Crowd-Funding Helping Zendure Bring the SuperMini to the Masses
Zendure, a Palo Alto-based consumer electronics design firm founded in 2013, is taking a novel approach to raising money for what the company is calling the world’s smallest and lightest 10,000mAh portable charger, the SuperMini. Last month, Zendure started a crowdfunding campaign to help mass produce the new charger, and just recently announced they’ve exceeded two hundred thousand dollars in contributions in a little over two weeks. The SuperMini employs high-density battery cells to increase charge capacity in a form factor (3.1” x 2.2” x 1”, 6.35oz/180g) no larger than a credit card, according to the company.
While typical portable chargers implement three battery cells to achieve 10,000 milliamps per hour, the SuperMini can do it with just two. The SuperMini features both an 18W USB-C input/output port compatible with power delivery technology and an 18W USB-A output port compatible with Quick Charge 3.0 devices. The twin USB ports allow the SuperMini to perform pass-through charging, moving power into the charger via the USB-C port and into a device through the USB-A port. The SuperMini can also accommodate lower-power devices like smart watches and FitBits that aren’t typically compatible with portable chargers with what the company calls “X-Charge” mode.
Zendure started its crowd-sourcing campaign in Indiegogo in mid-August, and the company has to be pleased with the results it’s seen so far. Future customers are also making out well, as the SuperMini is available for as little as $29 US on Indiegogo, less than half the price Zendure expects the product to retail for when it hits the shelves. Trial production of the SuperMini is already underway, with the chargers expected to begin shipping in October 2019. Zendure’s crowd-funding campaign isn’t just transactional, either – there’s a contest in which customers can submit ideas for a commercial video for the product and a tiered reward system. Zendure’s strategy is similar to crowd-sourcing campaigns for movies and television show reboots that have succeeded to varying degrees over the last few years. Could this be the way small companies fund their projects? Could crowd-funding be the future of angel investment?
Looked at a certain way, crowd-funding is the purest form of capitalism. Here’s our product, we think it’s good and we think you will too, buy one (or more) and we’ll make it and ship it directly to you. It’s almost akin to the way modern political campaigns collect donations, eschewing the larger single donors for a higher volume of smaller donors whose contributions are primarily taken over the internet. In politics, the perceived effect of this financial restructuring is political power being taken from the hands of the few and put back in the hands of the many. Could crowd-funding have a similar effect on technology?
At face value, it’s hard to imagine a more egalitarian way of approaching potential “investors.” Don’t have connections at any of the big venture capitalist firms? Don’t need them – on the internet, every page click is another potential investor. Technology really should function like a meritocracy, with the best ideas rising to the top, but not everyone has the resources or the connections to bring their ideas to fruition. Crowd-funding could be one way of leveling the playing field and letting the best ideas win out, which one would think would end up greatly benefitting the consumer in the long run. It may seem naïve to think that a crowd-sourced product could ever compete against similar devices manufactured by multi-national conglomerates, but even behemoths can have humble beginnings. After all, Google started in somebody’s garage – who’s to say the next tech giant won’t get its start on GoFundMe? This is an idea we’ll periodically revisit in this space as it continues to evolve and more companies take follow the trail Zendure (and others) have blazed.