Kickstarter in 2012

Kickstarter published a retrospective on 2012. It's worth browsing. Here's the lead in

Kickstarter

#VC & Technology

Comments (Archived):

  1. andyidsinga

    wow ..300 million! i wonder how many people that 300 million employed around the world! cheers to that!

  2. awaldstein

    I tweeted this out with this snap and this heading….”Disruption never felt so right and so personal”

    1. fredwilson

      Nicely said

  3. Jonathan Berkowitz

    i funded 6 projects. 4 were devices, 1 was an art show and 1 was software. i’m still waiting on 1 device, the other three devices either didn’t work or broke nearly immediately, the software team never figured out a login problem and so I still haven’t seen it.The art show was great.Anyone else have batting averages like that?

    1. fredwilson

      Mine are much better but I don’t fund gadgets much. The kickstarter vision was never about gadgets.

      1. Jonathan Berkowitz

        yup – there were a few i thought were compelling … but oh well. shocking – you’re a better investor than me 😉

      2. ErikSchwartz

        From my experience they should get out of funding gadgets.

        1. LE

          “they should get out of funding gadgets”It’s a necessary part of the attraction.Remember Chevy also sold the Corvette and not that many. Because it brought Dad into the showroom to dream and he bought an Impala while he was there.

        2. fredwilson

          i can’t say anything here other than its not an original idea

      3. ShanaC

        how was that cold brew machine?

        1. fredwilson

          fragile but it is very cool looking and makes great cold brew

    2. David Helmreich

      I am extraordinarily happy with my kickstarter experience. The first project I funded was Coffee Joulies – a great idea and not likely that it would have made it off the ground any other way.I also funded the Byrdge, Elevation Dock, Flint and Tinder, the Titanium pen project, and the Pebble Watch. I’m still waiting for the Pebble Watch – but I’m very pleased with everything else so far.Can’t wait to see what 2013 brings, regardless if the original vision wasn’t for gadgets.

  4. JamesHRH

    I got this in my inbox, the numbers are stunning.

  5. Carl Rahn Griffith

    We talk often about Kickstarter and VC, of course – but, what do people think of the PE market/players, and its future?Happy New Year, by the way.

    1. fredwilson

      I don’t think about that world

      1. Carl Rahn Griffith

        Fair enough, lol! 😉

    2. jason wright

      PE? private equity?

      1. Carl Rahn Griffith

        Yes, Jason. I just wonder if it is fair that it pretty much always perceived as being on ‘the dark side’ – I have experienced some pretty well-intentioned firms in this space. Sometimes 😉

        1. jason wright

          thx.the distorting lens of the mass media probably accounts for much of it

          1. Carl Rahn Griffith

            Done correctly it is a very interesting market but one with a massive image problem; probably for the reason you suggest. Some of the well-known (infamous) big-players have not exactly done this market many favours in their modus operandi.The challenge of turning-around an established business which is under-performing is a very interesting one and (when done right) often salvages a company which may otherwise have failed. It’s a market I am trying to reassess.

  6. Martin De Saulles

    Be interesting to see some information on how happy investors were with their investments.

    1. fredwilson

      I think its a stretch to call them investments. There is no return in a traditional sense on a kickstarter project.

      1. Carl Rahn Griffith

        It’s pretty much the ultimate form of market-testing.

        1. johndefi

          Great MVP engine.

      2. Martin De Saulles

        Fair point – I suppose I’d like to get some kind of idea as to how happy the funders were with the resulting outputs (film, music, gadget etc) – I guess the fact that more than half a million have backed 2 or more projects is a positive indication

        1. awaldstein

          I don’t think about it that way.Kickstarter works as it makes me happy to support projects. It’s behavioral candy that happens to be healthy for the soul.Making a difference is why I act to support but I just never look back. If they succeed, great. If not, satisfaction occurred.

