Last year at Gen Con, I had a pivotal discussion with a long-time Stonemaier Games partner, Top Shelf Gamer (specifically, Chad and Marlene). I didn’t quite realize it at the time, but that chat would end up shaping a key element of our overall strategy. Since Stonemaier Games was founded in 2012, it’s been a […]
I’m not a coffee drinker (unless coffee ice cream counts), but I’m fascinated by a coffee shop in Japan. I was recently listening to an episode of a podcast called Acquired about Blue Bottle Coffee, a US coffee chain that has a very focused approach to serving coffee. The founder of the company, James Freeman, […]
I’ve coordinated the shipping and fulfillment of products since 2013, yet every time I do it, I’m daunted by the complexity of the process. I can only imagine how intimidating it would be for a new creator. Sure, I have a number of articles about the fulfillment process, but just like on Kickstarter project page, […]
It’s been a few years since I’ve written about Kickstarter stretch goals, so I thought I’d revisit the topic today. The last Kickstarter campaign I ran was in 2015, so it’s been a while since I’ve used stretch goals as a creator. As exciting as it was to have milestones to mark a project’s progress […]
I recently scheduled an annual checkup with my doctor. After finalizing the date and time of my appointment on the phone, the receptionist informed me that I needed to update my paperwork. Paperwork! Visions flashed through my mind of awkwardly crouching over a clipboard in the doctor’s office, gripping one of those pens with the […]
Back in 2011 when I started researching other board game projects on Kickstarter, I created a spreadsheet that looked at quantitative techniques used by other relate, successful projects (funding goal, primary reward price, etc). It was fun to look through and back other projects, though actually finding them was sometimes difficult. That’s even more of […]
A few times over the last few months, I’ve had customers tell me upon receiving a product purchased from our webstore that they want to return it. I haven’t quite known how to reply to such requests. Keep in mind that–with a few rare exceptions–based on how we currently operate, when a customer preorders or […]
I read every comment on this blog and my personal blog, including comments on really old posts. Recently someone commented on a post from 2011 about how they’ve begun to integrate photos and anecdotes from their personal life into their professional social media presence, and it was causing them some anxiety. Specifically, they were worried […]
A few years ago, a company explored the possibility of acquiring Stonemaier Games. They approached me about it, and even though it wasn’t something I had previously considered or was actively seeking, I wanted to learn from the process. So we talked a few times, and nothing came of it (except this article). Roughly 2 […]
A few days ago I delivered some difficult news to a creator whose project was struggling to fund: At some point, I said, you might consider the possibility that people simply don’t want the product. No creator wants to think about that or give up a product on which they’ve spent so much time, effort, […]
