Being creative is a simple pleasure that many children love to explore. Drawing is an activity that people of all ages enjoy but it can certainly be tough to figure out how to sharpen one’s skills as a draftsman. Noting that a large number of people wish to improve their creative skills, a startup company called Flycatcher—the creators of Painting Lulu—have just launched a Kickstarter campaign for an invention called “FollowGrams.” This innovative system is described as a “smart Projector” that teaches users how to draw a variety of images when the projector is paired with an accompanying app.
Best of all, the system is designed to let users decide what they want to draw and template can be derived from photos, free-hand drawings, and more. Launched in February of 2017, the “FollowGrams” Kickstarter is seeking to raise at least $20,000 by March 17 to further develop this technology.
Background
Tal Zilberman, the VP of Marketing and CoFounder of Flycatcher Inc., was introduced to his business partner, Shay Chen, in 2013 when he was searching for someone to help him develop an app for sports fans. “We met in a small coffee place and he showed me his new coloring book concept called ‘Painting Lulu’ and five minutes later we decided to work together,” Tal explained. “We both came from tech startups developing products in the digital space and it was refreshing to build a physical product.
Both of us were young dads so "toys and play were a huge part of our lives.” After Painting Lulu was launched to great acclaim, Shay and Tal decided to turn their attention to a new project, namely a projector that helps children learn how to draw. It took the men over a year to design and they debuted a prototype of the item at NYC’s huge Toy Fair in February of 2017 where it garnered a lot of interest.
Kickstarter
Despite the potential of FollowGrams, creating such a product requires a lot of time and funds and so Shay and Tal turned to Kickstarter to help them raise both money and public interest. “We thought our product was a great fit for Kickstarter,” Tal said. “We have a working prototype of a tech toy that looks great and people really loved.
We started the Kickstarter process by going to meet-ups and listening to podcasts of people who had successful Kickstarter campaigns. Then we made a video and created the content for the project. It went live on January 31 and will close on March 15. At present, they are only a few hundred dollars shy of their $20,000 goal.
Future
Tal is hopeful that he and Shay will continue working together for a long time to come and they play to hire more talented people who can help them create toys that are creative, fun, and educational. “Having our kids play with the toys we built is great as is hearing that our products are unique and innovative,” Tal declared and noted that they will be showing new inventions at the 2018 toy fair in New York. “The toy fair is a great place to meet the right people, find manufactures, and learn the industry,” Tal declared. “It’s good for inventors to have friends in the toy business.”
