This startup raised more money on Kickstarter than any other food project in Massachusetts
ButcherBox, a company started by Cambridge resident Mike Salguero, just became the most funded food project to ever come out of Massachusetts on the crowdsourcing website Kickstarter.
The campaign raised $210,204 with over 1,100 backers. It started on September 8 and ended October 8. The startup that ships grass-fed beef across the U.S. surpassed its original goal of $25,000 by over 800 percent.
“This really validates the demand for our project,’’ Salguero told Boston.com. “We really struck a nerve with the American consumer.’’
Salguero, former CEO for an online marketplace, left his job in May to launch ButcherBox with “the goal of bringing America better beef and making beef cool again,’’ he said. The subscription-based, mail-delivery service works with farms in the Midwest who raise grass-fed beef. They flash freeze the meat, package it into cardboard boxes with styrofoam and dry ice to keep it fresh, and then send it to the buyer’s doorstep.
Salguero credits the success of the Kickstarter campaign to working with a campaign strategist, The Arora Project, before they launched their month of fundraising.
“A lot of people think the day you go live is the day you start working on it, but we spent 30-40 days prior to prepare by testing our marketing and lining up backers for the day we went live,’’ he said.
Having this momentum early in the campaign allowed them to catch Kickstarter’s attention, giving them promotions and spots on the site’s homepage. Salguero said over 50 percent of the campaign’s funders’ came directly through Kickstarter’s momentum and help.
The company was also able to surpass its fundraising goal by creating incentives with every fundraising milestone met, Salguero said. For example, when the campaign raised $100,000, it offered backers the option to add chicken or pork to their boxes. When they hit $150,000, they threw in free bacon. After hitting the $200,000 benchmark, consumers recieved a surprise in their second box purchased. Funders will receive their boxes in November.
Each box comes with a curated selection of beef cuts. There’s 15-20 individual meals worth of meat in every box at 6-8 ounce portion sizes, Salguero said.
Salguero said the next step for the company will be to gain subscriptions because Kickstarter doesn’t allow backers to sign up as subscribers directly on their site.
A monthly shipment of ButcherBox costs $129, including delivery; the company says it works out to an average of about $7 per meal.
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