          1. Martin De Saulles

            I like your philosophy – a real win/win

      3. baba12

        I don’t think the return is quantifiable. It is joy and a “feeling good” aspect that I am not sure quantifiable money returns can equal even in the traditional sense.

    2. Dayna Gant

      The gadget I funded, Brydge for iPad, has worked great and was well crafted. Very pleased. Funded FG posters, priceless! Waiting on two other gadgets.

    3. nilb

      I think the question is how many projects were delivered. I’m not sure all the project deliveries are in the current year.I wonder if there is a seasonality of the contributors (meaning in thanks giving and Xmas it is much higher then in other months) or it is just on the quality of the ideas.

    4. Anne Libby

      Kickstarter is a way to be a patron of the arts, not an investor.(Results will be instructive for post-JOBS act crowdfunding, though…)

  7. William Mougayar

    What’s also interesting is 1/3 of that, about $100 million has gone to fund Indie films. http://www.kickstarter.com/

    1. BillMcNeely

      Mmmm. Kickstarter Indie Channel anyone? I saw somewhere I think TWiST that YouTube should have bought Current or another cable channel and start broadcasting interesting content. A social intergration Twitter or Facebook comment might be cool

      1. William Mougayar

        “social integration Twitter or Facebook comment might be cool”- Can you pls elaborate? I’m trying to better understand what you meant.

        1. BillMcNeely

          My thought would be to take films that have been funded on Kickstarter and put them on their own cable channel. Maybe taking a channel in a death spiral such as Current TV. On that channel you would then take comments about the film or show being broadcasted and stream them on the screen. A&E had a lot of success doing this with the Dog the Bounty Hunter. I figure the audience would be smaller for these artsy films / shows and more of a conversation and community might evolve on the channel. Fast Company in 2010 had a great article on the subject. http://www.fastcompany.com/

          1. William Mougayar

            Yes, it would be a good idea to clearly identify such films so that the audiences can further support them when they are released.

          2. BillMcNeely

            Do you have a lot of Kickstarter experience? or friends that do? I ask because I had an investor here in Dallas suggest I setup a consulting firm that helps crowdfunded projects deliver their stuff. Are most of the delays due to manufacturing, poor project project management, or logistics?

          3. William Mougayar

            I don’t. But there is a range of such marketplaces. http://www.forbes.com/sites…You would need to speak to some that did it. My gut feel says that if you can’t present yourself on your own, that’s not a good starting point.

          4. BillMcNeely

            I feel I can present myself. I just wanted to see someone else was seeing this as a problem.

          5. William Mougayar

            I didn’t mean you but was saying in general. Have you thought about asking Kickstarter what they think?

          6. BillMcNeely

            William,Yancey had a piece on the Kickstarter lateness issue back in mid December.Here is the link : http://www.kickstarter.com/…I posed my question.Bill

  8. JimHirshfield

    Shortest blog post ever? 😉

      1. JimHirshfield

        Touché

  9. William Mougayar

    Where do you see Kickstarter branch off or add to in 2013, or is it growth in the same sectors and methods?

    1. fredwilson

      well their addition of UK projects in the fall of 2012 should be a clue

  10. jason wright

    when i was a child one Sunday my mother bought two ‘mystery trip’ train tickets. we boarded the train not knowing where we were going to end up.

  11. jmcaddell

    Fred, I’ve funded a few Kickstarter projects, and am now trying it myself to publish the Mistake Bank book. I’m impressed with the help and guidance KS provides to newbies like me. They have boiled down key lessons, that they teach and emphasize as you build your project. This creates a virtuous circle where campaigns are more likely to be successful, drawing more campaigns and more donors. It’s an excellent model.I don’t know whether I’ll reach my funding goals (25% done with 1 week down, 3 to go), but if I don’t, it’ll be my responsibility. Kickstarter is a great partner to work with.regards, John[Kickstarter project:http://www.kickstarter.com/…]

    1. LE

      I think your project proves a point that I was trying to make about kickstarter and packaging in another comment.Take this same project (meaning same exact book product) and package it with a better video and make the creative person a cute young girl or guy and this would do much better. In fact just having yourself and a better video (audio was really bad) would help it succeed. I’m sure you have some really good mistakes in the book but your marketing doesn’t really highlight that nor does your delivery seem very engaging or draw someone in.Kickstarter really is a way to fund creative projects. In order to do kickstarter you have to be creative enough to put together a good offering to get people’s attention.(If allowed I would have gone with a title like “How they fucked up” or something like that which would most certainly get people’s attention.)

