I've always wanted to do a Kickstarter. I had lots of ideas but figured that to begin with I should do something small, something that I could do completely by myself - photography, webdev, manufacturing and all.

So I decided to try this as my first Kickstarter project. Well, it's a desk: getzdesk.com

One of my first designs. I found that laptops in 2015 don't really have heat issues, and the ventilation holes made other tasks like writing with a piece of paper difficult.

I started out prototyping with THK rails, which obviously would cost too much for the final product. After a bunch of failed experiments with skate bearings I ended up settling on a simple telescoping slider design.

The interior is lined with UHMW tape for a smooth sliding motion. The set screw fixes both vertical position, and removes the slack between inner and outer tubes.

I'm still not entirely sure if this is something that people will want, but I guess that's exactly what Kickstarter is made for.

As orders filtered in I got some questions regarding shipping and prices, but the majority of messages I received were Kickstarter marketing spam.

Sad trombone. In retrospect I think this was mainly a failure of advertising.

Of the dozen or so blogs I had contacted, only one featured me. Without a viral factor I just couldn't get enough eyeballs to the Kickstarter page. During the campaign I got 1600 uniques, 90% were from Kickstarter itself.

For now, it looks like I'll have the privilege of being the world's first and only owner of a Z-Desk.

up arrow Back to top