JUST $53,897.
That was the humble fundraising goal Ryan Grepper set on July 8, lowering his expectations for the second Kickstarter campaign for his Coolest Cooler creation, a hi-tech cooler jam-packed with all sorts of fun gizmos — from a built-in ice crushing blender to Bluetooth speakers and a USB charger.
See, the first time Grepper took to the crowd-funding site — back in November 2013 — he’d set a target of $134,730. Yet, after an encouraging strong start, interest in the campaign started wavering. By closing, the project managed to raise a little over $107,784 in pledges and eventually failed to hit its mark.
The failure dealt a blow to Grepper’s confidence — but the entrepreneur, who describes himself as “part visionary, part mad scientist” refused to give up. Taking the lessons he’d learned from the failed campaign, Grepper regrouped and last month reintroduced an advanced version of his creation.
