About Jollylook Auto

Jollylook Auto is the second version of the analog vintage camera that instantly develops film photos. The cost of the device for backers starts from $79.

The startup already had the campaign on Kickstarter and raised $377,000, exceeding the goal 25 times.

The team made a completely green project – Jollylook’s parts include only recyclable cardboard, lenses, and cartridge. The device develops film on Fujifilm Instax cassettes within minutes.

What the creators have faced

It took 14 months to develop Jollylook Auto. One of the reasons the team started a new campaign is financial problems.

The previous camera collected over 8,000 orders. But the founders couldn’t even cover the delivery costs of all the cameras, despite the personal investments. Besides, they had to move the production site from China to Ukraine.

To fulfill all their obligations to the backers, Jollylook kicked off a second crowdfunding campaign. Some of the funds raised in this campaign will be used to deliver previous orders.

Yevhen Ivanov

In early 2017, we conducted a successful Kickstarter campaign and raised $377,000 for the production of our Jollylook camera. We had only a prototype, there was no production. We understood that we need to make 8,500 cameras for backers, and we even knew about how to start production thanks to the experience of one of the co-founders of the company, Oleg Khalip.

However, with time we faced many difficulties. They were so significant that we had to move production to another country. This is how we overcame them and what conclusions we made.

Start of production in China

We had only two options at the place of production – Ukraine and China. At first, we wanted to collect cameras here, but then we renounced this idea. We saw that in Ukraine there were simply no factories that could produce the elements we needed – lenses, plastic products, metal rollers, and so on. Therefore, we have made a choice in favor of China.

We started with looking for a partner who would represent our interests in China. This is an intermediary company that communicates directly with local factories and controls the timing of the work. We found such a company, signed a contract with them and flew to China in May 2017.

One of the tasks of our intermediary company was directly searching for factories. This company has selected several options according to our criteria, and we have personally chosen the most optimal one. According to the results of our first visit to China, we entered into a partnership with eight factories and launched the camera production.

Tip: if you are going to produce something in China, first find an intermediary company:

• This will help in finding factories. Finding a factory in China is very difficult since many of them simply do not have a website.
• The intermediary company communicates directly with the factories. This is useful because very few people in China speak English.
• Such a company can control production on site. In this case, entrepreneurs have only one alternative to go live in China and control everything independently. Since we cooperated with eight factories at once, we decided to use the services of an intermediary company.

Looking ahead, our Chinese partner turned out to be very good, so if you find a decent company, then there should be no problems.

Oleg Khalip

Difficulties with Chinese factories

Our difficulties began almost immediately after the start of production. The first 500 devices turned out to be of good quality, and then the flaw appeared. We learned about it from the backers who received the cameras. The problem was with the factory that compiled the cameras. We found out that they used the wrong glue in production. Because of this, when the cameras reached the backers, they simply fell apart.

Then we began to learn about other problems in this factory. There was high staff turnover, the staff did not collect the cameras carefully, and this was important, as we assemble the cameras manually. Later it turned out that the person who was in charge of the production had left this factory. Another person came there and thereby the information was transmitted poorly (as a result, we flew to China four more times). In general, we could not have influenced some of the points, and the quality of the products suffered from it.

Cooperation with factories in China is something of a lottery. In our case, the conditions were even tougher. In China, there is no factory that has ever produced cardboard cameras. Our factory produces products from this material, and we had to teach them to assemble cameras. This influenced the product quality significantly.

Tip: if you produce products that have analogues, then in China you can find a good manufacturer. If you produce a unique product, then it will be difficult to start Chinese production from scratch. Moreover, if your products are assembled manually, production should be set up as close as possible to yourself in order to control everything.

We promised to make a replacement with new cameras to those backers who received defective ones. Now, in fact, we are doing this.

Manufacture in Ukraine

Transfer of manufacture to Ukraine

So, the first 500 of the cameras have been collected well. In the next batch of 1,000 cameras, many were defective. Then the factory collected 4,000 more devices for us, where 90% of copies were defective.

At that moment, we realized that it was impossible to produce our camera in China. Despite all the contracts and instructions, the factory has made us an almost completely defective batch. Then we had only two choices: to announce the failure and finish everything or transfer the manufacture to Ukraine. We chose the second path.

Our decision was also influenced by our relationship with the factory. In the end, it was frankly not interested in cooperating with us due to the fact that it was forced to spend money on redoing of our cameras.

As a result, manufacture in China turned out to be not only problematic for us, but also quite expensive since Oleg and I had to invest our own funds.