      1. jmcaddell

        You bring up some interesting points… your focus is on the outwardly flashy components of a Kickstarter campaign – i.e., professional video, cute presenter )by the way, my wife might take issue with your assessment of my cuteness ;).There’s no doubt that you can raise more money with a flashier campaign, but there’s also evidence of campaigns that aren’t so flashy succeeding – especially when the amounts aren’t overly large.Tapping existing social media & contact networks is less reliant on flash and sex appeal compared with relying on standing out on KS itself or via more public means to draw attention to a project. At any rate, I’m in the first camp. Time will tell if I’m successful.I’m pretty sure KS feels it’s in its own interest to be a venue for all kinds of projects and project presentations.

      2. Matt A. Myers

        You can’t really know what will result for the best results – you need to do A/B testing or have a lot of experience to know the combinations that work. “Amateur” look can work better than professional.

    2. Matt A. Myers

      Definitely a good synergy in the relationship.

  12. scottythebody

    Transformative

  13. Chris Phenner

    I would love if someone collected the results of that $319mm invested in 2012 and ‘followed the money’ through its ultimate IRR (I know, impossible).My sense is that the micro-fandom that is directing that $319mm is better-informed than a VC fund of similar size, if such a VC fund could actually deploy that much capital in a single calendar year. There has to be a learning for larger VC funds in all this.

  14. markslater

    in the spirit of brevity – Awesome!

    1. fredwilson

      upvotedhttp://fredwilson.vc/post/4…

  15. andyswan

    Ever since I became an “adult”, I have looked forward to the day that I become a grandpa. The joy that would come that day would be overwhelming, for on that day I would throw away all of my traditional shoes with strings in favor of “grandpa style” velcro shoes. I would never look back.The only thing keeping me from making this move was the stylish sensibilities of the ladies in my life, who unanimously frowned upon the velcro solution.But in the year of our Lord two-thousand twelve, the solution was pitched to me via a scrappy young startup that went by the name of kickstarter. It is there that I learned how close to true transformation my life truly was.My friends, the wait is over. At 35, I have accomplished what I thought still to be a full generation off.I funded these: http://www.hickies.com/ They work amazingly. They do not offend the sensibilities of my harem. They do not break.I have been freed from the ties that bound me, and gained 25 years of life in the process.It can be confirmed: Kickstarter has changed a life.

    1. Aaron Klein

      Empowering entrepreneurship. Not much that is better.

    2. fredwilson

      well played. very well played.

    3. Matt A. Myers

      Hilarious. Cool product, too.

    4. Jorge M. Torres

      I ♥ Hickies.

    5. Ricardo Diz

      I can relate to that seek of the velcro solution 🙂 Cool product.

    6. CJ

      Sold.

  16. thinkdisruptive

    These are interesting (and impressive) stats, but the thing I wonder is whether the success rate of companies founded this way is any better, or if companies just have an easier time getting seed money because they can appeal at a micro level to a broader number of people. I suspect that the failure rate of these projects is the same, or perhaps even higher versus traditional funding methods, but that more good ideas (absolute number, not percentage-wise) are surfaced this way.Many have said this is the future of VC. I’m not so sure, and I don’t believe in the power of crowds to identify teams that can pull off these projects (although the crowd can certainly identify ideas that are desirable and raise money for them). I think what Kickstarter displaces/supplements is friend-and-family investments, and some angel funding. What Kickstarter will have a hard time finding a solution for is the active interest, guidance, help recruiting top talent, etc that a good VC offers — if it can morph into some kind of combination crowd-funding / Y Combinator solution, then watch out.

