Crowdfunding has taken off in the last couple of years, from the notorious potato salad that garnered over $50,000 in funding to possibly life-changing solar road technology that gained over $2 million for its own campaign. But despite the viral nature of many crowdfunding campaigns, it takes more to take a project from inception to acquisition in the span of months.
We are fortunate at Piper, a smart "do-it-yourself" home security system, to be able to make that claim, going from inception to crowdfunding in a year and from product launch to acquisition in just three months. But it wasn't just luck or the right marketing. It was about having the absolute best people, at the absolute best time, working the absolute right thing.
This confluence of personnel, ideas and leadership was instrumental in guiding our success. Once in motion, we never turned back; we helmed the second largest Indiegogo campaign in Canada and became part of Icontrol Networks just months later, which has enabled us to grow even further.
In hopes of passing on some of the life and business lessons we've learned on our path to success, here's how we got to the big leagues in the burgeoning IoT market.