HELIO: Solar Light & Powerbank for Adventures & Emergencies

Stretch Goal: Carrying Pouch Unlocked at $100k
over 8 years ago – Tue, Oct 31, 2017 at 08:54:04 PM

On Monday we met our $80,000 stretch goal, thanks to a little help from all of our awesome backers! We can officially announce that each HELIO unit will ship with a lanyard and mounting hardware. We think these additions make HELIO even more useful, and we're very happy to be able to include them. We are also happy to announce a new stretch goal: at $100,000, we will ship a cloth carrying pouch!

A pouch seems like the next logical addition, and many of you have been asking for one. We haven't decided on the exact pouch yet; we are exploring different materials and closure mechanisms in an effort to find the best solution for our backers and future customers. We will include photos and more info about the pouch in a future update—but we have to get to $100,000 first, and we need your help to get there!

The best way to help us get to the new stretch goal is to share our project video on social media. Just copy the URL at this link and paste it into a Tweet or a Facebook post, or click on the following links to share on Facebook or to add to a Tweet. Every one of your friends who sees the video and then backs the project will help us get a little closer to $100k and a great carrying pouch, so help us spread the word far and wide. You'll be helping to make HELIO even better, and you'll be helping us support our nonprofit partners even further. It's a win-win for everyone!

 

Thanks,

Jarrod Whaley and the rest of the HELIO team at Makers4Good

New Video: Demo of HELIO Features
over 8 years ago – Thu, Oct 12, 2017 at 03:23:21 PM

Last night we reached an auspicious milestone: over 1,000 backers (!) have pledged their support to HELIO, and to Makers4Good's mission to help bring light and power to those who need them. Thanks to all of you, HELIO will be able to light up the lives of thousands of people, and we are truly thankful to each of you for your support.

To commemorate this occasion, we've put together a short video which quickly demonstrates HELIO's operation and its feature set. Friend of Makers4Good David Douglas shows how HELIO's controls work, how to activate all of the lighting modes, how our mounting hardware works, and more.

Speaking of the mounting hardware: remember that we will be able to ship the mounting disc and the lanyard only if we reach our $80,000 stretch goal! The best way to help us get there is to send some more awesome backers our way. Don't be shy: tweet about us, share the campaign on Facebook, or tell your friends about HELIO. Help us spread the word, and help us do even more good with HELIO.

Thanks,

Jarrod Whaley and the rest of the HELIO team at Makers4Good

Stretch Goal: Lanyard & Mounting Hardware Unlocked at $80k Mark
over 8 years ago – Mon, Oct 02, 2017 at 02:02:01 AM

Thanks to each and every one of you, HELIO's campaign is off to an amazing start! As of this writing, we have raised over $60,000 with the help of over 900 individual backers. Makers4Good is excited to see the extent to which the Kickstarter community is getting behind HELIO, and our mission to help bring light and power to people who need it. The response so far is amazing, and we can't wait to see HELIO out in the world.

The campaign has some great momentum, but we'd like to see if we can turn it up a notch in order to give even more support to our awesome nonprofit partners (Global Brightlight Foundation, Lalafofofo, and One Million Lights) and the people they work tirelessly to help every day. To that end, we are announcing our first stretch goal!

When we reach $80,000 in funding, we will unlock a lanyard for carrying HELIO, and some great mounting hardware for attaching your HELIO wherever you want — on a semi-permanent basis.

The lanyard is a great add-on, allowing you to carry your HELIO unit securely while trekking up and down trails under a canopy of redwoods. It attaches to the lanyard attachment point already included on HELIO. Simply push one end of the lanyard under the bar, and then pull the other end through the inserted end's loop to secure. It's a great addition, and we think you'll find it quite useful.

The mounting disc fits perfectly into the circular cutout on HELIO's stand. It allows you to attach your HELIO unit to a fence, a barn door, a deck, or any other surface that can be tapped with a common wood screw. Remember: just one hour of sunlight per day keeps your HELIO lit indefinitely — so this disc is a great way to add a permanently illuminated light to your shed or to your garage.

Help us get to the $80,000 mark, and each every HELIO unit we ship will include these great accessories. The best way to help us get there is to spread the word about HELIO, and about the fact that every shipped HELIO unit provides light and power to people who need them. Tell your Facebook friends! Tweet about us! Tell everyone you know. Together, we can bring a little more light to the world.

Thanks,

Jarrod Whaley and the rest of the HELIO team at Makers4Good

We Hit Our Goal! Thanks, Backers!
over 8 years ago – Fri, Sep 15, 2017 at 11:20:20 AM

Thanks to all of our awesome early-adopting backers for helping us get past the goal on the first day! We have spent two amazing years bringing HELIO to where it is today, and we're glad that you are now a part of it. So many hours have been spent on engineering in an effort to bring you all the best light possible, and as many hours have been spent diving into the ins and outs of solar lighting and the effect it can have on people's lives. It's truly a great feeling to see all of that work coming together today, and we have all of you to thank. So thank you!

We are excited about what lies ahead, and yet we know there's still a long way to go in order to put HELIO in as many of your hands as possible. The farther we go, the more good we will be able to do. Please share the project on your social accounts, and tell your friends.

Finally, I want to thank Global Brightlight Foundation, Lalafofofo, One Million Lights, and our other nonprofit partners for helping us bring light and power to people around the world who need it. With help from our Kickstarter backers, we can make the world a little bit brighter—one HELIO at a time.

Thanks from the bottom of our hearts, 

Jarrod Whaley and the rest of the HELIO team