Business

Web design firm hoping to Kickstart funding

A Belfast web design firm is the latest to turn to online funding site Kickstarter as a novel way to raise capital. The little Thunder Co is seeking assistance as the company bids to publish its first children's book. It has received almost £4,000 worth of funding pledges placing it on target to reach its £10,000 goal. Co-founder gabriel Muldoon said the company plans to launch picturebook Chalky and the New Sports Car in the new year, should it reach the funding target. He explained how the story had been devised by the father of company co-founder Tim Potter. "i don't know if it is because we both have young children but we had been looking into doing children's books for some time. "The idea actually came from Tim's dad and it is about their cat which they picked up as a stray. He wrote it for his grandchildren. "We had looked at a lot of stories that were available to us but we just loved his when we read it." The book will also feature illustrations created by Jordan Henderson - who Gabriel and Tim came across in their capacity as lecturers at the university of Ulster. "Jordan only just graduated in July and he has spent months on the illustrations," Mr Muldoon said. The firm has until December 22 to raise the £10,000 target. "If we don't reach the target, we don't receive any of the money," said Mr Muldoon. He said the £10,000, "won't cover the amount that has already gone into the book". "it will allow us to go to print and to employ a typographer from Texas." The company has also just signed up the services of children's book editor and author Sarah Webb to "make tweaks and improve the story". The Kickstarter website has already been a vehicle successfully used by a number of other Northern Ireland based projects. They included the homebrew application brewbot which received almost £115,000 of funding, the see sense bike light and the Patchblock software device.