    1. pointsnfigures

      it is not the future of VC. Good VCs and angels add too much value in ways money doesn’t. I do believe in the wisdom of crowds, but a smart VC can design that into their analysis. Sometimes they call it customers.

      1. thinkdisruptive

        No, not the future of VC — agreed on that. But what about a vertically-integrated startup builder? Starts with a crowd-funding/incubator. Graduates/participants get preferential exposure to angels to continue development if necessary, and to VCs if rapid growth and big funding is needed. I think you could build quite a formidable startup engine this way. I know a lot of the focus with Kickstarter is on artistic projects that would have trouble getting funded any other way, but if you add a bit of what Y Combinator is offering (and offer more than just good feelings — i.e. make your donation a real investment equal to a few shares), this could really disrupt things.re: customers. Since many Kickstarter projects offer a copy of the product, in a sense they are also delivering customers, which is useful both for validation and marketing.

        1. pointsnfigures

          Someone will try it. Only takes money and a high tolerance for risk. Instead of vertical integration, there are probably ways to do this contractually using existing entities-or build them where you need them.Why not use Kickstarter as your incubator?—->push best ideas with traction to an accelerator (that you’d have to build)—->have angel groups fund them out of the accelerator, along with some seed funds that cooperate—->pass the successful ones along to VCs that cooperate at the bottom. Easy to type, hard to execute!

          1. thinkdisruptive

            Could do it virtually (via contract, partnership), but having control of the ecosystem and branding is the reason to vertically integrate. Kickstarter has become an important brand, and there is much value in attracting people to a stable of investment opportunities through their growth lifecycle via that brand. I’d be surprised if Fred hadn’t thought about this, at least a little.The reason different types of investors play at different stages is that they bring different values and skillsets to the table. So, for that reason you might want to keep them operationally separate. But branding, like a rising tide does for boats, could make a big difference in getting access to the best opportunities, raising cash, etc. KPCB, Sequoia, etc have no trouble raising funds at the top level. Fred has a pretty strong brand for his stage of startup investing. Y Combinator has become the gold standard for incubators. Kickstarter is the best project kickstarter. The brand most likely to be able to create strong vertical integration though is the one that rises from the bottom, and that would be Kickstarter.

      2. Matt A. Myers

        It’s the future of seed / angel rounds though potentially. If you can get even an additional $100k to use for development, at least for software, you can make your company a lot more valuable.

    2. Richard

      Kickstarter is FUNding not Funding

      1. thinkdisruptive

        For now. No reason it can’t be both.

    3. LE

      I’m not the best informed person regarding kickstarter but the last I checked they don’t fund companies they fund projects. Not that some projects aren’t defacto companies of course.People are willing to give money for something (an electronic product for example or a book or a movie or whatever) that they find interesting on an individual level. If that works of course it could easily spring into more products but I suspect that’s harder than it appears on the surface. It could very well be like transitioning from being able to tell a couple of good jokes to your friends and make them laugh doesn’t make you a stand up comic.When people do traditional investing they are investing in building a company. It’s very possible of course that someone is basing the entire company around one product and that that product could be such a hit that the investor (whether it be your aunt or a VC or angel) is willing to put money in but it’s really a different game in so many ways.The validation that people get from putting a “project” on kickstarter is impressive. It’s more or less a “sharper image” in many ways for every man.Personally I don’t see how it’s “the future of VC” although it is the future of a way for people to raise money of course. The skills needed to determine if a team is correct for investing in is so much different then deciding if you want a particular one off product that some person decides to offer along with a cute video and snappy copy. That only costs $20. No big risk there. And as has been pointed out much of this is like addictive entertainment. Like QVC.What kickstarter is is a way to package something and a way to broadcast it and get distribution to the masses and to pick up some crowd effect and social proof.. All parts are important. The packaging (presentation, video, format) is really key to this. Take that away and I seriously wonder how many of some of these products would be sold at all. Cute marketing does not always equal good products.”Kickstarter will have a hard time finding a solution for is the active interest, guidance, help recruiting top talent, etc that a good VC offers”I can easily see them overcoming that problem. Entirely possible that people of equal expertise will offer to help people on kickstarter and in fact this must already be happening I”m sure. I can definitely see this developing with a mechanism to take advantage of the expertise of the kickstarter community.(Note: I haven’t invested in any project on Kickstarter).

