Andy Baio, blogger on Waxy.org and co-founder of Upcoming (acquired by Yahoo back in October 2005), yesterday evening announced the release of Kickstarter.
This is an online platform that enables just about anyone to raise funding from interested individuals. Basically, Kickstarter took what Sellaband is all about and applied it to a wider variety of projects, i.e. not only to discover and fund upcoming bands but anyone who does something creative (think designers, musicians, filmmakers, writers, etc.).
At launch, the service is restricted to people who are invited to the service, but you can sign up here to be notified when that changes.
Baio, who sits on the startup’s board and advised the company for the past 10 months, explains:
The model is simple: a project creator sets a fundraising goal, deadline, and an optional set of rewards for backers. If the goal’s reached by the deadline, then everyone’s charged via Amazon Payments and the backers get their goodies. If the goal’s not reached, nobody’s charged. It’s all or nothing.
People who start projects on the platform to get funded by others retain 100% ownership over everything, but need to find a way to give people an incentive to pledge (this can be anything, preferably related to the actual project of course). Kickstarter also doubles as a publishing platform where project creators can keep anyone or only their backers how the project is doing with text, pictures and videos.
When they reach their deadline with the desired funding, project creators receive 100% of the funds they raised, minus the fees that Amazon charges to process credit card transactions. Kickstarter doesn’t take a cut yet, but will likely start charging fees at some point, otherwise there wouldn’t be much a business model.
I very much like the name, concept and design of Kickstarter, but of course this is nothing new and only time will tell if the startup can make enough noise to stand out of the crop. Similar services include FirstGiving, PledgeBank and Mob Incentive.
the site looks beautiful. plus the idea is promising for people with ideas that need funding…
Another similar website to this is Mybandstock.com, but unlike kickstarter, the website is only for musicians to raise money from their fans.
Interesting idea, I can see it having some success but it’ll most likely end up filled with utter shit. What sort of guarantees about project completion do we have? I think it would work better as a loan based service, similar to kiva.org, where users can pledge $xx and get returned after a period of time. Not sure how that would be monitored though.
Actually, Kickstarter’s open to the world and doesn’t require an invite to back projects… You only need an invite if you want to create a new fundraising project.
Just signed up – would love to take a look at starting a fundraising project, or at least get started in setting up such a project.
Thanks – sounds like a great option to explore.
Very cool concept.
oh, let me add our couchtycoon startup financing community as one of the similar services. thanks
“only time will tell if the startup can make enough noise to stand out of the crop”
Did you mean “stand out from the crowd”?
Looks Like http://www.izi-collecte.com/ a company short listed @leweb08
They actually may want to look at 2ClickFundraising.com!
2ClickFundraising.com!
Ah, a typo brings me back. Seriously, this is a great website that has amazing savings through all the big on-line vendors and GIVES MONEY BACK TO YOUR CAUSE! Awesome!
Hey, 3rd times the charm. Not much of an a) speller b)html guy – peace
2Clickfundraising!
Kickstarter is gaining momentum and I think it has a lot to do with the simplicity of the experience from both sides; people looking to pledge as well as creatives promoting their projects.
I just posted my first digital arts project with them and I am excited to watch it spark to life over the next couple of months.
Check it out: http://bit.ly/XOTSp
What a great idea! We (Wokai) are using the Kickstarter platform for Wokai to help raise microloan capital for Wan Qingbi, a lady in rural China who is struggling to rebuild her home and business after the 2008 earthquake.
Check out our Kickstarter project: http://bit.ly/23o6k5