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Local innovators use Kickstarter for exposure, support
By Kalea Hall
YOUNGSTOWN
Whether it be to perfect the golf game or master the model railway, Kickstarter campaigns served two local product developers with a goal in mind.
One of those developers is Mike Fetsko, president of ME Models — a company that uses LEGO Æ brand building elements to produce custom building kits for hobbyists.
Fetsko and his business partner, Eric Olson, produced an ME Models fully functional model railway system to compliment the current LEGO Æ gauge railway offering.
Ken Zuzik of Canfield and his son, Matt, developed the Golf Square — a practice tool used to enable a golfer to set up the ball the same way before each swing.
Kickstarter is the world’s largest online funding platform for creative projects for film, music, art, theater, games, comics, design, photography and more, according to its website.
ME Models had a goal to raise $79,000 on Kickstarter and exceeded it in May with $87,357 raised; Golf Square is still in the middle of a Kickstarter campaign with the goal of raising $10,000.
“What people don’t realize is how much effort it is to take something to market,” Zuzik said. “They don’t realize how much time, effort and money it takes.”
Using Kickstarter, Zuzik hopes to attract interested people, including investors, to his product to help get it off the ground.
To begin a Kickstarter campaign, an inventor must first understand this “funding platform for creative projects.”
Project creators may spend weeks building a custom page equipped with a video detailing the product they’ve built.
Funding on Kickstarter is the “all-or-nothing” method, meaning each product developer must raise the total amount listed as the goal to receive any of the funds within the allotted time frame.
Kickstarter applies a 5 percent fee to the funds collected.
Zuzik lists three reasons for why Golf Square was brought to Kickstarter. First: for world exposure; second: to find investors; and third: to raise a little money.
“The value is getting your name out there and getting people to talk to you,” he said.
His product was created after he was having a hard time with alignment.
“I developed a device to help you know you were square all the time,” he said.
Last year, the Zuziks took their product to the PGA Expo in Florida where they were in a section for new products, and soon realized they had a product that was something special. Their product won “Most Innovative Concept” at the expo.
The problem is that to manufacture such a tool is costly. To kick it off costs about $150,000, which includes engineering the molds, the manufacturing of the product and transportation used to get the product out there.
Although the goal is listed at $10,000 on Kickstarter, the Zuziks are looking to raise another $75,000. Ken Zuzik has already invested his own money to help get the product off the ground.
“For us, Kickstarter is a way to pre-sell our product,” he said.
Just a few days after starting the Kickstarter campaign, someone from Japan emailed him interested in the product, which he calls “alignment rods re-imagined.”
“We think we have a replacement for the No. 1 selling golf product in the world,” Zuzik said.
The ME Models product story is somewhat different than the Golf Square story.
ME Models has been up and running for the past 11 years. Throughout that time the company has developed a variety of sets representing automobiles, trucks, businesses, houses, planes and trains. After the stoppage of LEGO Æ brand producing the nine-volt railway system in 2007, ME Models started to think of a new concept for hobbyists to expand upon the LEGO Æ system.
The solution was to use 661-T6 aluminum alloy extruded track that can be custom fit to LEGO Æ bricks and is custom manufactured by ME Models. ME Models makes its own metal and plastic rails.
“It’s a need to continue the hobby,” Fetsko said. “[The hobby] is a global phenomenon.”
With the millions of hobbyists around the world and the need for such a product, ME set out to make it. After some setbacks and realizing the need to raise funds for the project, the company turned to Kickstarter to reach out and complete the project.
“We have designed, tested, manufactured and prototyped rails in both metal and plastic over the past 36 months. We have engaged more than a dozen metal fabricating companies, three different mold makers, two plastic-parts manufacturers in our quest to deliver what we promised to the LEGO Æ brand train hobbyists — a fully functional compatible railway system. Not only in metal, but also in ABS plastic,” the product’s Kickstarter campaign says.
From April 17 to May 17, the campaign raised nearly $90,000.
“We didn’t raise the bulk of our money until the last week,” Fetsko said.
To learn more about ME Models, go to me-models.com, and for information on the Golf Square, contact Ken Zuzik at kpzuzik@gmail.com.