Production is moving again!
about 9 years ago – Fri, Apr 03, 2015 at 01:36:07 PM

Greetings awesome Wise Walker supporters far and wide!  I have some good news.  

We're Back in Business

Thanks to my friend, Rich Harman, we now have all the acrylic bits that we lost in the fire as well as all the ones that were left to cut.  Rich lent his laser magic to the project and got all of the 1,500 little acrylic bits cut for us.  I can't thank him enough for stepping up and making it possible for us to get production back online.

Here's what a laser cutter looks like that hasn't been engulfed in a fire.

Even after the laser cutting, there was some additional finishing that we had to.  Here's Team Wise Walker in production mode (developing our work ethic.)

 As you can see, mom is traveling so, yeah, there's a drill press in the living room.  :)

Wise Walker HQ is Moving into WeWork

In our last update, I mentioned that we did a photo shot for BehindTheChange.  Well, the location of the photo shoot was WeWork, the very cool Seattle co-working space.  What I didn't mention is that all the girls could talk about on the way home was how much they loved being at WeWork and how they thought that Wise Walker should get an office there.  Well, I'm happy to report that we move in next week!  The girls are beyond excited and can't wait to take their business to the next level... which is what it feels like.  Special thanks to WeWork and especially to Gina Phillips for helping us find just the right spot.

And the Survey Says....

If you haven't completed your Wise Walker survey yet (and about 100 of you haven't) please do so at your earlier convenience.  We need things like your address for shipping, t-shirt sizes, dog names for the web site, etc.  The email with the survey link will come from a company called BackerKit.  We are using BackerKit to help with the post-Kickstarter logistics and it's been awesome.  If you ever decided to do your own Kickstarter, I highly recommend them.

Not Too Late to Become a Backer

One of the features of BackerKit is that it allows us to bring new backers onto the project, even though our Kickstarter is completed.  If you have friends or family that missed out on the Kickstarter, you can share this link with them to allow them to join in the fun: http://rjc3.co/wwbk

If you are feeling particularly generous, it would be awesome if you shared this news with your network, here is a click-to-tweet link:

http://ctt.ec/j5a1c

Here's what that link says: "If you missed the original Kickstarter, here's your chance to get in on Project Wise Walker. http://rjc3.co/wwbk"

Ok... our next update should be about how we're packing boxes and shipping your Wise Walkers!

All the best, 

Annalise, Sarah & Bob

Patience is a virtue...
about 9 years ago – Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 03:35:19 PM

... or so I keep telling myself.  

It's been 10 days since the fire and we've been in a holding pattern as we figure out the best route to getting the last of our laser work done.  We could, of course, bite the bullet and pay a laser shop to make the pieces.  But that would be a non-trivial expense that we didn't budget for and our margins are pretty tight as it is.  But we also feel like we need to deliver as soon as possible. I have a couple of laser-wielding friends who are trying to figure out how they can help us but these things take time.  

The good news is that the bags are all sewn and all the add-on accessories are in boxes in our living room waiting to be picked, packed and shipped. We have the penultimate t-shirt design done but we need to get everyone's shirt sizes in before we put the order in. So once we get the bits and pieces laser cut, things should move pretty quickly.  You can help us be ready for that by sending in your completed survey if you have not already.

As always, we're grateful for you continued support and... patience.

All the best, 

Sarah, Bob & Annalise

This just happened....
about 9 years ago – Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 09:21:52 AM

Hi everyone, my heart is in my gut a little bit right now because I just finished putting out a fire in our garage.  No one was hurt and the damage was constrained to one area of the garage.  Unfortunately, that area consists of the laser cutter and it was completely destroyed.  

It all happened very fast.  I probably shouldn't have run into a garage that was billowing smoke... even though I had a garden hose at the ready.  But I'm glad that I did because I manged to get the fire our before it spread to the rest of the garage.  And I held my breath the entire time (at least I think I did) so no fumes were consumed.