Therefore, we took all the cameras and spare parts, loaded them on the ship and sent them to Ukraine. In total, we ordered the production of 10,000 cameras in China. We were made 8,000 ones, of which almost 4,000 were fully assembled, the rest were partially assembled. For 2,000 devices we only had parts. We took all of it and transported it to Ukraine.

This process took about three months: in August 2018 the ship sailed from Hong Kong where we delivered the cargo, and in late October we received it and began the production. However, we did not waste this time in vain but thought about how to improve the camera. We made a lot of changes – in particular, we improved the design to simplify the assembly and make the camera more reliable.

Having received the goods in Ukraine, we started production. We decided to use all the spare parts to the maximum, so we dismantled 6,000 cameras and are now making new ones from them. We used cardboard which could no longer be used as firewood to heat the room in the winter – this is absolutely true 🙂

Tip: if you can deploy production in Ukraine, do this because:

• You will help develop our country.
• You will be able to quickly respond to all issues – and, believe me, they often happen in production. This will allow you to improve product quality.
• It is not more expensive to manufacture in Ukraine than in China, but the quality of products here is much higher.

If it is impossible to produce in Ukraine, then you need to go to China personally. It is important to debug the control system. One Ukrainian entrepreneur installed video fixation at a factory in China. Thus, he could clearly see the problem and understand whose fault it occurred. Conclusion: try as much as possible to control the production process, up to such methods.

Manufacture in Ukraine and future plans

We are now building Jollylook cameras in our own production. For it, we bought, for example, a laser machine to make parts from plywood ourselves. In addition, we found good suppliers here – the guys from Kharkiv make us excellent parts from cardboard.

This does not mean that we have completely abandoned China – now we are producing a number of parts there that we cannot obtain in Ukraine. In my opinion, such a scheme – the assembly and partial production in Ukraine and the purchase of some parts in China – is the most optimal for us at the moment.

In total, there are 27 of us in the company, 15 are engaged in assembly directly. All employees are located in Ukraine – in Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, and Dnipro. We communicate through the Basecamp program, and it is very convenient, we also added logisticians, customs brokers and Chinese partners there.

Since November, we have already produced almost 4,000 cameras, and we will soon send the first batch of devices to backers. We will do so in order to save on delivery – we will send cameras to fulfillment centers in the USA, Europe, and Asia, and from there they will be sent to the addresses. Thus, we will reduce the cost of our delivery by almost two times.

In addition, we already sell some of our cameras just to survive. We need to pay salaries, cover rent, and other expenses. We notified the backers about this, and they accepted this information with understanding. We sell cameras through dealers and from the official site. Jollylook is bought all over the world, the main markets are the USA, European countries and East Asia. We have an ideal situation for a startup – when demand exceeds supply.

In any case, now our main goal is to deliver all the devices to the backers. We have already created two new camera models, and we plan to launch them on Kickstarter this year. But first we need to fulfill the obligations of the previous campaign.

We were also at CES this year. We got a lot of useful contacts, talked to distributors. Now we process contacts, communicate and send test samples. In addition, we met with representatives of Fujifilm in the United States and are now discussing possible collaborations with them.

Communication with backers

From the very beginning we described our entire journey in a blog on Kickstarter, we honestly shared all the news with backers to keep them informed. This helped us a lot since we managed to level the negative from the delay in deliveries and got a loyal audience.

Now we see a lot of positive feedback from the audience, despite the fact that we promised to deliver the product a year and a half ago. Some clients even asked us to write a book or make a documentary about this story, that’s how much it interested them.

Tip: be honest with the backers. Loyalty is the most valuable thing you can get on Kickstarter. These people support you now and will support you in the future when you release the following products, and this is very important.

“Everyone came with functioning prototypes or pre-production samples of their products. The goals of all participants are similar: to accelerate business development. This includes finding new partners, retailers and investors, as well as a product demonstration for the media. After the first day of the show, each company has already achieved the first results. We are very pleased with the beginning,” notes Tislenko.

The representatives of the Ukrainian pavilion are the following starups:

FunLight

FunLight is a startup that works on creating amusement rides in shopping centers and theme parks. “We use powerful projectors and motion tracking sensors to turn walls and floors into an interactive surface,” the team describes its product.

FunLight opened a pilot attraction at the Lavina Mall in Kyiv in October 2018. It was named the “Citadel of Music,” where visitors enter a separate room, where “all sounds of the Universe are collected.” Interacting with surfaces, they can create their own tunes and songs.

