Editing The Pen Addict 450/transcript (section)

== New Buying Experience ==


'''Myke:''' Because it was new, delays were new.

'''Brad:''' Right. Right. And people didn't know. People was like, well, where's my pen?

'''Myke:''' People were not used to this way of buying things, either. These, like, undetermined, long-term pre-orders, if you ever get it.

'''Brad:''' Mm-hmm.

'''Myke:''' You know? So, it was all very, very new. So, it stood out and continues to be a standout.

'''Brad:''' And one last thing that stood out was Sewe would write these novel-length updates. Like, they did not hold back, right, on the updates, on the details, good or bad. They laid it all out every time. And it was like reading these books every time he would publish a blog update. It was incredible. It was what an incredible project.

'''Myke:''' So, again, something like that with that openness and updates probably set a trend, which continues to this day. Yep. Yep. They really were innovators, and for good and bad. Exactly. In whatever it takes to make a Kickstarter campaign.

'''Brad:''' Yep. And how you handle that, you know, helps kind of determine your future. As we work through this, there's going to be a lot of recurring themes this way.

'''Myke:''' So, my second project, which was my first kind of stationary-related project, was a campaign called I Draw Comics Sketchbook and Reference Guide. This was in August of 2012. You know, the gates are open now. It raised $245,000 on a $10,000 goal. Golly. Yeah. It was a book in kind of the Leuchtturm format, Moleskine format, you know, like with the little elastic that goes around the front. And it was part guide on how to draw comics and like comic art. And then the other half of the book was sketch paper for you to actually draw in. I have no idea why I backed this.

'''Brad:''' I don't know why I backed this. Before I saw that in the show notes, I was going to ask. I was like, oh, how's your comic career going?

'''Myke:''' I don't think I've ever. Well, I know I don't have the talent for this. Maybe that was why, you know. I will say back in August of 2012, I was still kind of in the world of, I feel like I'm a creative person. And I haven't found the thing that has made me truly successful. Like we were having some success then with the shows, like in the podcast were taken off. But I was like desperately looking for the thing to change my life. Maybe that was part of it. But I have no skill in this area. So I don't know why I did it. I mean, I know I was into reading comics a lot more than I am now. So maybe I had like an idea for a comic and thought, well, maybe if I could learn how to draw, I might be good at this. Because I do not know. But that was why I backed, I draw comics back in 2012.

'''Brad:''' You know what you did, Myke? You kickstarted. Yeah. This is what happens. Like you've got things. I've backed so many projects that like I don't know where these products are. Like out of those 95 stationary products, how many of those Kickstarter projects, which is kind of sad in retrospect, how many of those do you think I use? That are at least in my world daily, it's probably like less than 10, which is pretty crazy if you really, really think about it. But that's what Kickstarter was at the time. And that's what we do with Kickstarter. I do it a lot less now. Like my Kickstarter funding has gone way, way down compared to what it used to be. You know, it's changed over the years, which I'm sure we'll get to more.

'''Brad:''' This second stationary set that I backed, which I guess was my third project I backed. We're not going to count these down like this. But it just so happened like this was the beginning. And this was kind of the heyday. And all these new and interesting products come up. And this one was called the PHX1 design tool set. The makers were then an unknown pair of gentlemen named Chadwick Parker and Joe Wang. And if those names sound familiar, they are now known as Big Eye Design, which is pretty funny. When you look back at December 2011, this product that they made, they had made some other non-stationary products. I can't remember if they were Kickstarters or not, but like furniture and like things like that. But it's interesting to see someone kind of feeling things out, finding their way, you know, honing their design chops and making a product. At the time, it was very, very cool. You know, looking back, it's super basic now. But it's I wanted to focus on this project because it kind of laid the groundwork for what eventually became Big Eye Design. So this was a singular just tube, like a metal tube. I think it was stainless. I can't remember if it was titanium or stainless. And it was designed so the front end had threading where you could remove, say, a Uniball Signo DX pin front end, the whole nose cone and everything, and put that into this tube. And screw that front end section into the tube. And then there you had a different barrel for your DX. And you could also do this with the Hitec C. It was important at the time because this was like the ramp up of the Hitec C, but the DX didn't have anything. But really until what Spoke did with the DX, because I wanted it so bad, because this was the answer I gave people for years. It's like, I want something nicer for my DX. And I was like, there isn't one. You know, I backed this one called PHX1. It's like, oh, will you send it to me? People would ask me for it. And I was like, no, no. But it just didn't have that compatibility. But the way they did it with a threading, they did it from a threading perspective where you would remove part of an existing pin and put it into this one. Also, this pin on the back of it, Myke, you could put an X-Acto knife. It's like a tool pen. And it's a little dangerous. Yeah. So, but you see it now and you go, well, yeah, of course they became Big Eye Design and made all these things because this is what they were thinking about back in 2011, right? How can we mix and match a few different things into this pen? Was it great at the time? No.

'''Myke:''' No, because it's also funny. You can look at it and be like, this is janky. Like, you can look at it and it's like, this is a little janky.

'''Brad:''' But you get the, you see the groundwork, right? Of what, look at Big Eye Design now. Like, they make some great stuff. It's very cool. Very cool to see this kind of stuff. And it's really cool to see this next one you put in there because I was not an original backer. And they are now one of my personal favorite stationery brands.