If you would like to order a shirt separately, you can do so in the Bia Store.

On July 13, 2012 the vast number of supporters of Bia Sport made the reality of the Bia GPS Sports Watch come one step closer.  We are thrilled to announce that we reached our funding goal from pledges by 2,118 individuals totaling over $408,000.00.

• When traditional investors said “maybe” – you said YES!
• When competitors asked “who needs that?” – you answered WE DO!
• And when we asked “can you help?” – you not only pledged but drummed up the support from fellow athletes.

We are humbled, grateful, thrilled and a wee bit exhausted from the past 35 days campaigning to make the Bia GPS Sports Watch a reality.

On Monday, we’ll be back in the office, working away and keeping you updated along the way.

- In case you missed getting in on your Bia watch, get on our Bia ‘Watch’ List for updates, pre-order announcements, specials and more!

REMEMBER WHY YOU STARTED

The reason we started Bia wasn’t to sell a watch. It was because we saw the amazing effects endurance sports had on the lives of ordinary women like us. The confidence, the accomplishment, the connectedness. Just like Title IX improved the lives of millions of girls, running and triathlon turns women into superheros.  We wanted to enable more of that.

It’s not about what we look like, or even about the sport itself, but all the other things we achieve because we are athletes.

IT’S NOT ABOUT THE WATCH

The watch and the data it provides is just a way to achieve those goals. The watch itself becomes a talisman of sorts. A badge that you belong to the club. It’s a secret motivator when you put it on and it allows you to be proud of what you’ve become without being boastful.

It declares I AM AN ATHLETE…even though you might never use the A-word in describing yourself.

LIVE THE BRAND

We also started this business to combine our jobs with our passions. And right now I need a reminder that one of my biggest assets in building Bia is that I live the brand. Kickstarter has been all consuming – especially in this first week as we hustle to get the press and blog machines churning to generate some project momentum.

And I have my A Race – Vineman 70.3 – coming up in 34 days. I need to get my training and nutrition and sleep. …mostly my sleep…. back in line. I NEED to hit that PR just like I need to hit our Kickstarter goal. If I don’t do both, this might all be for nothing. 

We spent Thursday and Friday sowing seeds with bloggers and the press that should explode over the next two weeks. We’ve also fielded scores of questions from potential backers. The majority of them have been about how Kickstarter works with the askers saying they are going to be backing us.

But here is the curious thing: Our project stats:

• 1770 Video Views, 854 of them for 100% of the video
• 780 “Likes”
• 139 Backers (most of whom we do not know).

I can’t intuit anything from the video views, because it’s a new metric just rolled out by Kickstarter this week. But I skimmed through scores of other projects today, both successful and unsuccessful, and the typical Likes:Backers ratio was never more than 2:1. We are at nearly 6:1!

What does this mean?

1. Lot’s of potential backers just taking some time to consider the purchase?
2. Lack of understanding about how Kickstarer works?
3. Our project materials not closing the deal?
4. We are so far from our goal that the urgency to “act now” is weak?

We have women tweeting us up and gushing over us on Twitter that haven’t backed us, which would lead me to believe #1 and #2 are the case.

We are trying to gather some market insight on this ASAP.

Highlights

We got our first press coverage yesterday. The guys at GizMag got it spot on. It was a great first article, and even though they don’t have an enormous audience we generate a handful of new backers from it.

“GPS watches already come in all shapes and sizes (at least if you consider “heavy, square brick” and “massive discus” all shapes and sizes). Now they have a gender. “

We have been getting insanely positive feedback on the product. Lots of excitement from lots of women (and men) we don’t even know. We do have the raw material for a blockbuster success here. 

Additionally, a long lost friend stepped up today and is able to make a personal introduction to the most important product blogger and reviewer in the GPS-watch-universe. And we got our first inbound inquiry from a European Distributor.

Rough spots

I think we have a big understanding gap. Lots of folks who LOVE and want the watch don’t understand that if they don’t back the project the product won’t happen.

