The challenge
$1,000 of Instagram ads got them their first 1,000 followers. That math does not scale.
Andrew had a product people wanted — a pet-inclusive office chair with a collapsible ramp for dogs — and a Kickstarter on the horizon. He needed an audience. He tried the obvious first move: $1,000 in Instagram ads. That bought him his first 1,000 followers — roughly $1 per follower, most of whom had no particular pet-office intent. The Kickstarter conversion math did not work at that follower cost.
In his own words: "Quickly I realized this wasn't cutting it. I needed a different solution." Running a pre-launch startup means every hour has to produce leverage. Paying $1 per random follower was not leverage. He needed audience growth that was targeted — pet owners, dog parents, WFH professionals — and growth that compounded without needing daily tuning.
What we did
Targeted the overlap: dog owners, office workers, product-Kickstarter audiences.
1
Built targeting around pet + office + indie-brand communities.
We pointed Magnet Pro at the exact accounts that would become Kickstarter backers: top pet-owner communities, home-office / remote-work creators, product-design and indie-brand Kickstarter watchers. No broad demographic sprays — laser-focus on people who might actually buy a $300+ pet chair.
2
Welcome DM routed to the Kickstarter waitlist.
Every new follower got a welcome DM routing them to get.seatmate.shop — the Kickstarter waitlist. LaunchBoom's $1 reservation funnel did the rest. Final conversion rate: 26% of waitlist → backer. That's how Andrew hit $216K on day one of the Kickstarter.
3
Targeted growth + viral-reel distribution compounded.
The Magnet Pro audience wasn't just passive follower growth — it was a warm audience that amplified every reel Seatmate posted. Combined result: over 1 billion organic views pre-launch, multiple million-view reels, and ~200M people reached. Andrew's words: "Something about the program naturally increases the engagement of all of our posts." The engaged audience ended up being the primary Kickstarter-conversion engine.
The results
From 1K followers to $488K on Kickstarter — in months.
Before Magnet
1K followers
→
Kickstarter day 1
$216K
Seatmate's Kickstarter closed at $488,623 from 1,696 backers — 4,800% over the original goal. They followed it with a second Kickstarter (Split Ottoman Dog Ramp) that added another $274K. Combined Kickstarter: $763K+ raised across ~3,000 backers. They became one of Kickstarter's first Premier Partners on the strength of the launch.
Andrew's takeaway: "I really think it is a better way to spend your money than strictly through Instagram ads. Let the professionals take the derivative — Magnet. I promise you won't be disappointed." The same laser-targeted audience-building approach that got him there is replicable for any consumer product or Kickstarter-first brand.