HEIPI Tripod Now on IndieGoGo Despite Raising $1M on Kickstarter
HEIPI raised over $1 million through a successful campaign on Kickstarter earlier this month for its new lightweight 3-in-1 Travel Tripod, but that success doesn’t appear to be enough as the company has gone to IndieGoGo in search of more investment.
The HEIPI Travel Tripod saw explosive success from its Kickstarter campaign by raising $1,020,631 through 3,105 backers. Through the crowdfunding endeavor, the company provided multiple updates and explained the changes it was making to the design via feedback from reviewers and influencers that had been provided early samples of the product.
The draw of the compact tripod is its unique design. It features a center column that actually can function as a separate mini tripod while at the same time providing a more stable way to extend the tripod’s height. The three-pound carbon fiber tripod also compacts down to 17.5 inches tall and 2.7 inches in diameter, making it one of the smallest and lightest tripod designs on the market.
“Its patented design of a “3-pillar center column” not only provides excellent stability and compactness, but also allows users to transform HEIPI into two separate tripods within seconds! Not only that, it also comes with a detachable ball head that makes HEIPI the world’s first 3-in-1 tripod,” the company says.
HEIPI clearly took cues from Peak Design and its Travel Tripod, but went beyond that to create a product that was unique on its own merits. As a result, the product was wildly successful and the company has announced that it has begun mass production.
PetaPixel can confirm that the build quality and design of the tripod are solid, at least if the prototype sample it received is any indication of the final product’s quality.
But after raising more than a million dollars on the project, HEIPI doesn’t seem satisfied. The company is taking additional orders for the tripod on IndieGoGo, albeit with fewer discounts than for those who backed it on Kickstarter: what was available for $279 through the original campaign is now available for $339 on IndieGoGo.
Additionally, while Kickstarter backers have been told they will start to receive the tripod by January, IndieGoGo backers will have to wait until March.
It seems that rather than sell the product on a traditional online marketplace, HEIPI happens to like the crowdfunding environment the best and is reluctant to leave it. There is nothing wrong with this strategy, it’s just not common.
It is not unusual to see a company try to get a project backed on another crowdfunding platform if the first attempt fails, but it is pretty uncommon to see that practice take place for a successfully funded campaign — even more unusual to see it happen with a project that raised more than 100 times its original goal.
Bear in mind, crowdfunding campaigns should never be considered as pre-orders since there have been so many campaigns that were successfully backed but failed to deliver a finished project — GearEye is a perfect example of such a situation.
Disclaimer: Make sure you do your own research into any crowdfunding project you’re considering backing. While we aim to only share legitimate and trustworthy campaigns, there’s always a real chance that you can lose your money when backing any crowdfunded project.