      1. thinkdisruptive

        All products and companies start as projects.Apart from the fun of trying to pick winning projects, or projects that inspire you, this is actually a very good way to raise more cash than you need early on (always a good thing) and potentially much more than an angel or incubator would give you. Cash doesn’t guarantee success, but lack of it quite frequently leads to failure, so having a way to raise lots of little amounts which represent small risk to “investors” — who can’t afford to waste $20? — is the cool innovation here.I think it will be relatively easy for Kickstarter to expand its footprint beyond the initial niches, when it wants to.

    4. ShanaC

      i do think it is an interesting way of finding talent. I don’t think it will change VC or publishing or movie making when it comes to blockbusters.

      1. thinkdisruptive

        Until Kickstarter has a breakthrough indie film like the “Blair Witch Project” or “Shakespeare in Love”. Nobody thought the Weinstein brothers (Miramax) would shake things up either, until they distributed and/or made films like Sex, Lies and Videotape, The Crying Game, Pulp Fiction, and of course Shakespeare in Love.Most projects, including most films and most startup companies, fail. But a couple of big successes can change everything.

    5. fredwilson

      kickstarter is not for funding companiesit is for funding projectssome projects could morph or grow into companiesbut most will not, should not, and never planned to

      1. thinkdisruptive

        Yes, I would expect that is true because of the arts focus today. I’m thinking about the projects that are tech / to build a product. If you build a product, then you want to sell it, which implies a company.Obviously conflating two things here, but getting the resources to build/make something is only the first step if you want sales.

  17. takingpitches

    Such a great place to go when you want/need to kickstart your own passion, by basking in other people’s passions for things that you otherwise would never care about:”One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested.”

    1. Matt A. Myers

      It’s very empowering – allowing people to support something they believe in.

  18. Richard

    This is really impressive. To put that number in perspective, compare it to accelerators. According to seed_db (which is not entirely accurate) there are 145 programs world-wide, 2213 companies accelerated, 113 exits for $ 1,123,758,100.On the other hand, beer sales in the US are 100B.Kickstarter: A Good Kick in the Arts.

  19. ErikSchwartz

    I have backed 18 projects, 17 successfully raised their funding, I spent probably $1200 in total. I have received 10 of the rewards although only 1 should be outstanding so far, 7 remain late. Of the 10 I received only one delivered within a month of promise. Of the 10 I have received 7 of them were disappointing to me when I finally got them. One of them (The Brydge) was not only months late but a shadow of what was promised, what they delivered was a plain generic iPad keyboard, what they promised was supposed to be beautiful.Of the 7 outstanding I have high hopes for 4 of them (The Pebble, The Porthole, The POP charger, and the GoldieBlox (the only one that is not late)).For me it was a bit of a disappointing fad. I can’t imagine spending anywhere near $1200 on kickstarter in 2013.

    1. LE

      From the Journal of “Proves a point I made elsewhere” good engaging marketing and good product are two different things. Interesting to hear your experience.The “one off” nature of KS plays into this. If you are a real company that throws money at marketing to create a slick image (or even a restaurant) and the end product (or food) isn’t isn’t in parity with your message you will eventually go out of business. People will figure it out. KS is one off so it makes sense it would be more likely to happen as you experienced.

    2. Abdallah Al-Hakim

      I have not invested in any of the projects yet but I am guessing that it is a gamble anytime you do it since it is hard to hold them accountable.

