In April, we helped plan/coordinate a launch party for a client of ours, Dave Yonce. Dave is a serial entrepreneur, genius and startup junkie.
- Co-founder – Solarwinds.com (NYSE), a $4.0+ billion company
- Built Solarwinds software company from nothing to IPO in 8 years
- Featured on Shark Tank with IcyBreeze cooler air conditioner
- Developed over 16 patented products so far
- Shot pilot episodes for Disovery TV reality show
- Multiple real estate development projects, including hotels, apartments, shopping centers, manufacturing
- Products distributed by Sams Club, Bass Pro Shops, Sutherlands, Walmart, Amazon, plus hundreds of small retailers
We helped Dave launch his new product, called The GoBoat, within a matter of two weeks, and we planned and coordinated the product launch party in only five days.
Although a little more rushed than we usually prefer, we came out with some extraordinary results.
Here’s the Story
Two weeks prior to launch, we met with Dave and he told us he was ready to launch this new product of his, The GoBoat.
Dave had his business plan, prototypes and manufacturer ready to go. Dave is no amateur to launching businesses, so he knew the only things left to do were to build a website and start promoting his new product.
That’s when he called us.
We had less than two weeks to build a website and help Dave promote The GoBoat. When we build websites for our clients, we get to know them, interact with what they do and get a first hand experience to help transfer the same feeling and excitement they have about their own product.
Two days were dedicated to interacting with Dave and The GoBoat.
We packed ourselves up and headed out to Lake Bixoma, a gorgeous little lake just south of Bixby, Oklahoma.
We spent the first day photographing, filming and getting first hand experience with The GoBoat. (And with a little help from Dave’s great drone-flying skills)
We’ve worked with a lot of clients and built websites from pictures and content they already had, but there’s something different and so much more relatable when we get to go out and spend time with our clients and get to know their product/services with first hand experience.
After getting some great shots out at the lake, we went to meet Dave at his manufacturing facility where he produces Icybreeze Coolers and will ship out The GoBoat.
We spent the morning taking product pictures of The GoBoat to use on the website and for their kickstarter campaign.
While touring through his facility we got up close in personal with Dave, his products and how everything really works. This information gives us a huge edge in building his website.
We’re now able to transfer the same feelings and excitement Dave had showing us everything to his website and hopefully to everyone who visits it.
A week into the website build, we had the idea to throw a product launch party. With only five days left until The GoBoat would launch on Kickstarter, we had to kick in party planning mode.
Right away a large room was booked at a local convention center and we sent out invites directly, through Facebook, email, text and any other way we could.
By Friday night, we had sent out all our invites, catered in food, got the free beer, hired a DJ and decorated a huge room ready to party.
We had over 230 people show up to the launch party, and it was an incredible time!
At the party, Dave gave away 50 of the first GoBoats ($499/ea) and 50 Icybreeze Coolers ($349/ea) to the guests. In order to qualify for the one of the prizes, the guests were asked to post a picture of themselves at the party, tag The GoBoat, like the Facebook page and invite all of their friends to do the same.
Everyone was more than willing to complete all those tasks for a shot at winning 1 of the 100 giveaways that night.
The party was a HUGE success and we saw the same online. On Facebook, we hit over 2,000 likes in just one week.
The GoBoat’s website went from 0 sessions on April 26, 2016 to 7,412 sessions (in one day) on May 3, 2016. And we saw total of 13,354 website sessions just in that one week.
If you need to build a website or start a business, consider throwing a launch party. It’s well worth the effort