There was so much smoke because there was a stack of acrylic sheets in the laser that were all burning like firewood.  That stack included hundreds of small acrylics parts that were destined to be attached to your Wise Walkers in the coming days.  The laser was cutting literally the last few batches of acrylics bits when it caught fire.  

While I'm beyond bummed to lose my beloved laser, I'm grateful that things didn't turn out worse.  And the good news is that 95% of the cutting that need to be done for Project Wise Walker was already done.  

At this time, we'll keep working under the assumption that we'll still meet our March deadline to ship your rewards.  But this incident is definitely a bump in the road that will slow us down a bit.

Challenges are opportunities.

All the best, 

Bob

PS. If you haven't already, please fill out the survey that was sent to you on Wednesday so that we'll know where to send your rewards and the size of your t-shirts.

Shipping soon!
about 9 years ago – Wed, Mar 11, 2015 at 08:39:47 PM

Can you feel it?  We can.  We're so close!  

After months of cutting, sewing, gluing, painting, lasering, and a lot more, we're about to begin actually shipping rewards!  The sew shop should be finishing up the first batches this week and we'll start shipping as soon as we get our hands on them.  Yah!

I had hoped to send out the questionnaires last weekend but I badly underestimated the moving pieces involved in making sure all the ducks were in the right row.  Thanks to a really slick backer-reward-delivery-management platform called BackerKit, we're finally on track again.  

Watch your inbox over the next couple of days and when you see the survey come in, please do you best to complete it as quickly as possible.  It'll be easy... we just need your mailing address and tshirt size if your pledge level includes one. 

We had a blast a couple weeks ago when we were featured in a new photo blog, BehindTheChange, about people doing things to make the world a better place.  The founder of the blog reckoned that teaching Annalise and Sarah about entrepreneurship and my work with Women in Tech was a good thing.  I kinda do too.  Here's my favorite pic from the day.

So here's a fun fact that I never would have guessed would be true: there are 1,000 rolls of dog poop bags making their way from Shanghai, China to the Crimmins residence.  We've had the opportunity to work with five different suppliers in China and the girls get a kick out of that.  One night, Annalise ended up having a 45 min chat session (on her own) with one sales reps who wanted to learn more about her and our project.  Priceless.

The laser is getting a serious work out with all the bits and pieces that we're fabricating to make the wise walkers and the fridge magnets.  Here are some photos for your viewing pleasure.

 Ok, gotta go source a few hundred Tyvec envelopes to get you all your goodies!

All the best, 

Bob, Annalise and Sarah

wework
about 9 years ago – Sat, Feb 28, 2015 at 05:30:49 AM

Hi, it's Annalise, and today I'm going to do the update! : ) 

          Well first things first, everybody at wise walker industries (Annalise, Sarah, and Bob,) are oh so very sorry that we have been so lax on the updates, we PROMISE to keep up on our updates.(BOOM... period.) 

Well... we have received all the (very many) miscellaneous construction material from our suppliers in the U.S. and in CHINA!!!!!!!!!!!!  Next we visited our sewing shop and gave them our materials, and turns out we have a lot of extra materials, so we've decided to make 50 extra wise walkers! So I get 10 to try and sell anywhere of my choosing, and if I sell all 10 then I get more to sell(eek!). 

            We will be sending a survey to all our backers asking about t-shirt size, shipping address etc. So keep your eye on your inbox.

We had fun last week doing a photo shoot for a new web site that our dad (and us) was featured in  It was really fun and we got to go a place called WeWork. It was my second time there and every time has been a blast.  It was such a cool place and I am in love with it!  Anyways, I hope we get an office there.  And since someone else got us to that idea they are calling it a "twin referral"!  (hehehe hahaha!)  Here's the web site

https://behindthechange.com/blog/bob-crimmins

                 Well that is it for now, but I'm definitely gonna do more of these updates! I'll keep you updated!  (sorry I just love terrible puns)

                                                                                            From,

                                                                                                     Your Kickstarter Buddy
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             (Annalise)