We’ve tried to address that in the project write up, but right now I think we just need to refilm the tail end of the video this weekend to get real explicit about it.

We also haven’t popped strongly with bloggers and press yet. I need to keep reminding myself that it takes a few days for things to settle in. It’s tough to try to make a blockbuster hit overnight, from a cold start, with no budget and no professional help.

We have 35 days and lots of untapped resources.

The Elephant in the Room

I would be lying to say I am not in a cold sweat panic. We need epic project growth to hit our end goal. Yesterday was a decent but we needed it to be double what it was.

Typically projects have an initial spike, a long period of slow steady growth and then a monster spike at the end. We have 3 X-factors in our project though:

• Weak customer knowledge of how Kickstarter works
• Press that will hit at a delay from our launch vs. at the start
• The psychological barrier of such a big goal.

The last one is vexing. If we had set our project goal at $100K like most other “big” projects, backers would be doing a happy dance right now. We’d look like a garenteed success and we’d probably be generating more native momentum off of that. People flock to winners.

However, with such a big goal, we need to make more progress before benefiting from that effect.

I will blog about the risks/rewards we balanced to determine our project goal later, because a number of folks have asked.

Now it’s back to hustling.

Actually it’s Day 38. 38 Days before the end of our project. Counting backwards makes most sense. One early backer captured it spot on:

All-or-nothing, $400k in 38 days. That’s ladyballs out.

They are so big we put them on our chests so we don’t trip when we run.

You see right through that swagger, don’t you?

A girlfriend asked me how I was feeling.

“Part relieved (that we were finally live!). Part terrified (holy crap what are we doing?). And this strange feeling of gratitude and responsibility mixed together.”

The combination of “putting it all out there” and “asking” has taken me WAY outside my personal comfort zone.  Crowd funding isn’t like pitching investors or like selling a product. It’s making a commitment to your new best friends.

Maybe I am personalizing it too much.

But maybe that’s why we woke up on Day 37 with 90 backers and $20,000 closer to our goal!!

I think today is the perfect time for our first backer update. I am nervous about getting the tone just right, but we’ll learn as we go. Looking at our backer reports, dozens of our backers are brand new to Kickstarter. How awesome. That in itself is exciting news.

Here is what we’d love you to do…

1. Back our project on Kickstarter.
2. Post the link http://kck.st/GetBia on Facebook and Twitter.
3. Repin us on Pinterest.
4. Blog about it!

Here is everything you need….

• an exhaustive product FAQ
• a downloadable zip file of photos
• our original press release
• you can learn more about us on our About page
• and of course we’re available to answer your questions.  Just email us at press@bia-sport.com.

Bia is targeted at women but guys are scooping it up too. Here’s why:

• Safety system for peace of mind on solo workouts
• Quick-connect GPS; no more time wasted “finding satellites” even in the city or on a cloudy day.
• Data to your online training log; no more time wasted “sync’ing”
• iPod-like ease of use; just one button and a touchscreen
• Water resistance to 100M; full GPS tracking when you swim

Plus through July 13th on Kickstarter, Bia is $150 less than the comparable Garmin.

New to Kickstarter…

Kickstarter is a popular crowd-funding platform where millions of people have contributed to products and projects they are passionate about to ensure they get to market.

Bia is using Kickstarter to raise the remaining funds we need to field test prototypes, finish software development, and fund the tooling and initial component orders we need before manufacturing.

In exchange for pledging funds to our project, backers get rewards. These rewards include the Bia GPS sports watch. Backers will receive theirs first and at a discount to what they will cost after we ship.

Kickstarter works off an all-or-nothing funding model. If backers pledge enough for us to meet our $400K funding goal by July 13th, credit cards will be charged, backers will get their rewards, and Bia will ship early next year.

If we do NOT meet our funding goal by the 13th, we will NOT receive any funding and we will NOT be able to get this amazing, empowering product to market.

Let’s make it happen!