      1. Matt A. Myers

        Hard / you can’t hold them accountable to anything. You’re not guaranteed anything from any of them, as far as I know.

    3. fredwilson

      in our business (early stage VC), 1/3 of what we back are total failures, 1/3 of what we back are disappointing but not failures, and 1/3 deliver on the promise.

      1. Matt A. Myers

        The sense of probably failure doesn’t feel like it exists with Kickstarter. It’s all packaged as a dream, and of course people want it to work – hope it does, though most people set an expectation that if something is ‘successful(ly funded’ then they will receive their reward. It’s definitely something to be aware of to deal with future retention / long-term use and prevent people from becoming jaded. Setting expectations is very important. I know one of the later things Kickstarter did of requiring talking about “Risks and Challenges” and accountability is one way of helping with this..

      2. ErikSchwartz

        Kickstarter needs to do a better job of exposing the outcomes of backed projects.

        1. Matt A. Myers

          Else it might look like they’re hiding it. Hopefully this isn’t the case, and that 90%+ of projects give out the rewards promised, etc..

        2. fredwilson

          they can and do publish data on delivery or failed delivery. but how would they know if it was a disappointment to you?

          1. ErikSchwartz

            I would imagine something like the ebay rating system.

  20. ShanaC

    My boyfriend has raised money on kickstarter. One projected succeeded, one failed. The larger the project, and the smaller the network of people you immediately know, the more likely it would be to fail. My friend the rabbi raised money on a similar site for fixing his synagogue’s roof (nonprofit issues means no kickstarter) They barely scraped by, even though they were pushing it out in sermons and emails.You really need to know marketing and know your network(s) really well to make it work. Passion by itself isn’t enough, and often you need some seed money to really market it to make the goal happen.

  21. aarondelcohen

    Stunning, amazing scale. More evidence that USV understands thing before I ever do. I confess I had doubts. This mgmt team deserves a lot of credit. Very focused. Protective of brand. Could have done many stupid things, but they didn’t. If this revenue number grows another order of magnitude, Kickstarter could become NY’s greatest Internet story in history.

    1. fredwilson

      protecting the brand promise of a startup is a big dealit’s the Hippocratic Oath – do no harm

  22. BillMcNeely

    There are a couple of startup related films Something Ventured, Startup Kids etc Would Kickstarter be the forum to raise money to rent out a space to show the films? Sounds like events do well on Kickstarters

  23. Aviah Laor

    Funding. IPOs. VC. Late stage. Early stage. Wall street. Crowd funding. One bothering old question is still nagging: Where are the customers yachts? Perhaps in Kickstarter, at least it seems least far from the answer. Or is it? These numbers can proove their worst enemy. It’s a trust based platform: the best to be in, the easiest to spoil by scams, poor delivery, corporate and “brands”. Look what happened to Ebay, also started as a people-to-people market place. Soon automated tools will assist people to post, market and promote bogus or bad projects. “Brands” will consume it for “market validation”, or some other marketing tricks. Or a channel to sell old mechandise in disguise. Or whatever. The prey is there, and the hyena will arrive. And not a word about exit or selling to Amazon/Ebay whatever.To keep the mojo, kickstarter should encourage, reward and build upon trust. So how do you reward TRUST?Reputation system? No. It will backfire one time unique projects, and encourage bigger and bigger players for bigger and bigger projects. Justify customers in any case? No, this is the Paypal policy, to quickly punish the seller. Legal blah blah? off course not.Trust is a mutual transaction. Very hard to scale (democracy took a painful scaling from small Athens to the politics we see now). It’s an emmence challenge, to build a trust based market place, and to find the tools to scale. My guess to the direction? To break the buyers-sellers flat model. For example, If your project is funded, 10% should go back to pledge another project – selected by the people who pledged your project. You should not “buy”(=pledge) or “sell”, but get involved. Something (hard to say what) should encourage connections, mutual contribution that will somehow (hard to say how) filter out the bad guys.

