Messing around with a Kickstarter Project
I had a friend ask me when I was going to read my second book into audio. I told him it took too long and no one bought them. Then I had an idea. I thought, “This would be a great opportunity to mess around with Kickstarter”.
Kickstarter is a micro-funding site that allows you to establish a project and collect money from investors for something. This is a great way for people to collect money for projects without having to engage with banks, private equity or venture capitalists who want contracts, equity and surety.
It works great for smaller projects or ideas. Think ‘thousands of dollars’ versus ‘millions of dollars’. These projects may be very viable but they are too small to move the needle for most traditional methods of funding.
It also works well for humanitarian projects or projects that are outside the mainstream. The basic premise is that if you can get the financial support of your ‘tribe’ you can get your project funded.
The other interesting thing about Kickstarter is that it rewards the investors with goodies and prizes, not necessarily cash returns. This plays to people’s love of goodies.
I set up a project and told my friend that if he could get $10 from ten people I would record the book into audio and all subscribers would get the audio files as they were produced and a full copy when it was finished.
To set up the project I needed to write all the copy about what it was and what I was looking for – the descriptive information for the project page on the Kickstarter web site. I also needed to record a video. My video was nothing spectacular but Kickstarter projects put a big emphasis on a compelling video to sell the projects.
I also had to set up my bank account and credit card and PayPal information so people could commit the money.
IT was nothing I hadn’t done before with my other on-line adventures but the confirmation process was thorough enough to sort out potential scammers.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1838098095/the-mid-packers-guide-to-the-galaxy-audio-book
In the end my project was fully subscribed in less than 24 hours, thanks to Eric, the friend who wanted the book audio to begin with. I’m working on recording and producing the stories and have set up a process to deliver them as they roll out of production to the subscribers.
It’s compelling to me to be able to provide a service, a product, for people who have raised their hands and said “I want it and I’ll pay you up front”. Of course my experiment was small in scale, it’s an interesting proof point.
If you really think your dream service or product is compelling then go ahead and ask for money. Tell the world why it’s important and maybe the world will think so too. It’s a great way to fund dreams.