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Nikhil Shah

Creative & tech entrepreneur; Mixcloud, Loka, Polaroid, MakeMusic, All In; advisor/investor @ various

Nikhil Shah is the Founder of Polyhedron, a consultancy working at the intersection of culture, community, technology, and social impact.1 He started this role in January 2022 and is based in New York.1 Nikhil is a creative and tech entrepreneur with experience in various industries.1

Prior to founding Polyhedron, Nikhil held several notable positions:

  1. Director of Digital & Music at Polaroid (January 2023 - Present)1
  2. Co-founder of Mixcloud (September 2008 - June 2020)1
  3. Angel Investor in various startups (September 2018 - Present)1

Nikhil has also served as a Board Advisor for companies like Mixcloud and SPOKE.1 He is a member of Founders Pledge, committing to donate a portion of his personal proceeds to social causes.1

Nikhil's educational background includes studying at the University of Cambridge.1 His work focuses on creating cultural and social good through technology and creativity.1

Highlights

Jul 17 · linkedin

Entering the home straight of the Kickstarter campaign for my new product, the Loka Chai Maker (We Are Loka).

It's been such a fun journey developing this product and launching it to the world. Couldn't have imagined a better reception.

Thanks to all the friends, fam and 1000s of random backers who have ordered. It was really cool hitting the $500,000 milestone and our 5,000th backer over the weekend.

The hardest thing about launching a new product is predicting whether people will want it or not. As Paul Graham/YC famously espouse - "make something people want". For anyone who has built and launched something, you'll know it's easier said than done!

This is why the Kickstarter process has been so interesting and helpful. In the pre campaign period, we did 3 months of very rigorous testing to refine our creative, copy, value proposition and really dial into the Problem > Solution in the most pithy and impactful way possible.

Problem = Chai boiling over onto the stove Solution (and hook) = Loka chai fountain (or as the Internet has dubbed it, "infinity chai"!)

I look forward to sharing a few more reflections post campaign, as well as a TON of thank yous!!!

Jun 18 · linkedin

It's launch day!!! My new brand and product LOKA (We Are Loka) launched today on Kickstarter. 🚀🚀🚀

What a wild - and fun - morning!

Pressing the big green "Launch" button (this time a real one, not metaphorical) is always nerve racking. 😬 And then hitting a manual send on a Mailchimp email going to 22K people. Any typos or broken links?!! But also, what a rush!

We hit our funding goal in 9 minutes! (Although let's be real, those funding goals are a bit fake, set to game the algorithm, but still, we had a fun mini-celebration). 😉

Then we hit over 1,000 backers and >$100,000 in under 3.5 hours. That's a real milestone. 🔥

Over 1,000 people in just a few hours, purchasing a product they've never touched or felt, with zero reviews online (YET!). This is the result of 3 months of diligent pre launch work, building a strong community, Anish and I personally replying to every single email, Facebook comment, IG DM. Even the haters. (And we appeased some of them!).

The result of an insane amount of creative testing, landing page optimisations, learning what features, claims and creatives really resonate with people. (Winner, the chai boiling over onto the stove).

Several month ago we were genuinely wondering if we could even hit our manufacturer minimum order quantity (MOQ) of 2,000 units. At the time of writing, we're <6 hours in and we've already sold 1,500 units. (Plus we've done a partnership deal that means we've basically hit our MOQ).

For those who haven't done hardware or manufacturing before - this is a big deal! Finding a factory that is willing to mass produce an innovative and non-standard product for us wasn't easy, especially one that has the high quality control we expect, good communication, and also with reasonable per unit costs. Which then leads to a common problem - to create something bespoke, the volumes are so high that it's really challenging for new brands to hit those minimums.

So that's why today's milestone is such an important one. We've essentially de-risked our manufacturing investment. 🙌

We've got another 29.5 days to go in the campaign, so lots of work to do to keep the momentum going!

But for now, I'm gonna go make myself a chai and celebrate.

👊🏽👊🏽👊🏽

Related Questions

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Nikhil Shah
Nikhil Shah, photo 1
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Location

New York, New York, United States