This is a continuation of our Crowdfunding your Meadery series, examining the funding tiers of successful mead Kickstarter projects to identify commonality between funding levels and determine what items are most likely to be purchased by a project’s backers. For a list of articles in this series, see the first article here. In this article, we will examine the Bos Meadery Kickstarter project, which can be found here.
Colleen Bos, a medieval historian and homebrewer for more than 9 years, started Bos meadery in an effort to provide the meads she likes to drink to the local Madison, WI market. Madison is a hotbed for local food and beverages, including at least 11 breweries, many local bars and eateries, and the Old Sugar Distillery. Madison is even well known for the largest producer’s only farmers’ market in the US, the Dane County Farmer’s market.
Bos started her meadery close to downtown Madison to ensure foot traffic when they are able to build out their tasting room. Prior to the Kickstarter project, Bos had already secured the space and equipment necessary for the meadery, and needed the last bit of funding to purchase the materials to bring Bos Meadery to market. This included honey, yeast, fruit juices, bottles, corks, etc., with any remaining funds going to help furnish a tasting room.
The Bos Meadery Kickstarter project sought $11,000 and offered 15 funding tier options. The funding options started at $15 for a tour and tasting, up to $3,000 for the opportunity to consult with Colleen on creating a mead recipe, being a VIP at the Bos Meadery Launch Party, and lots of swag that included a t-shirt, drinking horn, wine glass, and travel corkscrew.
The Bos Meadery Kickstarter project was available for 32 days. During this time, 166 backers provided $15,767, beating the funding goal by 43%. Details concerning the funding tiers, number of backers who supported the funding tiers, and the total amount of funding per funding tier can be found in the figures below.
Bos Meadery received backers for 12 of the 15 funding tiers available. The most popular item by far was the $15 option to receive a tour and tasting with 48 backers. The second most popular item was a funding tier for $45 that included a Bos Meadery wine glass and a personal tour and tasting, with 19 backers. The third most chosen option received 16 backers, and added to the second most popular item, with the backer’s name listed as a founding supporter on a plaque at the meadery, a t-shirt, and a travel corkscrew for $200.
Even though the first tier item received the most number of backers, it only accounted for 5% of the total funding received. Rather, the two tiers contributing the most funding to the project were tier 11 receiving 23% of the total funding and tier 9 (the third most popular described above) receiving 21%. Tier 11 included everything in funding tier 9, with the additional of a quality drinking horn.
And that covers the last successfully funded meadery Kickstarter project. Check back with us next week as we wrap it all together and provide some recommendations for your next Kickstarter project, specifically focusing on the items that are most likely to be purchased if you start a beverage related crowdfunding project.