Flasty

The Flasty team produces 3D printers. The company’s lineup includes a professional Flasty GT large-size printer, a device Flasty SM for printing smaller products, and Flasty Jade, a remote 3D printing service.

In addition, the team produces food 3D-printer CHOCOLA3D. The representatives of the project say that this is the first such device in the world. CHOCOLA3D can print chocolate, fruit, meat, cheese products on various food surfaces: bread, cookies, waffles, and so on.

Jollylook

Jollylook is a project that is working on an analog vintage camera. Jollylook has a special appearance, as well as the ability to instantly develop photos. In 2017, the project raised more than $375,000, although it has not yet delivered the product to the backers.

Nuka

Startup Nuka produces an “eternal” notebook and pencil. The owners of this office can take notes in a notebook, and then erase them and write again; the pencil does not need to be regularly sharpened or filled with ink. In addition, the owners of Nuka can save entries in the “numeric” using a special application for the smartphone.

RAWR

RAWR is a “smart” dog collar. It tracks a number of indicators of a pet: its geolocation, history of movements, physical activity, number of calories consumed, pulse, and so on. In addition, the device is equipped with LEDs which allows not to lose the dog in the dark.

Photon_LMS

Photon_LMS is a portable photo studio for subject photography. Among its features the creators note the ease of installation, control of the light, as well as the low cost of the product compared with similar solutions. Photon_LMS is designed for professional photographers, as well as ecommerce business.

Whooshi

The project team is working on a device for listening to music. Whooshi has two main functions: it improves the sound quality and makes the owner’s wired headphones wireless. Among other features there are its own application, which adjusts the sound to the user’s preference, as well as the built-in equalizer.

iGlam

iGlam is jewelry, which color can be changed for any outfit using a special application. The device holds a charge for five hours, it can also be recharged in a case. iGlam is a set of earrings, rings and pendants that change colors.

A number of Ukrainian companies and startups went to CES separately. Among them there are:

Petcube

This year, Ukrainian startup Petcube presented two new devices at the CES exhibition: Bites 2 and Play 2. Both cameras were presented in a new design, with improved sound, a 180-degree viewing angle, and support from Alexa assistant. Thanks to Amazon’s voice assistant, new items can play music, news, control other smart home devices, set alarms and more.

Pix

This time, a Ukrainian startup Pix went to Las Vegas together with the IoT Hub accelerator team. In 2018, the team raised $150,000 for the production of the eponymous backpack. Its main feature is the back surface, on which images and animations can be displayed.

Kwambio

The Ukrainian manufacturer of 3D printers for ceramic products, Kwambio, presented its new product, Ceramo Zero Max at CES. This is a desktop version of the model Ceramo One, which is suitable for use at home or in the office. It costs $5,000, which is twice less than the first model, and will suit, in particular, independent designers.

Emotion Labs

Ukrainian startup Emotion Labs went to CES with its EMWatch smart watch. They are designed to reduce the level of stress of the owner: the device measures pressure, pulse, monitors sleep, and in a special application provides recommendations for improving well-being.

LaMetric

Ukrainian startup LaMetric arrived this year at CES with a new product, Sky LED panels which can be hang on the wall and perform two functions: display the necessary information and decorate the interior. Sky can show the weather forecast in real time, the number of new messages in the mail, followers to Instagram and much more – you can choose the data sources yourself.

DTEK and Sensorama

At this year’s exhibition, Ukrainian companies DTEK and Sensorama, together with the Belarusian startup Teslasuit, present a simulator of TPPs in virtual reality. It allows you to accelerate the training program for employees of power plants in a safer environment, the company noted.

If your startup/company also went to represent your product at CES`19, email us at news@ain.ua, the editors will add information.

Our Company has two Co-Founders: I am CEO and Oleg Khalip is CTO. Approximately three years ago Oleg’s son asked him how camera worked. Oleg and his son came to the market and bought cardboard and all other required things. Being an engineer, he decided to make a cardboard camera that will explain the set-up of a camera. They also bought a cartridge Fuji instant film 100c. So, Oleg assembled a camera from cardboard in order to demonstrate how it worked. The camera came out cool, but it did not go beyond the prototype. When Jollylook first decided to put the camera on Kickstarter (before we knew them), Oleg shot video and made presentation, but Fuji cartridge went out of production. The project was frozen.

Later Oleg started slowly developing the camera that we are launching now. It was kept in his office and Oleg had no time to prepare its putting on Kickstarter. At that time I met him. He remembered my first unsuccessful project – Booster One headphones. We did it with other guys and the project failed. Oleg helped us with manufacture of the prototype. This was the grounds for our acquaintance. When I saw a camera in his office and asked why it had not been on Kickstarter yet, Oleg told me the whole story. Further I made unsuccessful launch of the above-stated headphones and Oleg came to support us.

