Stretch goals for the record-breaking Avegant Glyph Kickstarter have been finalized, with some of the goals having been passed even before they were even created. Rewards include new colors, noise canceling, and limited edition engraving. Avegant is taking the Glyph on a roadshow to major cities around the world to let people try their unique head mounted display.
After breaking the record for raising $250,000 faster than any prior Kickstarter, according to Time, Avegant hadn’t even announced a $500,000 stretch goal before it had been hit. The company later announced in a Kickstarter update that the (already met) stretch goal of $500,000 would expand the color options to include orange, red, white, black, blue, and green. At $750,000 (now met) Avegant set a stretch goal to “include a basic semi-rigid fabric protective case with all shipped Glyphs (excluding the $999 version with a customized case).”
In another Kickstarter update, Avegant notes that they were planning to include noise canceling as a $1 million stretch goal, but because of some initial confusion, they’ve decided to add noise canceling to all Glyphs. Instead, the $1 million stretch goal will feature an option for Kickstarter backers to have their Glyph engraved with their backer number and a ‘limited edition’ line of some sort, the exact language of which to be determined at a later date.
With $833,446 raised at the time of writing, and 22 days of the campaign remaining, it’s quite possible that Avegant will hit their $1 million stretch goal, and may need to start thinking of further stretch goals—though it’s unlikely that those goals will feature any significant hardware changes.
Stretch goals should always be carefully considered, especially so for a company offering a hardware product with multi-year design timelines. While there’s always the desire to incorporate as many features as possible, reality dictates that at some point a product needs to be handed off from R&D so it can be manufactured and shipped to anxious customers. Avegant is conscious of this, stating in a recent update that “we want to hold off on making any aggressive hardware changes to the Glyph Beta as a stretch goal. Adding components like cameras or extra wireless antennas can mean extra engineering cycles and delays in the manufacturing process, and that puts our deliverable deadlines at risk.”
In the meantime, Avegant is hosting Glyph demo events in select cities around the world in January and February to give people a chance to try the Glyph. Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Seattle, London, and Hong Kong are their remaining stops. Details at roadshow.avegant.com. Attendance is free and drinks are provided. I’m planning on attending the San Francisco happy hour on February 5th, so perhaps I’ll see you there.
Update (Feb 2): Avegant is hosting a South Bay happy hour on February 6, so I’ll be attending that one instead of the San Francisco one.