  24. BillMcNeely

    On topic:Pebble’s smartwatch debuts at CES: shipping to Kickstarter backers Jan. 23venturebeat.com/2013/01/09/peb… by @devindra— VentureBeat (@VentureBeat) January 9, 2013<script async=”” src=”//platform.twitter.com/widget…” charset=”utf-8″></script>

  25. Will Sommers

    I’m curious as to how much of that 300 million was actually given to successful projects – ie disbursed and charged a 5% commission.

    1. fredwilson

      all $319mm of iti would guess that another $50mm ish was pledged to unsuccessful projects where funds were not disbursed and no fees were collected.

    2. jonathanjaeger

      Check out Kickstarter’s stats: http://www.kickstarter.com/…You can see that over 86% of pledged dollars go to successful projects (even though under 44% of projects are successfully funded).

  26. hypermark

    What I wait to see with Kickstarter (and Etsy, for that matter) are retailers and brands looking to it as a “farm system” for R & D. The upstarts get symbiotic funding, incubation, distribution and joint marketing, and the retailer gets exclusivity and a low-cost way to seed R & D.Looked at from the other side of the looking glass, retail needs a reboot to survive, something that I blogged about here: http://gigaom.com/2012/02/2…Food for thought.

    1. fredwilson

      it is happening in both places. most notably at Etsy where it has been going on for many years now

      1. hypermark

        That is great hear. Makes total sense, and the “big leagues” need a more differentiated product pipeline if they are going to survive.

    2. panterosa,

      Isn’t that what Quirky is doing?

      1. hypermark

        I wasn’t familiar with them before you flagged them, but that is certainly a manifestation of the concept.

  27. vruz

    Kickstarter 2012 – Games & Tech is where it’s athttps://docs.google.com/spr…

    1. fredwilson

      that’s true if you are looking for the biggest average projects.but if you are looking for the most successful projects, then its music and film.

      1. vruz

        Yep, it all depends, if your games or tech projects suck it’s more likely nobody will fund it. Provided your project is top quality, you have more chances to get funded by participating in those categories, than if you kickstarted a dance project.It probably only means that many more tech-orientated people are inclined to use this sort of service than ballet-orientated people are.But maybe it’s also a helpful indicator on how to market projects.An innovative lightshow technology to accompany choreography of a dance production for example, could possibly stand better chances…Just guessing really, not a serious idea but it’s something that makes me very curious.

      2. Matt A. Myers

        Do you know why there isn’t a “Fitness” and/or “Health” category? Not talking about health devices per say.

  28. Abdallah Al-Hakim

    I recently discovered that I can spend more time on Kickstarter that even sites such as Facebook and Youtube. It does pull you in. Any idea on their engagement metrics (repeat visitors, time spent on site, …)

  29. Charlie Crystle

    Kickstarter helped us raise $3300 in 5 days for Lancaster Community Gardens!Thanks, Kickstarter.http://www.kickstarter.com/

    1. Matt A. Myers

      Your outreach and network helped drive (who knows how much of the) traffic, though. I’m not sure if Kickstarter gives a way to show how many direct visits there were + how many of those eventually lead to the pledges, vs. how much came from Kickstarter-directed traffic. I imagine only the more popular projects benefit from the larger ecosystem of traffic – but that’s an assumption at this point.

      1. Charlie Crystle

        Yes, you have to have skin in the game and do the outreach, evangelize, shake the trees.Kickstarter gives a great way to guide you, a clean way of engaging people, etc–PLUS, people are conditioned now to … well, it’s an EVENT if it’s on kickstarter. It’s “something’s really happening here”.I could have sent people to our site, could have cobbled the tools together (and have, actually, with no results).

        1. Matt A. Myers

          It is true the context is important for having set expectations of pledging money, etc..I’m torn if I’d use Kickstarter or Indiegogo or create-own-thing for different projects.

