What have I been talking about for the last year? (Part 2 - What is Kickstarter?)

Last week I wrote about the processes and mindset needed to successfully launch products via crowdfunding. My approach in fact applies much more widely beyond crowdfunding. However, my focus is on crowdfunding, and mostly Kickstarter.

When you’re so deep within a subject it can be easy to forget some of the fundamentals though, so this week I’m taking a step back and going over the blog posts I’ve written that cover the foundations of what Kickstarter actually is.

What even is Kickstarter?

As I wrote previously, Kickstarter is a type of rewards-based crowdfunding. This is distinct from other crowdfunding such as equity crowdfunding or loan crowdfunding. Fundamentally they are all about raising money in one way or another, but they’re very different from each other.

The common feature of all crowdfunding is that you are generating interest from many people, the crowd, in contrast to more traditional ways of raising money where you might target a single larger organisation such as a bank or a professional investor.

The distinct feature of rewards-based crowdfunding is that you’re not giving away equity in a company or committing to pay back any of the money you receive. There’s a more direct quid pro quo - people give you money, you give them a product (or service or experience).

Unlike a regular ecommerce transaction though, the thing you’re offering doesn’t exist yet! So you get the money first, make the thing, and only then do you give the thing to your backers (customers).

Why use it?

As I wrote in that piece, the key advantages of Kickstarter for me are that I’m simultaneously testing the market for my products and raising money to get them made. And then that massively de-risks my creative endeavour and gives me a great head start in terms of cashflow.

I’ve written specifically about why it’s way better than trying to set up a drop-shipping business, and why I stopped selling on Amazon.

What does a Kickstarter project look like?

You may be somewhat familiar with Kickstarter as a backer, but there’s a lot more to it from the perspective of a creator when you dig a little deeper.

To get you started on that, you may find my piece on the anatomy of a Kickstarter page interesting.

Arguably the most important single component of your Kickstarter page is the project hero image. This is often the first thing anyone will see of your project so it needs to grab attention.

On this subject, I’ve written about Kickstarter hero images; good, bad and ugly, and three practical tips for your Kickstarter hero image.

Your Kickstarter video is also a critical component of your project page and I have some posts lined up discussing my thoughts and experience on that.

I’ve also covered some behind-the-scenes details of a real Kickstarter project. Some of these are things you never see until you’re actually running a live campaign, so you may find it interesting to learn more about what to expect.

There are plenty of aspects of Kickstarter that are kind of boring, but important. I’ve written for example about Kickstarter project collaborators & permissions, and have more of this content coming up.

Is Kickstarter right for you?

If lots of this is new to you and you’re just finding out in more detail about Kickstarter, the big question is whether Kickstarter is right for you.

Like a lot of things online these days you’ll find plenty of people trying to sell you the dream of Kickstarter as a get-rich-quick scheme. Unsurprisingly, it definitely isn’t that. It can be a really effective way to get a new product off the ground though - to kickstart it if you will.

It’s also an incredibly rewarding experience. And even if you run a campaign that fails to reach it’s target, I guarantee you’ll learn a hell of a lot, and all without risking the kind of money it might have taken to find out without Kickstarter.

If you think crowdfunding could be for you, you may be interested in my pieces on what it takes to run a Kickstarter, and is your idea ready for Kickstarter?

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If you have any questions or suggestions for subjects you’d like me to cover, please feel free to get in touch. Or if you’d just like more of this content there’s plenty more here, and you can sign up below to my newsletter.