The Bird-Themed party card game about framing your friends for crimes
JailBird was hatched out of the Creating a Company Class at the University of Washington. Posed as a class, students came up with an idea, prototyped it, presented in front of a panel of investors, and then their grade in the class was based on how much they sold at the end of 6 months.
It was insane.
What was more insane was that we started going in wanting to do a SAAS, ended up starting JailBird with a team of 8 cofounders, scammed by our first manufacturers, got fully funded on Kickstarter, and then sold on Amazon, Walmart, and in retail stores across the US.
Testing → Prototyping → Scammed → Kickstarter → Amazon, Walmart, Retail → Exit
We gathered fellow students to do a SAAS but soon realized we didn’t have any ideas and weren’t sure we could be profitable in 6 months. We ended up pivoting and doing a card game because we were so full of ideas.
We were a weird and wacky group but worked hard to test and design a game. When we finally had it ready, we got a prototype from a group in India that we loved. We began taking preorders — AND THEN COVID HIT and OUR MANUFACTURERS SENT US AN INCREDIBLY LOW QUALITY PRODUCT.
Like the rest of the world, we panicked. As the leader of the team of 8, we wanted to make it a reality and so went to Kickstarter. AND WE HAD PREORDERS. We pulled all-nighters trying to get everything done, and launched. We got fully funded and finally delivered.
After that, we worked to get into retail stores before one of our founders bought me out.
Kickstarter, Features, Fun Media Stuff
Kickstarter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwODaUVTARI&t=1s
Our 50 page document detailing our testing process: