IntelliPaper LLC, the Edwall, Wash.-based company that makes recyclable, paper-based USB flash drives, has raised more than 10 times its goal of $10,000 through a recently completed Kickstarter crowdsourcing campaign for swivelCard, a “smart” business card product. 

The campaign, which ended Sept. 10, attracted 964 backers who collectively committed more than $115,000. 

IntelliPaper CEO Andrew DePaula says the project reached the original goal of $10,000 in the first eight hours on Kickstarter, surprising company personnel even though they knew it had potential. 

“You never know for sure how something will turn out, but we were excited and all,” DePaula says. “For a while, there we were raising nearly $5,000 to $10,000 every day.”

Kickstarter is an online venue for people to back creative projects with money pledges providing funding in exchange for a creator’s products, services, or other goods. Projects are funded only if supporters meet the creator’s goal.

IntelliPaper, located in a 3,500-square-foot facility about 40 miles southwest of downtown Spokane, has been in business since 2009 and now has 19 full-time employees, up from 13 employees last June. The company currently has a three-month backlog of work, and DePaula says it is running two shifts. Part of the backlog is from the 1,000 orders that were promised as rewards during the Kickstarter campaign, he says. 

The swivelCard is a foldable business card with intelliPaper’s patented paper USB drive built into it. The drive, preloaded with a buyer’s contact information and other data, pops up away from the card when the card is folded and then can be connected to a USB port. Data also can be accessed via mobile devices through a QR code printed on the front of each card. 

Each box of business cards comes with an account that can be registered online, and information on the drive can be changed even after the card has been distributed. A card recipient who wants to retrieve information from the card doesn’t need a specific app to do so, which DePaul asserts is one of its advantages. 

DePaula, who contends that demand for a product will often set direction for a company, says intelliPaper has been intentional about listening to customers regarding what products they want. 

“The response has shown us clearly that we’ve hit the nail on the head in terms of what people want,” he says. “It reinforces the idea that swivelCard is definitely an area we want to concentrate on.”

The cost of the cards depends on the number of cards ordered, but typically runs a little over $2 per card, with a minimum order quantity of 200. The company says its goal is to get the price per card down to 50 cents per unit. 

DePaula declines to say what the company’s production volume is for the month. However, its short-term goal is to produce 500,000 units per month. 

The cards will be available in a standard version with 12 stock designs, as well as a higher-priced version with a template that can be downloaded so customers can design their own custom cards. The cards also will be available in a mini-version that measures about 1.13 inches by 2 inches. Cards will be available by pre-order starting Oct. 1, but the company won’t be able to start shipping them until the end of October, DePaula says.

Business has been good, he says, adding that publicity from the Kickstarter campaign resulted in dozens of articles in both mainstream and tech media. He estimates the company will be profitable by the summer of 2015.

 “We’ll be very busy from here on out,” he says.