  30. andyidsinga

    fwiw my ( backed project) record on kickstarter is 4 out of 6 projects delivered.3 pretty much on time 1 was a little late, but actually delivered.2 are quite late, but now close to shipping.( see http://www.kickstarter.com/… )

  31. BillMcNeely

    I had a conversation today with an investor who encourage me to start a consulting firm addressing the logistics problem with crowdfunded projects. I noticed in the comments most seem to show up late.My question is: Is Is this due to manufacturing or logistics? If it’s logistics I may have solved my unemployment problem. There are many off the shelf soultions that I am aware of that I can help folks implement.I would love any feedback.

  32. BillMcNeely

    fredwilson solving the lateness problem on Kickstarter and other crowdfunded/sourced sites I think will be a profitable space in 2013. @kennethkowal identified this back in April of 2012 with his piece 3 Reasons Why Your KickStarter Project Needs Outsourced Order Fulfillment http://fulfillment.webgisti…Maybe you could connect him with the KS team. The KS team should also allow the opportunity to connect with AmazonFullfillment or Shipwire directly as part of the project.Another question I have. That AmazonPayment thing is a pain in the butt to signup for. Couldn’t they use Stripe to process payments?

  33. Aaron Klein

    That’s not what Kickstarter is, but it is a darned good idea.In California, we have a multitude of iPhone-carrying panhandlers, so this might indeed be the perfect app to give them another marketing channel.PIVOT!

  34. kidmercury

    lol i prefer panhandling rebranded….not knocking it with that comment, i’m genuinely impressed

  35. fredwilson

    it would be panhandling if there weren’t rewards. its not.this is exactly the kind of thing people say to diss the “toys” that change the worldtwitter was for people telling the world what they had for lunchbut it has become the global networked newspaper

  36. FlavioGomes

    I’ve heard stories of some healthy wealthy panhandlers

  37. Charlie Crystle

    nope. We organized our community around a project. Some contributed money, some labor, some ideas, some a bit of blood.Everyone got something out of it, and it’s improving the community. Hundreds of pounds of produce distributed to families at food banks. A lot more to the plotholders themselves. Teachers taking classrooms through for outdoor lessons.Can’t wait for the next campaign–we need a well to expand to 3 acres.

  38. andyswan

    I never* give to bums, but I’ll make this pledge right now…. the first bum to come up to me with Square on his iPhone will get a $25 swipe from me and I CANNOT WAIT to instagram that moment.* on the street

  39. Charlie Crystle

    It’s called Square 🙂

  40. Aaron Klein

    I’ll see you in New York next week and I will be bearing my cardboard sign and iPhone. 😉

  41. Charlie Crystle

    dude…just thought of that. I carry it with me all the time. Gotta try that.

  42. Aaron Klein

    +1

  43. andyswan

    My wife dismissed the internet in 1996 because “the only thing on there are nerds and pictures of naked women.”16 years later…. turns out she was right.

  44. kidmercury

    i don’t think it’s necessarily a diss to call it panhandling. i think of it as very similar to what boy scouts do, in that they sell you something but what’s really being sold is the good feeling derived from supporting some kid on their fishing trip or whatever. i think of this as a form of panhandling but one that is branded much better. i think kickstarter brought this to the internet which i think is impressive and commendable, and implicitly reflects an astute understanding of online sociology/psychology. so at least for me when i say it is panhandling it is a sincere compliment of sorts.

  45. Matt A. Myers

    Panhandling definitely has a negative connotation to it.

  46. Charlie Crystle

    I hear this internet thing is gonna be big

  47. laurie kalmanson

    and cats in boxed and dogs driving cars

  48. kidmercury

    that’s why i regard it as panhandling rebranded….they rebranded it to remove the negative connotation and turn it into a positive one

  49. Matt A. Myers

    Fair enough, though in reality people don’t like panhandlers because they don’t know / believe / understand where the money is going or that there is an actual need that’s valuable to them to help solve (by supporting financially), so they automatically don’t trust or dismiss it.