How Polycade Raised Over $1M in 24 Hours on Kickstarter

Mark Pecota | CEO at LaunchBoom

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Only 0.12% of Kickstarter campaigns ever hit $1M.

This creator hit that milestone in 24 hours.

Here’s how he did it.

Tyler Bushnell from Polycade

Meet Tyler Bushnell, the creator of Polycade Sente – the modular arcade system.

Growing up as the son of Atari’s founder (yes, that Atari), Tyler was surrounded by classic video games and video game systems. But as time went on, these games and systems either broke, were foolishly sold or simply lost.

Tyler wanted a solution to play these retro games forever.

After a year of research, design and testing, he launched the original Polycade Lux on Kickstarter in 2015. It was a hit, raising $125,276. But Tyler wasn’t done launching products.

Even though the Polycade Lux was selling well, he had an idea to make the design even better… and more modular. It would be called the Polycade Sente (which was a nod to one of his father’s brands after he sold Atari). With the upgraded Polycade Sente ready to launch, Tyler also wanted to upgrade his marketing strategy.

So, he joined LaunchBoom in August of 2023.

And two and half months later, Tyler pressed launch on Kickstarter. Within 24 hours, he made over $1M in revenue. Joining the ranks of the top 0.12% of all Kickstarter campaigns ever.

Here’s how he did it.

Polycade’s pre-launch marketing strategy

How in the world do you make $1,000,000 in one day?

Well, you have to get the pre-launch marketing strategy right.

And getting the pre-launch right is all about building an email list of people who can’t wait to buy your product.

Tyler was able to do that by using LaunchBoom’s Reservation Funnel System.

Here’s how it worked.

1. He drove traffic with Meta Ads

Meta ads are the first step to build a pre-launch email list. This is how Tyler drove traffic. He tested many different variations of copy and imagery, but here was his best performing ad.

2. He collected email addresses on a landing page

The landing page is where Tyler explained his product and collected email addresses. The landing page looked like this:

Polycade Landing Page

By the way, this is a screenshot from our LaunchKit software that all LaunchBoom Creators get access to.

3. He collected $1 reservations

This is the most important step and why we call this funnel the Reservation Funnel. Polycade had this exclusive VIP offer for putting down a $1 reservation deposit:

  • A guaranteed 50% discount
  • A limited edition game with artwork by a modern artist
  • An invite to their VIP Facebook group

The most important thing to know is that people who put down the $1 deposit were way more likely to buy (30 times on average, in fact).

How Polycade got funded on day one

Leading into the launch, Tyler had 2,362 people who had put down a $1 reservation deposit. Remember, there’s no better predictor of launch success than the reservations.

And just like we thought, Tyler’s launch was a success.

On the first day, Polycade made $1,050,872. And by the end of the campaign, he had driven $1,658,958 in revenue from 969 new customers.

This was all possible because Tyler followed the LaunchBoom system. At LaunchBoom, our goal is not to launch just a successful product, but to launch a successful business.

Do you have an innovative product like Tyler?

We can help you turn it into a real business (or dramatically grow your existing business).

We’ve worked with over a thousand product creators.

If you want to be the next one…

Click here to talk with a LaunchBoom expert.


Oh and before you go, check out Tyler on our Masters of Crowdfunding podcast:

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