I received some good feedback and reactions to my last article centering around Kickstarter. If you didn’t read the article, Kickstarter is a “crowdfunding” hub where people can advertise their projects and other people can contribute money towards those projects.
People were shocked at some of the projects’ fundraising success. I focused on a recent success story, Ouya, which is a new type of video game console that raised more than $8.5 million after all was said and done.
But perhaps the most interesting feedback I got was from an actual Kickstarter representative. In my article, I stated that Ouya was the highest-funded project to date. The Kickstarter rep kindly pointed out that the Pebble Watch project raised north of $10 million well before Ouya.
Of course I strive for factual integrity, so I wanted to make that correction, but I also think it further drives home the point about the crowdfunding revolution that is happening. It has never been easier to take something from the idea phase to reality. So in that light, I’d like to dive a little deeper into Kickstarter with you.
Let’s say you have an idea for a better mousetrap. “This is going to be the best mousetrap the world has ever seen,” you say. You’re going to trap SO many mice.
But to build this mousetrap, you need $40,000. You need supplies for drafts, you need to test the thing, you need money to attend that mousetrap convention. All of these expenses say you can’t build this mousetrap for under $40k.
On Kickstarter.com, you set your funding goal for $40,000, and you set your deadline at 30 days (you can go up to 60 days). You also have to specify incentives, ie. what people get for funding you at different levels. For a product, it’s easy. For every $50 donation, you’ll send that donor a finished version of your mousetrap.
And then the promotion begins.
First, you’ll need to make your Kickstarter project page look good. A lot of the successful projects have videos or images detailing everything, from the purpose to your vision of the project, etc. If you have a prototype, now is the time to show it off.
Remember. This is what will get people to pull out their credit cards, so don’t be lazy.
Next, you’ll want to promote this across your social network(s) of choice. Facebook, Twitter, etc. have the power to take this thing viral, so get creative in order to get outside your usual group of friends. At $50 per donation, you need 800 donors to reach your $40,000 goal, so you’ll have to at least hit that.
If you hit your goal in under 30 days, the money is sent to an online account that you can access for withdrawal. If you don’t hit your goal, you get no money and the pledges are refunded. It’s pretty simple.
The big worry for pledges at this point is “what if this guy can’t build that mousetrap I’m so excited about?” Kickstarter states that it is the responsibility of the project creator to fulfill the order. But it’s still scary to fund something that doesn’t exist yet, isn’t it?
I can see that point, but I’ll raise you one more. Kickstarter has gained tremendous popularity since it launched in 2009. If flaky project founders were the norm, Kickstarter itself wouldn’t be the successful platform it is today. Kickstarter’s short but active history says most of the people are legit, and the optimist in me would agree.
So the next time you have an idea for the next “Pet Rock” or “Jump to Conclusions Mat,” you know where to go: Kickstarter.com.
Jesse Bushkar is the CEO of Sysconn New Media Inc. He can be contacted at 912-356-9920 or jesse@sysconn.com.