Kickstarter and Start Garden alumnus shifting into high gear

After two successful Kickstarter campaigns and funding through Start Garden, Marie-Claire Camp has been able to move from the design phase to the growth phase for her concept of Children's Wallet Cards (profiled in Rapid Growth in September, 2012).  

Camp says she has raised a total of $41,790 through two campaigns on Kickstarter and $10,000 through two different Start Garden grants, which has allowed her to move from one educational deck of cards to five decks and also develop a complimentary interactive iPhone app.

At the same time, she has moved from selling her products only online to having a presence in multiple brick and mortar retailers. "I'm in several retail locations in West Michigan: 6.25 Paper, Beyond Paper, Pooh's Corner, HopScotch, Minds in Motion in Grand Rapids Children's Museum, and Sand Castle for Kids," says Camp.

Besides developing new products, Camp has been building the online community to support her customers. "My mom, Lisa Ann Camp, was a Montessori teacher for over 25 years, with a Masters in Education from Harvard. She has been consulting on the resource area on the site for parents, teachers and small children. The area includes activities for small children to encourage early learning at home."

Next up for Camp: more growth. "After fulfilling all of the Kickstarter rewards and pre-orders, my goal is to expand into 30 more retail stores in the U.S. and 20 international shops. I'm also working on organizing my next Kickstarter campaign; it's on schedule to launch in summer 2014 as well. I can't disclose what I'm working on quite yet, but it's about twice the size [of] my last campaign".

To learn more about Children's Wallet Cards you can visit Camp's website here.

Writer: John Rumery, Innovation and Jobs News Editor