The road to entrepreneurial brilliance might not be paved with easy money and effortless achievements, but it is well worth the setbacks, false starts, and stress. Just ask the team behind Phazon. These wireless earbuds set Kickstarter on fire, netting an incredible $1.8million by the time the campaign closed in January 2016. 

The secret to their success? Hard work and preparation. Crucially, crowdfunding wasn’t the first point of call for this team, led by Chris Houle, a tax specialist from Montreal. Phazon began way back in 2014 with design, testing, and prototype development. Cleveland-based startup incubator LaunchHouse provided a small amount of seed capital – and a struggle for control of the emerging company – that allowed the team to invest in marketing.

Having fought for and won controlling interest over his company, Houle set to work establishing the brand. The Phazon team leveraged social media and paid marketing to create an engaged community around their product. When they finally went live on Kickstarter months later, it was this group of supporters that initially drove their success. Within 12 hours, Phazon had a fully funded campaign and was trending on the platform, pulling in ever more backers as it gained momentum.
Of course, there was more to their success than months of marketing. The team’s PR activities generated a huge buzz and led to high-profile coverage by publications including TechCrunch and Forbes. 

This runaway success was hard won, and represents hundreds of man hours, but the results speak for themselves. Less than a year after its crowdfunding victory, Phazon is a thriving, growing business. It currently employees less than ten people but, with the interest generated by the campaign and a huge capital investment, Phazon has the potential to create hundreds of jobs in the future. Another great example of the incredible, work-making powers of First Crowdfund and platforms like it.