Thereafter Oleg phoned me and proposed to become his partner in the project Jollylook as well as to launch Kickstarter-campaign. We agreed on the terms of our partnership. Oleg handed me over the camera and video footage, taken in Zaporozhye. It happened in mid-November last year. Since that moment I have started preparing campaign on Kickstarter. For two weeks I have made a web page, re-assembled a video and provided it with soundtrack. On the first of December a page on Kickstarter was ready. During the following two months I have been working on PR and marketing.

I made a landing page, where we collected e-mail addresses of subscribers, prepared press kit and started looking for journalists and sending letters to TOP international media, which mentioned instant photography. Since December 1 till January 31 (the day of our launch) I have sent about 1,000 letters to diverse journalists. All letters were personalized and intended to spark the authors’ interest in our product. In response to my 1,000 letters, I’ve got about 10 replies. However, these replies were from the TOP editions, which now can be seen on our Kickstarter page. This was a major impetus at the launch of our project as far as, for instance, PetaPixel, the largest photo blog in the world, wrote about us.

Major efforts were taken before launch and not after it as in case with the previous project when I knew a little about Kickstarter. On the first day, we raised $37,000, further – $100,000. Till the end of the month we had $377,000.

Who buys Jollylook: is it an amateur photographer, a hipster or a connoisseur of original gifts?

Anyone can be a buyer. It is not a professional camera, but rather a toy and souvenir, which can make cool photos. It is interesting for professionals as well as for amateurs.

Actually, the target audience is very wide. Among our backers there are professional photographers, who like analog photography, who are well-versed in it and make expositions. There are also amateurs and people, who are far from photography. They just enjoy the idea of cardboard camera.

Why all these lamp and analog things, including photography, are back in fashion?

People always get back to basics. There are some trends, something new emerges and fashion begins. However, there are some things, which always come back. There is a classic, which never goes away.

Analog photography is more vivid.

Whatever bright and sophisticated screens we have and whatever cool photos we get, the photo is innatural anyway. It does not reflect actual colors, seen by human eyes in ordinary life. And vice versa, it makes artificial, overbearing and bright picture – it is beautiful, but innatural.

Here we see the photos as if we see it with our eyes, especially taking into consideration souvenir photo. Instant photos are stored for a long time – people put it in the purse, hang it on refrigerators using magnets.

In analog photography color reproduction is very close to the way we see it in real life. Therefore, digital photography is cool, but analog photo is a classic, real live and getting back to basics. Plus, if we are talking about photography, there is a big difference between the way when photo is recorded on camera matrix and then transmitted to the screen, and the way when the photo is stored owing to instant chemical process, which takes place on the photo surface – naturally.

Therefore, instant photography provides such a cool result that people enjoy it. When you take a small photo, produced by Jollylook (by the size it is similar to a credit card), you see a true-life result, which delights the eye.

You often mention that the camera is made of environmentally friendly materials – for example, its body is made of cardboard. Was it difficult to find the supplier, being able to meet all assembling requirements?

In fact, it is not so easy to find the required cardboard. But we managed to do it in such a way: we contacted partners in China, who found 10 factories, matching our criteria. Further we chose top-3 out of these factories. Jointly with Oleg we visited China, examined all factories and found the most optimal ones. It is a very long-term process that we jointly worked through and improved.

It really took a great deal of time, but we were excited about the prospects.

Unfortunately, it took more time than we expected – due to a huge amount of the order and continued orders as well as absence of any ecosystem for manufacture of the camera in Ukraine. We made attempts to manufacture our product in Ukraine, but, disappointingly, it was impossible in our realities and we were forced to go to China.

Now five different factories work for us. One of the factories manufactures plastic parts (developing unit is made of plastic), another factory manufactures developing rollers, the third one – lenses, the fourth – cardboard and the fifth – assembles all parts. It is quite efforts-consuming production process. Of, course, sometimes we have certain delays, but we do our best to provide the highest possible quality of the product that we will never be ashamed of.

That is why we have already apologized to backers and posted updates – we always keep them informed. We have a very strong support. We are committed to make a high-quality product.

What was the most unexpected problem at the development and production stage?

We had different problems, starting from the developing rollers. It is metal rollers with special coating – it adds roughness to the rollers and allows fully squeezing reagent for development of photos. We have been working on such rollers for a long period of time – until we got an ideal coating, size and spring pressure for reliability and efficient operation of the device.

