound mind sound body, remember?), watch an episode of Hawaii-50, then pass out. Barely remember my head hitting the pillow.

$7,410, 21% of goal. Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock….

It’s day 12 of the Kickstarter for The Hawaii Project, Monday, April 13.

$7,045, 20% of goal, picked up $10 yesterday. Sigh.

I’ve mostly battled through my bout of Resistance, which I hit yesterday and which you can read about here.  Haven’t heard back from anyone yet, but hope springs eternal….

Got a meeting set up with Porter Square Books. Yay! Going to go pick their brains about bookselling, author promotion, and see if there’s any way to work together. Doing things that don’t scale. 

First, I’m off to Firecracker, to whom I am an advisor. They’ve got big momentum in medical education, awesome new offices in downtown Boston, and interesting challenges (and they’re hiring). It’s fun to worry about somebody else’s problems for a change. It’s like the difference between being a parent and being a grandparent. When you’re a grandparent, when you’re done playing, you hand the kid back, say “here you go”, and go home 8) (and worry). When you’re the parent, you have to wake up at 2 in the morning to deal with the problem.

Finish up with Firecracker, head to Porter Square, am told the person I am meeting it’s their day off and they’re not here. Shit. Some kind of misunderstanding. Oh well. I make arrangements to go back tomorrow. Day in the life…..

I talk to my dad on the phone this evening, haven’t talked to him in awhile. It’s dusk, and while I’m talking to him, deer run through my yard. I think of the Coyote that was in the yard a few days ago, and it all keeps my problems in perspective – at least a coyote isn’t trying to eat me 8).

Today’s Music: I stumble across the song for the new True Detectives show. Absolutely hypnotic. I don’t know the show but the music, wow.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OfU7CGY5DQ. A little research shows it’s Lera Lynn and unreleased. So I spent an hour with that and this (a cover of TV on the Radio’s Wolf Like Me, on infinite repeat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwVX4cG6F9s

It’s day 11 of the Kickstarter for The Hawaii Project, April 12. Sunday.

$7,035, 20% of goal, thanks to a generous donation. Still coming in as a trickle. Not going to make it…..

It’s Sunday. Thinking about dialing it back today. I have one main goal for today. Get in touch with book bloggers. So far, I’ve mailed friends, acquaintances, journalists, librarians (every library in the state of Massachusetts believe it or not!), and gazillion other people. But I haven’t sent any to book bloggers, who should be interested, both for their readers and so they could get their blog included in The Hawaii Project. I’ve been meaning to do this since day 2 of the campaign, haven’t done it….

I start to draft an email, built out of the key messages I’ve crafted and been repeating, but tailored for book blogs (I’ve repeated this stuff so much it’s starting to feel stale). One thing I’m going to offer them is to do a guest post. I start looking around at what’s going on in the books world to see if I can draft off of something, make a topical post.

There’s a HUGE controversy going on right now in Science Fiction land around the Hugo Awards. It’s fallen prey to the same political polarization that’s everywhere else too. Just google “Sad Puppies” and you’ll get the picture pretty quick. There is a blog post to be written, about why the “Awards” mentality is fundamentally wrong, and why The Hawaii Project is on better footing in terms of helping readers, but I look up after about 3 hours of web surfing and realize I haven’t sent my mails.

Uh.Oh. I have encountered the dread Resistance, as Steven Pressfield likes to say (btw Read This Book). Procrastination if you will. That force that helps you avoid doing the things you should be doing, maybe because you’re afraid. I realize I’ve been putting this mail off and avoiding it for a long time. Because most everyone I’ve been in contact with so far has some reason to listen to me and hear me out. They’re a friend. Or a journalist who gets paid to listen to people like me pushing a product.

Book bloggers, well, they are the most bookish of people on the internet. I realize I’m afraid of having my work (and myself) judged. Found irrelevant. Found not worthy of mention. Ah, there it is. That’s why it’s taken so long to write this mail. Gotcha. It’s funny the things you can hide from yourself.

Brief Commercial Interruption: If you’re reading this, you may not know what The Hawaii Project is. The Hawaii Project brings you books and book news you’d never have found on your own, by tracking hand-selected sources of great books, uncovering things that match your favorite authors, personal interests and current events, and bringing them to you daily. 10% of our revenue goes to support 3 great literacy non-profits. 

If you think that’s a worthwhile endeavor, I’d appreciate your backing on Kickstarter: http://www.thehawaiiproject.com/kickstarter

OK, now I have that straightened out, I pick 10 blogs, read them so I understand their audience and profile, and fire off the mails pretty quickly. Not so hard after all. I had a quota of mails to send, and to punish myself I make sure I do more than my quota. (btw I’ve written about this too in Do More Than is Required of You).

And close out the day with the first episode of the season for Game of Thrones. Yay!

(music: Sunday is Jazz day at my place. Dexter Gordon’s wonderful Night in Tunisia and other gems here).