Cat Feeder from Napkin-Sketch to $222, 861 in Pre-Orders in Two Months
Veterinarian Dr. Liz Bales came to Novo Product Labs with an idea meant to solve many of the problems cat owners are plagued with- cats scratching furniture, “scarf and barf”, obese cats, inactive cats- VIA a new kind of feeding bowl that gave cats exercise while they ate. This new “NoBowl Feeding System” would resemble a mouse so that a cat would chase it around, hit it, and be rewarded with kibble that fell out.
Novo turned Dr. Bales idea into a 3D CAD model and 3D printed a prototype for volunteer trialists to test out with a few cats. After this experiment, Dr. Bales requested some changes to the model and repeated the testing process until she was satisfied with the NoBowl Feeding System about four weeks later. Novo then created 250 sample units for volunteer trialists to test out for a couple weeks. Over 80% of these testers reported being “extremely satisfied” with the NoBowl Feeding System so, after some minor changes, Novo and Dr. Bales created a Kickstarter, and later Indiegogo, campaign to officially launch the Nobowl Feeding System.
Within a couple weeks of launching the crowdfunding campaign, Dr. Bales had pre-orders for $50,000 of NoBowl Feeding Systems and was rapidly gaining momentum. With the help of some press and social media promotion by Novo, the NoBowl Feeding System ended up with $222,861 in pre-orders. With market interest well-established, Novo handed over mass production of the NoBowl Feeding System to an injection molding company.
