Inside Two Successful Makuake Crowdfunding Campaigns [Part 1] — DP-M1, Setting Off From Zero Recognition

Miaomada has run two crowdfunding campaigns on Makuake (Japan’s largest crowdfunding platform — closest US analog is Kickstarter) for our protein dispenser. The first, for DP-M1, finished with 133 backers and ¥1,895,000 (about US$12,600). The second, for DP-M2, brought in 179 backers and ¥2,947,500 (about US$19,650). Cumulatively, 312 backers and just over ¥4.84M (about US$32,000).

The numbers, looked at in isolation, look smooth. The reality was anything but. Mid-campaign spec changes, calculations done with the wrong tax base, a daily scramble — the whole thing was held together with adrenaline.

Part 1 covers the first campaign — DP-M1.

From 3D Printer to Mass Production — The Materials Wall

DP-M1 was prototyped on a 3D printer. Moving to mass production meant injection-molded plastic parts.

But this product touches protein directly. We had to use materials compliant with food-contact regulations under Japan’s Food Sanitation Act.

The housing is ABS, the hopper is PS (polystyrene), the dosing parts are PE (polyethylene), and the moving parts that need wear resistance are POM (polyacetal). PS and PE have plenty of food-grade options available, so they weren’t a problem.

ABS and POM were. We found exactly one food-grade resin grade for each from any domestic Japanese supplier. ABS isn’t commonly used as a food-contact material, so the resin makers haven’t prioritized developing food-grade variants. The end result was a material cost meaningfully higher than a typical molded plastic part.

15 Tools, ¥19.45M — The Day I Walked Into the CEO’s Office

We took the 3D models and our internal designers ran flow analysis to figure out optimal gate locations, ejector pin positions, and draft directions. Then we split the tooling order between an outside mold shop and our parent company, Showa Denki.

Fifteen molds in total. ¥19,450,000 — roughly US$130,000.

At that point Miaomada was a company in name only — incorporated but with no real operations. I was still on staff at Showa Denki, working in the business planning office. I walked into the CEO’s office and said, “The tooling is going to cost this much,” and somehow got him to approve the spend.

Honestly, I had no concrete basis to say it would sell. But I’m an optimist by nature, so my gut said “yeah, this will sell.” There were earlier competitors overseas, but no product on the market at a real production-quality level. The drive to ship something usable, fast, was strong enough that I just charged ahead.

The Base Plate Problem — Plastic Wouldn’t Cut It

To keep cost down, I’d wanted to make the base plate plastic too. But the moment we assembled a real unit, every lever pull made the whole thing flex and slide.

With 1 kg of protein in the hopper, rotating the dosing chamber takes real torque. Without enough mass in the unit, it shifts every time you operate it. No amount of cleverness with the rubber feet helped.

To resist the bending moments, the base had to be metal.

We tried laser-cutting 10 mm steel plate but gave up on that approach. We ended up casting the base in metal, machining it at Showa Denki’s Iwase plant, then powder-coating the surface.

The result: the base alone accounts for nearly half the unit cost.

We Were Calculating Pre-Tax — The B2B-Only Company’s Mistake

Showa Denki is a contract manufacturer — a supplier. In the B2B world, every quote and every internal cost calculation is pre-tax. Cost of the molded plastic parts, cost of the base, assembly fee, screws and small parts — everything pre-tax.

I’d been planning for a retail price under ¥15,000, working off ¥14,800 ex-tax.

When I sat down to build the Makuake reward tiers, it hit me: “this doesn’t work — I should have been calculating tax-inclusive.”

In Japanese B2C, displayed prices are tax-inclusive by convention. The price had to become ¥14,800 tax-inclusive (around US$100), which made the unit economics worse.

There was a bigger problem on top of that. We’d planned to eventually expand into B2B (selling through retailers), but I didn’t even know the standard Japanese term for “wholesale price” (joudai). There has to be margin between the wholesale and the listed retail price for a B2B channel to work. At our cost structure, B2B expansion wasn’t going to be possible. I figured that out around the same time.

100 Influencer DMs — Why I Did It Myself

A protein dispenser is a product no one knows exists. You can’t just put it up for sale and expect orders.

I figured the first buyers would be innovators and early adopters. So crowdfunding made sense as the launch channel. At the same time, I wanted to push awareness with influencer marketing.

There are agencies that specialize in this kind of work, but I had no way to judge whether any specific one was good or bad. So I just did it myself — I DM’d about 100 fitness influencers on X (Twitter).

About 20 of them replied saying they’d love to try the product, and we sent them units. The arrangement was that they’d post about it on X on the day the Makuake campaign launched.

Why X? Because I didn’t really understand the other platforms well enough to use them.

Launch — The First Three Days Felt Great

The project page itself was built by an outside agency. They had a writer and photographer working in sync with us, so building the page went smoothly. The conviction behind the product was real, and once I explained what we were trying to do, the team got it.

November 2022. The campaign launched.

The first three days felt amazing — orders kept coming in. The first Miaomada product, selling. That feeling sticks with me.

The good mood didn’t last.

100 Proteins, Bench-Tested — Many Wouldn’t Drop

Once the campaign was running, we shifted to building dose guidance — how many grams of powder come out per lever pull.

To figure that out, we bought roughly 100 different protein products and started daily dose testing.

The plan had been to ship two dosing chamber variants — 29 cc and 35 cc. But a lot of the proteins wouldn’t drop.

The powders were nothing like the prototype protein we’d been using. The powder would clump and jam inside the dosing chamber. The campaign was already live, and we’d just found a problem in the core of the product.

Things got intense. We dropped the dose-guidance work and started over: figuring out what chamber geometry would consistently let powder drop, all while the campaign was running.

We iterated through shapes. Eventually we landed on one where powder dropped reliably. But that geometry didn’t support both the 29 cc and 35 cc variants. We had to collapse to a single 31 cc chamber.

We posted an “I’m sorry, spec change” update on the campaign page mid-flight.

We rushed the new mold for the dosing chamber and somehow shipped to backers on the promised date. It was tight.

The Joy Was Real, But Brief

The first stretch felt great — orders kept coming. The middle stretch felt awful: “this protein won’t drop, that protein won’t drop either.” The last stretch was anxious — re-tooling and hoping the timing would work.

Final number: 133 backers, ¥1,895,000 (about US$12,600).

And during those weeks staring at 100 different protein powders, something hit me. This dosing approach alone isn’t going to be enough. We need a mechanism that works with any protein, not just some of them.

That conviction is what eventually led to DP-M2 — and to the 19-prototype dosing mechanism that I’ve written about elsewhere.

Part 2 covers the DP-M2 campaign, the move toward the US market, and the material selection / FDA story.

For the broader product development arc, see Development Story Part 1 and Part 2.

The ALENNE Protein Dispenser is a Japan-made dispenser, chosen by 312 Makuake backers across two campaigns. Built around a patented dosing mechanism, one lever pull dispenses a measured serving. It stores up to 1 kg of powder. The nozzle is shaped to reduce scatter.

▶ Back the project on Kickstarter