Grab a Seat with True Places: the Comfy, Modern Folding Chair

Art of the Kickstart

In this episode of Art of the Kickstart, we interviewed Ben Knepler and Nelson Warley, co-founders of True Places, creators of the modern, portable folding chair. Perfect for life just outside your door, True Places Folding Chair is lightweight and built to last with remarkable comfort and thoughtful features. Listen in and learn about the brand's product development journey and their road to Kickstarter. Topics Discussed and Key Crowdfunding Takeaways The inspiration behind True Places and the founders' background together at a consumer products company The instrumental moments in their market research that lead to the redesign of the outdoor chair Why it was a challenge creating a portable folding chair with the comfort of a patio chair How they determined Enventys Partners as the crowdfunding marketing agency to work with The importance of launching a product with available add-ons and the vertical True Places sees themselves in Why True Places was named after a Moby Dick quote Links True Places Folding Chair on Kickstarter It's Not What You Sell, It's What You Stand For by Roy M. Spence Jr. Sponsors Art of the Kickstart is honored to be sponsored by The Gadget Flow, a product discovery platform that helps you discover, save, and buy awesome products. The Gadget Flow is the ultimate buyer's guide for cool luxury gadgets and creative gifts. Click here to learn more and list your product - use coupon code ATOKK16 for 20% off! Transcript View this episode's transcript Roy Morejon: Welcome to Art of the Kickstart, your source for crowdfunding campaign success. I’m your host Roy Morejon president of Enventys Partners, the top full Service, Turnkey Product Development and Crowdfunding Marketing agency in the world. We have helped startups raise over a hundred million dollars for our clients since 2010. Roy Morejon: Each week I’ll interview a Crowdfunding Success Story, an Inspirational Entrepreneur or a Business Expert in order to help you take your startup to the next level with Crowdfunding. Art of the Kickstart is honored to be sponsored by Gadget Flow. The Gadget Flow is a product discovery platform that helps you discover, save and buy awesome products. It is the ultimate buyer’s guide for culturey gadgets and creative gifts. Now let’s get on with the show. Roy Morejon: Welcome to another edition of Art of the Kickstart. Today I am talking with Ben Knepler and Nelson Warley co-founders of True Places. So these guys have created an amazing, beautiful folding chair that allows you to actually enjoy the outdoors in a more modern way. So really excited Ben, Nelson, thank you guys for joining me on the show today. Ben Knepler: Thanks for having us Roy. Nelson Warley: Yeah, thank you. Roy Morejon: So I don’t think the outdoor chair has been revolutionized ever. It’s just filled with flimsy cheap products that are out there. So I’m very inspired to understand what the inspiration behind this was to create True Places? Nelson Warley: Yeah, that’s pretty good. We had a similar take as you we were spending… Ben and I both recognized we were spending so much time outdoors not necessarily the great outdoors but what you just talked about, sort of all of those moments just outside your door and we were sitting for hours and we were sitting for hours in cheap supportable chairs that aren’t very comfortable, weren’t designed for modern day and so we thought we could do it better. Roy Morejon: So what’s your backgrounds on this, where did you guys come from to have the inspiration to bring a new product to market? Ben Knepler: We worked together years ago actually at a big consumer products company. I was only there for a few years, Nelson was there for almost 15 years and we worked together in the innovation [inaudible 00:02:30] there and we were involved with launching brands and products in the context of large companies and so we have some background in kind of…