Customizable Magnetic Marble Course Rolls in Success

Art of the Kickstart

In this episode of Art of the Kickstart, we spoke with Elyasaf Shweka, industrial designer for Makeway, creators of the marble track super-puzzle. Through a variety of magnetic bits, this fully-backed product allows you to create intricate and unique marble paths that seamlessly attach to common metal surfaces such as fridges, whiteboards and cars. Listen in and learn about Makeway’s inspiration, product development journey and crowdfunding marketing strategies. Topics Discussed and Key Crowdfunding Takeaways Elyasaf’s woodworking background and why he created Makeway Their extensive prototyping process to determine Makeway’s features Why they choose Kickstarter to crowdfund their product How they were able to earn over 600 backers and $70K in just the first day of the campaign The future of Makeway, amid the COVID-19 pandemic Links Makeway Makeway on Kickstarter The Dip by Seth Godin Sponsors Art of the Kickstart is honored to be sponsored by The Gadget Flow, a product discovery platform that helps you discover, save, and buy awesome products. The Gadget Flow is the ultimate buyer's guide for cool luxury gadgets and creative gifts. Click here to learn more and list your product - use coupon code ATOKK16 for 20% off! Transcript View this episode's transcript Roy Morejon: Welcome to Art of the Kickstart, your source for crowdfunding campaign success. I’m your host, Roy Morejon, President of Inventus Partners, the top full service turnkey product development and crowdfunding marketing agency in the world. We have helped startups raise over a $100 million for our clients since 2010. Each week I’ll interview a crowdfunding success story, an inspirational entrepreneur, or a business expert in order to help you take your startup to the next level with crowdfunding. Art of the Kickstart is honored to be sponsored by Gadget Flow. The Gadget Flow is a product discovery platform that helps you discover, save, and buy awesome products. It is the ultimate buyer’s guide for luxury gadgets and creative gifts. Now let’s get on with the show. Roy Morejon: Welcome to another edition of Art of the Kickstart. Today I am talking with Elyasaf Shweka, industrial designer at Makeway. Elyasaf, thank you so much for joining us today. Elyasaf Shweka: It’s a pleasure. Thank you for inviting me. Roy Morejon: Well, I’m super excited, because you are the top campaign right now on Kickstarter. You have made this amazing product where you can create these intricate courses and watch marbles move around in a modular, really cool puzzle way, with the magnetic bits and everything that you’ve created on it. And as a kid growing up, I used to make all these different types of things, so I’m excited to see this project that’s now raised over $1.8 million. So I know that you’ve got a great back story, and our audience is going to be really excited to hear about some of the stuff that you had been doing and how you’ve pivoted, and failed forward, in a sense, to bring Makeway to market. So please tell our audience where all this started, and what inspired you to create Makeway. Elyasaf Shweka: So actually, this is a funny story. It was around five years ago, I think. Kickstarter was a bit different than nowadays in several senses, and I saw many projects running around and raising a lot of money, all kinds of different projects. Some are very good, some less. And I remember talking to my brother and saying, “You know, I’m an industrial designer. I have some professional knowledge about production, about all kind of technologies, and why wouldn’t I try to do my thing, go on Kickstarter?” And he said, “Yeah, great idea. What’s your idea?” I said, “Okay, give me a few minutes and I’ll come back with a good idea that will fit Kickstarter platform.” Elyasaf Shweka: And then a minute after, I called him back and I said, “I have a great idea. Let’s make Marble one machine,