There were funny and, at the same time, unpleasant situations. For instance, viewfinder lens that a person looks through. It is Fresnel lens. We ordered samples of such lenses from the factory. We got the lenses and approved it.

10,000 lenses were delivered to our warehouse and were kept there for a certain period of time. When it was the time to assemble the first cameras, we opened the lenses. These lenses were not the ones that we ordered. They were similar by form, but not the ones that we approved. It was impossible to notice this visually at the moment of delivery to the warehouse.

However, in general, apart from time consumption, it’s going well.

What definitely should be avoided when you enter Kickstarter?

It is critical to keep in mind that Kickstarter is a crowdfunding. People donate money for implementation of a product that they wish to see, expecting to get it in return as a remuneration. This is in no way a purchase.

The first thing, which should be changed in understanding of the crowdfunding, is to perceive it as a platform for sale (most of our people think so). It is not sale, people donate money there. It is not a store where you buy something.

Therefore, when you are going to produce something, you should invent a unique product for mass marker, to manufacture functioning prototype and put it on Kickstarter in order to raise funds for manufacture of something innovative, and not the things that already exist. Many people enter Kickstarter to promote their product. In fact, it doesn’t work anymore. For the last time the platform has changed a lot. Now they have much more projects.

Three years ago journalists reported on new projects as soon as they were put on Kickstarter, because it was cool and innovative. Further media burnt their fingers as many projects did not fulfil their promises and in the eyes of the readers the journalists also looked like liars. Now Kickstarter faces rather negative attitude of media – journalists write about projects with caution and do not write about the projects that they have no confidence in reliability of.

It is very important not to lie. If you still don’t have a finished product, it is better to tell that you are just going to manufacture it. It is essential to have a functioning prototype, which is almost ready for production. Then you can go to crowdfunding with it.

Summarizing the results, are you satisfied with financial model and operating mechanics of Kickstarter?

Kickstarter is doing very well. They even facilitate promotion of products. For example, in September they launched a new service, which helps to prepare for production and to calculate the cost of hardware product.

Many inventors have never dealt with production and they can wrongly calculate how much does it cost.

Kickstarter actively works on this aspect. They have a top level support service and detailed guidance for the authors of new projects. I like what they do.

I would like them to make the criteria for selection of hardware products more stringent and to make sure of the availability of products. It would enhance filtering of products. This will make people more confident in reliability of project and increase the number of its supporters. It would be better if Kickstarter avoided murky projects and invited more gifted guys, offering the innovations which really worth creating and disseminating throughout the world.

What are your future plans for Jollylook?

Jollylook is a company that will continue production of camera and accessories, made of cardboard. In the nearest time we will produce Jollylook Square — square format, and further – Wide – wide format, thereafter stereo photo camera and various accessories to all models.

Now, as fun as it sounds, despite of the fact that we raised an impressive amount on Kickstarter, the project is almost at breakeven point. We are looking for additional funding to extend turnover and enter new markets.

Retail networks like Michaels stores in the USA and other networks of the Great Britain, Japan, Korea and other countries. demonstrated interest in our product. The product is in demand, but we have not enough funds for the desired development. Therefore, we are looking for investments and new solutions for as rapid growth of sales as possible.

Are you looking for investors abroad?

Actually, we are looking everywhere.

Unfortunately, in Ukraine there are almost no investors – just a couple of funds, which invest in IT sphere. We have no Ukrainian investors, who invest in hardware startups and consumer goods.

Probably, there are some investors, but it is very difficult to find them. It is not just funds that we need, but this option is also possible. Ideally it should be an investor, who will help us to enter new markets and who has an experience in international trade.

Did you have an idea to raise the cost of the camera to protect yourself from risks? Can you provide any advices in respect of product price formation?

If we protected ourselves and raised the price a little bit, it would cut the number of preliminary orders. You will not make money on Kickstarter. It is PR, kick start and launch. You start making money as soon as you finished the project and began selling. Kickstarter is a great platform to test market demand of the product.

Concerning price formation – you should calculate cost price of the product and multiply it by 3-4 times. At the moment of launching the company the price should be minimal. Then you should rely on the average price, evolved with the progress of the Company: for instance, Jollylook price started from $29 (for the first 200 backers) and further it gradually increased till $41. We also studied and calculated many factors, but, due to production delay and the associated costs, we had to fly to China time and again – that was the reason of our miscalculation. We didn’t expect to encounter so many difficulties in the production. The initial expected cost price turned out to be almost two times higher.