A Kickstarter's Guide to Kickstarter
About The Project
In 2011, I had the idea to write a how-to book about crowdfunding based on my experience running a successful campaign, research, and interviews with other creators. I raised funds on Kickstarter to help cover the cost of publishing, and since its release, it has been downloaded over 5,000 times. Through my book, website, and consulting, I’ve helped independent creators understand how crowdfunding works and the challenges they face when launching a campaign.
The Situation
In the fall of 2010, my business partner and I ran a Kickstarter campaign to raise $15,000 for a documentary film we wanted to make called Identifying Nelson/Buscando a Roberto. Without really knowing what we were doing, we launched our project on September 14th at the #140 Conference in Boston. Even though we had some initial success, our campaign languished for almost two months to the point where I was ready to give up. Then something amazing happened. During the last week, we raised $9,000 in just six days.
It was an incredible experience, and I felt there was something about the site’s all-or-nothing funding model that allowed my project to succeed. Before this experience, I had been involved in a few other entrepreneurial projects, but none had taken off the way our Kickstarter project had. Curious about what made this platform so effective, I set out to learn as much as I could about Kickstarter and the other crowdfunding platforms that were emerging at the time.
The Challenge
As I began researching, I made a fascinating discovery when Kickstarter released a video highlighting the first 10,000 successfully funded projects on its platform.
As I scrubbed through the video, which ordered projects by amount raised, I found our page not in the middle of where I assumed we would be but almost at the end. Doing some quick math, I realized that the $15,000 we had raised was in the top 10th percentile. This was astonishing to me because the perception of crowdfunding at the time was that most projects raise tens of thousands of dollars, but my experience suggested otherwise.
As I dug into the data, I began to see a pattern: The majority of projects, 80%, are funded by less than 200 people and raise under $20,000. In fact, there appeared to be a significant hurdle when trying to raise more than $20,000 that most creators could not overcome. It turned out that by dumb luck, we had picked an amount below this threshold. These insights changed my perception of the platform and shaped how I would approach crowdfunding going forward.
The Solution
Around this time, other creators started messaging me for advice. They wanted to know how I was able to raise the money that I had. As I shared some of what I learned, an idea popped into my head: what if I took all my insights and turned them into a book that could help other creators like me? I would call it “A Kickstarter's Guide to Kickstarter,” and I could raise funds to publish it on Kickstarter. I thought the project was quirky enough that it might do well on the site, so during the summer of 2011, I outlined the book, created a pitch video, and built the project page.
However, the closer I got to my launch date, the more nervous I became. After all, who was I to write a book about Kickstarter? I was an unknown author who had only run one crowdfunding campaign. I wondered if anyone would even back my project. Determined not to let my fears get the better of me, I launched the project on August 7th and held my breath. Surprisingly, the campaign raised $400 more than my $900 goal. With a fully funded project, I got to work writing the book.
The Results
Over the proceeding months, I conducted interviews with successful creators, wrote the 65-page guide, hired a graphic designer to format the book, and set up a website to promote it. By November 2011, I had completed the project and published my book on all the major platforms, including Kindle and Google Books. While I no longer write for the site, it is still active and hosts a free copy of the guide if you want to check it out.
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