FUNDED! Our Kickstarter Project ended on Monday,  April 4^th at 7:23 PM PST and we couldn’t be more excited! The project ended with 425 backers and $287,767 – making it the 16^th most funded Kickstarter project of all time!

 Behind The Scenes:

Several people have asked us to show how we build ZBoards and this video is the first in that series. Check it out to learn how we make our decks, battery boxes, and footpads!

Arrival Time: 

Since we build ZBoards by hand, the surprising amount of orders means we will be hard at work for the next few months. Initially, we set our goal at $10,000 and projected selling ~20 ZBoards. We told people they’d receive their ZBoards at the end of April / early May. But since our volume projections were off by ~2,000%, not everyone will receive their boards that fast.

ZBoards outside our initial projections will take longer.

SXSW has been crazy as $#%$. 

We're here at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, TX and we've been doing interviews, demos, and pitches left and right. All this attention were getting is directly related to YOU folks, so thanks again for your support!

Some highlights:

We won (!) Startup America's Video Pitch Contest! This granted us the opportunity to pitch at their kick-off event. Here is the winning pitch (kinda a silly video but hey, it worked) and here is a picture of us pitching on stage:

CNN: Yesterday, we shot CNN bits with Ali Velshi and Mario Armstrong. Both guys were super chill and we even got Mario ZBoarding around.

At the end of the day, the CNN crew filmed us cruising around their tour bus.

We were told the interviews and riding footage will air on Saturday (3/17). We'll update you folks with the exact time and date when we find out.

Overall the last few days have been nuts and the next three are sure to be similar.

Thanks again so much for everyone's support and check back in for more updates.

CONTEST

If you're on twitter, and you follow folks who are at SXSW (friends, media peeps, celebs, etc), tell em to find us and ride the ZBoard! Tweet 'em something like:

Hey @aplusk you should find those @ZBoard guys from @Kickstarter at #SXSWi and go for a ride! http://youtu.be/j6HAYuNAGzs

Whoever gets the coolest person to tweet about us or meet up with us for a ride will win a t-shirt and decal! Actually, scratch that. EVERYONE who gets influential twitter peeps to tweet about us or meet up with us will get a t-shirt and decal!

Contest ends 3/13. We'll contact the winners through twitter.

What a Launch Week!

We reached our $10k Kickstarter goal in 4 days (and then doubled it in 6, and tripled it in 9)! Today we passed $30k on Kickstarter! 

Thanks to all the help from the ZBoard supporters out there, we've received 110k youtube views, 1200 facebook page likes, and 145 followers on twitter.

We were also featured on the Yahoo web show "The Future is Now." Big thanks to Jennie, Will, Mark and the rest of the Yahoo crew.

Next on the schedule for the ZBoard Team is the SXSW festival in Austin, TX. If you'll be there, you'll find us buzzing around the Start-Up America Booth.

THANK YOU to everyone who's pre-ordered and/or gotten the word out about the ZBoard!

And we're off!

Our Kickstarter Project went live tonight! We're offering awesome rewards including:

• $100 discount
• free shipping
• custom engraving
• hand-painted decks
• decals
• t-shirts and more!

Check out our Kickstarter Project and Video to see the rewards and pre-order your ZBoard today!

Thanks to all our current backers!!!:

What is Kickstarter.com?

Kickstarter is a crowd funding website. Below is a description from the website. See the rest of their FAQ.

1. What is Kickstarter?

   Kickstarter is a new way to fund creative projects.

   We believe that:

   • A good idea, communicated well, can spread fast and wide.

   • A large group of people can be a tremendous source of money and encouragement.

   Kickstarter is powered by a unique all-or-nothing funding method where projects must be fully-funded or no money changes hands.

2. Who can fund their project on Kickstarter?

   Kickstarter is focused on creative projects. We're a great way for artists, filmmakers, musicians, designers, writers, illustrators, explorers, curators, performers, and others to bring their projects, events, and dreams to life.

   The word “project” is just as important as “creative” in defining what works on Kickstarter. A project is something finite with a clear beginning and end. Someone can be held accountable to the framework of a project — a project was either completed or it wasn’t — and there are definable expectations that everyone can agree to. This is imperative for every Kickstarter project.

   We know there are a lot of great projects that fall outside of our scope, but Kickstarter is not a place for soliciting donations to causes, charity projects, or general business expenses. Learn more about our project guidelines.

3. Why do people support projects?

   REWARDS! Project creators inspire people to open their wallets by offering smart, fun, and tangible rewards (products, benefits, and experiences).

   STORIES! Kickstarter projects are efforts by real people to do something they love, something fun, or at least something of note. These stories unfold through blog posts, pics, and videos as people bring their ideas to life. Take a peek around the site and see what we're talking about. Stories abound.

Our 2012 ZBoard Promo Video is complete!

Check it out!

Youtube Link:

http://youtu.be/j6HAYuNAGzs

This video was shot in Hermosa Beach and on the USC Campus with the help of Hunt House Pictures.

We've spent the last week filming videos for the website, kickstarter, yahoo.com, and more. We've been working closely with the guys over at Hunthouse Pictures and I'm stoked to get some of their footage out there.

A few recent pictures:

The ZBoard was unveiled at CES in Vegas on Tuesday and we got a great response from event goers with countless test drives, pictures, videos, and pre-orders. Currently we're putting together a video of the best rides of the week. We'll publish that video on this blog when completed. 

Some of the Coverage:

"The soon-to-launch ZBoard might be the closest thing to riding a regular skateboard, with an intuitive, hands-free electric motor that accelerates and decelerates as the rider adjusts their body weight forward or backward." http://www.coolhunting.com/tech/electric-skateboards-ces.php

"In a word, this thing is super freaking cool. No handheld triggers or cables, just your feet, just like a real board."  http://hikeclimbsurfrun.com/2012/01/z-board-weight-sensing-skateboard-rolls-into-ces/#comment-624

"Purely awesome"

"The skateboards are the first in the industry to use a sensor motor which adjusts speed based on the riders position and weight; segway style. http://joinbklyn.tumblr.com/post/16062314673/next-stop-hoverboards-introducing-electric

"This is what I need to cover a big show like CES"  http://blog.seattlepi.com/videoblogging/2012/01/10/ces-2012-video-screen-mic-flag-electric-skate-board-company-vlogs-are-best-of-show/