The quest for a perfect wallet is one many people join. Craft Wallet claims to be the answer. I talked with founder Miguel Morgado to find out more about their company and product.
In a nutshell, how did the Craft Wallet come about?
I was looking for a wallet where I could store my cards, bills, papers and some coins but it needed to be slim and elegant. Also because I am a person that loves interesting gadgets I was also looking for a wallet that could be fun to use. Because I didn’t find that product I decided to build one for me. I liked the end result so I just decided to launch a crowdfunding campaign and see if other people liked it too.
How important for the final product are the materials you use?
We only use the best materials available. We used 7075-T6 aluminum (the most used on the aerospace industry) so that we could ensure a really thin wall while maintaining the structural integrity of the wallet. This couldn’t be done without using this aluminum that has the same or more strength as the majority of steel alloys with almost one-third of the mass.
Also we use real leather because we found that the fake leather doesn’t allow such thin bending zones.
How does the wallet protect against RFID theft?
The RFID protection is very simple it happens naturally because of the aluminum which doesn’t let the frequency pass trough. That is also why Iphones have the plastic cords on the top and bottom, otherwise the signal wouldn’t pass to the antenna.
Did the Indiegogo campaign help you reach your goals?
The Indiegogo campaign gave us a really good boost in terms of brand recognition and I never thought it would drive so many views to the website. With Indiegogo also appeared a lot of business proposals to resell the Craft Wallet, so even if the campaign wouldn’t have been successfully funded it would still be great for exposure.
How is the launch going and what are your growth plans for the next 6 months?
We are now focused on going to stores and improving some details of the Craft Wallet based on our backers feedback. So for the next 6 months we want to participate in fairs to get some feedback from consumers and start reselling the Craft Wallet worldwide.
How can startups based in Portugal compete with London, Berlin or Silicon Valley?
I don’t think we are in a big disadvantage, the only thing I felt is that our clients being mainly from the US, if we were there it would be easier to reach them, provide a faster service and make a more aggressive marketing campaign. Otherwise the startup ecosystem here in Portugal is great.
What’s the single mistake you learned the most from?
I made many, but 2 come immediately to my mind the first being the fact that I thought that I would have the production ready to ship one month after the end of the Indiegogo campaign. I was only able to start shipping the first Craft Wallets after 2 months.
The second biggest mistake I made was to think that a wallet would be a really simple product. I was the Team leader of my university Motostudent team and I also designed the chassis. Coming from that, I thought I would design a wallet in no time, but to make it as I wanted it to be it took me 6 months and still I see improvements that could and will be done.
To find out more about Craft Wallet visit http://www.craft-wallet.com/
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