Thousands of new companies and entrepreneurs are funded by this legendary website; and Kickstarter has become pretty much a household word these days, in fact "…since their launch in 2009, more than 3.7 million people have pledged over $554 million, funding more than 38,000 creative projects."
I'm sorry but that claim is skewed to make it seem like 38,000 creative projects have been backed by 3.7 million people raising $554 million dollars, but that's not true. If you remove those pledges that backed projects that didn't make it and thus didn't require that "pledge" to be fulfilled, and then removed those backers that no longer needed to back those projects, what would those new numbers become?
Kickstarter's credo is that project creators set a goal and a deadline to make that goal, then the project creators market themselves like insane crusaders; often sailing around the world looking for America or creating videos that they post everywhere on places like Youtube and Vimeo and then sweetening the pot and offering backers who pledge, anything from t-shirts to invites to events and parties to dinners with the crew, to all kinds of interesting takeaways for lending a hand. Kickstarter claims that their "All-or-nothing funding might seem scary, but it’s amazingly effective in creating momentum and rallying people around an idea. To date, an impressive 44% of projects have reached their funding goals." That seems to really mean that less than half of Kickstarter projects get funded.
What's my problem with Kickstarter? It's that this golden egg on a stick that allows people with nothing to get what they need to become a success, is really not the true entrepreneurial goldmine. Because after rallying hundreds of friends, loved ones and people that you had to squirrel from a gnarl in the woodwork, that their pledges become just that, pledges, a wisp of smoke. All of these people believed in you, they were willing to put up the necessary monies because they believed in you, believed in your cause, in your beliefs, in your soul and now, because your dreams were too lofty and you didn't calculate the right combination of time and monetary goal, that money is lost. Those people, those potential backers that pledged anything from $1 and up don't stop believing in you just because you didn't make your goal, they didn't pledge because they thought you wouldn't reach your goal, they didn't even pledge to get the free t-shirt, or copy of your book or comic or four tickets to your recital; they pledged because you needed them and they wanted to be part of your success.
Now that I've found these people, marketed to these people, built my video and Kickstarter campaign with money I didn't have, to raise the money I needed, why can't there still be away to harness those pledges. If it were to be true to it's name, Kickstarter wouldn't take the pledges back from backers, but let those project creators keep those pledges as "round one" investments and to help teach these project creators a lesson in entrepreneurship, perhaps that even the best projects need to be more realistic about how much they can raise and/or how fast they can raise it. There should then be a "second round," and if need be, a "third round," where the gifts to pledges potentially get larger and the project's pledges possibly reflect the first round investment. Now that the project has left the building, a new round of backers could be attracted because now the projects aren't just ideas but realities in the making. If this were to be the truth then those 3.7 million people who pledged over $554 million dollars could be 3.7 million dollars that actually were invested in the 38,000 projects, not the 44% of the 38,000 projects. Who cares if 3.7 million people pledge money if they don't have to actually give it. When I pledge money to my local PBS station or to Jerry's Kids, I have to come up with that money. You don't just pledge money and then not give it. How would Muscular Dystrophy or the Girl Scouts or any walk for hunger, breast cancer or diabetes actually collect money if pledges were only "if" you make your mark?
I think this is a problem that needs to be addressed and I believe that the next wave of kickstarting creative projects needs to be kickstarted.
By David Deutsch
Creative-Founder of TheftyJack Studios, creators of Zombie I Scream for the iPhone/iPad and unsuccessful Kickstarter project entrepreneur – comments to david.deutsch@theftyjack.com
Comments