Failed kickstarter campaign eventually kills Triggertrap
Jan 31, 2017
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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The journey of Triggertrap has been eventful one. A small startup with a promising future, releasing some great products. It made them an instant hit. Their success and popularity was growing rapidly. Then, they launched a Kickstarter for a new product. Ada; An expandable modular system that offered all sorts of triggering possibilities. It raised around half a million dollars, but then ultimately failed.
The short version as to why is that they simply underestimated the actual costs of bringing the product to reality. They also had no backup plans when other companies they relied upon let them down. Since that failed campaign, the company has been doing what it can to hold on. Now, though, Triggertrap have officially announced that they are ending the business.
It is a shame, because the company had so much potential. Ada was a revolutionary when it was announced, hence the amount of money it raised. They’ve still offered the Triggertrap mobile app, and brought fairly regular updates, too. But, the loss of public confidence after Kickstarter spelled their eventual demise.
Ever since our failed Kickstarter campaign, Triggertrap has been struggling. We’ve gone through several rounds of lay-offs to keep the company afloat, but ultimately, ended up being unable to save Triggertrap.
Today, we are announcing that the company is going to close down.
– Triggertrap
It is expected that the business will be fully wound down by the end of February 2017. Technical support has ended today.
The apps will still remain on the app store for mobile devices. They will continue to function as it does today. However, as with many apps, there is the risk that a future iOS or Android update breaks its functionality. At the moment, there are no plans in place to update the app in the event that happens.
They are looking into open sourcing the apps, although it would need somebody who understands what they’re getting into. They’d also need to know how to maintain the code, and do some work to make it ready for an open source release. That’s not as easy a task as it sounds, if there’s proprietary 3rd party code in there that would need to be rewritten.
Triggertrap say that the last 18 months have been a major struggle, operating with minimal staff. But, they’ve been unable to climb their way back out of the hole that the Kickstarter campaign created. So, the decision was made to call it a day.
For customers and backers. There will probably be a lot of questions. So, Triggertrap have prepared a FAQ that you can read over on the Triggertrap Playbook blog, and you can read the full closing statement here.
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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3 responses to “Failed kickstarter campaign eventually kills Triggertrap”
It’s sad… I have the first or second version of Triggertrap (the unit that kinda looks like a Raspberry Pi), and have backed them up in the past.
But as with some other Kickstarter origins company, not only they are subject to backlashes whenever Kickstarter has a bad fame, they usually get a bad rep from some backers because of delays, and then they are subject to drastic market changes.
I have to admit here. When I finally received my unit, the project I intended to use it for was long gone. I ended up never using the thing. And after it, despite Triggertrap offering more modes and a more advanced system, the simple fact is that you have a number of alternative apps and systems, including cheap DIY ones, to reproduce at least part of Triggertrap’s functions. In fact, several of the Triggertrap’s key functions are already inside camera firmware these days… timelapse, alternative trigger modes, etc.
Despite best efforts from the company, they just couldn’t keep the initial hype of the product going. I know they worked a lot on this because social network channels and e-mail for backers were a constant thing.
It also has to do with the nature of the whole thing. Once you have one, you are unlikely to get another, upgrade, and whatnot. And it’s admitedly a niche thing.
Hope the people from the company can find jobs quickly and recover.
I agree and I’m sure after the success of their first offering the competition just exploded with alternatives. That couldn’t have helped their market share and ultimately their bottom line.
Good. That was the slimiest Kickstarter I have ever seen. Their owner was touting everything was on time all the way up until they pulled the plug. I got my money back but most didn’t.