A lot of ink has been spilled about the Coolest Cooler, a re-imagined picnic cooler equipped with a built-in blender, waterproof Bluetooth speaker, and UBS charger (among other things). To fund the project, inventor Ryan Grepper of Portland, OR, raised a record $13.3 million from 62,642 backers last summer on Kickstarter.
The $13.3 million Grepper raised eclipsed the previous Kickstarter record for top-funded projects—the Pebble smartwatch raised almost $10.3 million in 2012. It was big news—the amount was equivalent to a sizable venture round. With backers placing more than 61,000 orders for the cooler itself, Grepper also proved that a market exists for his product—which is not something every venture-backed startup can do.
Image: http://www.xconomy.com
