Melbourne-based Orbitkey is crowdfunding for the seventh time. Here’s why

Melbourne lifestyle brand Orbitkey has revealed the reasons why it keeps turning to Kickstarter as it continues its journey into the hybrid work/productivity product space, following the launch of its seventh campaign on the crowdfunding platform.

The small design company was founded in 2013 by Charles Ng and Rex Kuo who coined a simple idea to solve the frustration of carrying messy keys. 

Through the support of the crowdfunding community, the first Orbitkey Key Organizer was brought to life and since then Orbitkey has raised a total of USD$3,254,267 (approx A$4.8 million) on Kickstarter, with 47,068 backers, over six campaigns.

Orbitkey has now launched its seventh Kickstarter campaign, which co-founder Rex Kuo tells SmartCompany will see the brand continue to venture further into the hybrid work and productivity product space.

At the time of writing, the campaign, for Orbitkey’s new ‘hybrid work duo’ set containing a laptop sleeve and compendium, had already raised more than $80,000 with another 27 days to go. 

“We started the movement by creating a portable desk organiser (Orbitkey Nest) a couple of years back, this was followed by a desk mat when everyone shifted to working from home,” explains Kuo.

“Now as we’re truly adopting a hybrid working lifestyle, we hope our new products (Hybrid Laptop Sleeve and Compendium) will continue to add value for our customers,” he adds. 

The new products are also designed with travellers in mind, says Kuo. 

“In addition to hybrid work, we’re seeing a lot of people beginning to travel again, adopting a digital nomad lifestyle, working from anywhere; cafes, hotels, various places in the home, shared office space,” he says. 

“As much as there’s a push to get people back in the office, I think we can all agree that hybrid work is not going anywhere, in fact, we feel like there will only be more flexibility in working arrangements, including people travelling and working remotely in the near future.” 

Kickstarting Orbitkey’s growth journey

Kuo says Orbitkey received its first big breakthrough Kickstarter, allowing the Melbourne-based brand to “reach a global audience right from the start”.

“We love the community aspect of crowdfunding, engaging with our “backers” (audience) on the platform, seeking feedback on designs,” he says, reflecting on the funding method. 

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“In the past, we’ve made changes to our product before we went into production, based on backers’ feedback. We work really hard to deliver a quality product every time and have had really good feedback from our backers. This helps us re-engage our audience when launching new products, as our backers count on us to deliver.”

There are other important reasons why Orbitkey has continued to return to Kickstarter when launching new products, says Kuo. 

“The main reasons are that it keeps Orbitkey independent from investors,” he says candidly. 

“We love the freedom to make decisions without being impacted by external investors. We design products that we feel add value and we don’t design products just because it’s the next thing to do. 

“We can make decisions around sustainability and doing things that we feel are right. For example, we offset 100% of our carbon emissions and just recently we updated our company constitution purpose clause to include consideration for the environment and society,” he said.

At the same time, the crowdfunding model also helps manage cashflow in a product-based business, he says. 

“Connected to the above, the funds raised help with the high funding demand associated with bringing a new product to life. There are significant product development, sampling, and production costs associated with new products,” explains Kuo. 

And then there are the publicity and community-building benefits, too. 

“It creates a central place to build a marketing campaign and create a lot of buzz for our new products. It gives our original Kickstarter backers an opportunity to see our products first, provide feedback and back our products at a significant discount.”