Oczko Stereo: “A Fight for Every Supporter”

Oczko Stereo wants to revive the forgotten art of stereoscopy, which is the production of the illusion of depth in an image. The young company has developed its own 3D camera for just that. The founder Dominik Oczkowski raised just about 30,000 euros with a successful crowdfunding campaign. We asked him about his experience in our interview.

Munich Startup: What recommendation do you have for other founders who are thinking about starting a crowdfunding campaign?

Oczko Stereo: This kind of campaign is certainly not the right thing for every idea. But if the project is a reasonable fit, crowdfunding is pretty excellent. You not only find your first supporters, but also raise brand awareness and find out if your idea works.

Munich Startup: In many crowdfunding campaigns, the focus is not only on financing, but also on market validation or marketing. How was it for you?

Oczko Stereo: That’s exactly how it was for me: Being able to fund the project demonstrates that there’s interest in the idea. And the awareness I was able to build for my endeavor was just as important. Which is why the many newsletter subscribers are extremely valuable.

Different crowdfunding cultures in different countries

Munich Startup: What insights did you gain during the campaign?

Oczko Stereo: It wasn’t easy. After a good start, I had to fight for every single supporter for Oczko Stereo. And that worked better in some countries than others. Regardless of the actual need for or interest in the product, there also seem to be different crowdfunding cultures in different countries.

Munich Startup: What about the campaign makes you particularly proud?

Oczko Stereo: I tried out a great deal of options with a friend of mine to raise people’s awareness of my campaign. But what really worked was simply the classic route of writing to the editors of specialist media. I’m proud of the fact that some of the biggest and most important platforms published articles about the project.

Munich Startup: How did you benefit from the crowdfunding support from the City of Munich?

Oczko Stereo: The generous funding from the city went entirely to producing the campaign video. I fortunately knew a fantastic film maker from Munich who wanted to do the project. What’s great is that in difficult times, two parties were able to benefit from it.

Oczko Stereo: Progress on new prototypes

Munich Startup: What lasting impact has come from the campaign? And what’s next for you?

Oczko Stereo: The aim of the campaign was to finance a laser cutter that I can use on the one hand to produce the first rewards and, on the other hand, to make progress on developing new prototypes. The device will be installed in my studio in just a few days. I’m very excited to see what I can create with it!

Click here to see our collection of crowdfunding tips from the Munich Startup editorial team.

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