Kickstarter
Encyclopedia
Kickstarter is an online
threshold pledge system
for funding
creative projects. Kickstarter has funded a diverse array of endeavors, ranging from indie film and music
to journalism
, solar energy technology and food
-related projects.
, and initiating projects requires a U.S. bank account.
Kickstarter takes 5% of the funds raised; Amazon charges an additional 3-5%. Unlike many forums for fundraising
or investment
, Kickstarter claims no ownership over the projects and the work they produce. However, projects launched on the site are permanently archived and accessible to the public. After funding is completed, projects and uploaded media cannot be edited or removed from the site.
There is no guarantee that people that post projects on Kickstarter will deliver on their projects or use the money to do their projects. Kickstarter advises sponsors to use their own judgement on supporting a project. They also warn project leaders that they could be liable for legal damages from sponsors for failure to deliver on promises. In May 2011 a New York University
film student raised $1,726 to make a film, but plagiarized the French film Replay instead. The student publicly apologized and the issue has since been settled.
jokingly proclaimed "Kickstarter.com is one of the smartest ideas for a website since Al Gore invented the Internet
."
The startup
is based in Manhattan's Lower East Side
. Andy Baio served as the site's CTO
until November 2010, when he joined Expert Labs
. Lance Ivy has been Lead Developer since the website launched.
On September 30, 2011, Kickstarter filed a request for declaratory judgment
against Fan Funded who owns U.S. patent , "Methods and apparatuses for financing and marketing a creative work". Brian Camelio
, the founder of ArtistShare
, is the inventor on the patent. KickStarter says it believes it is under threat of a patent infringement lawsuit. KickStarter has asked that the patent be invalidated, or, at the very least, that the court find that Kickstarter is not liable of infringement.
ONLINE
ONLINE is a magazine for information systems first published in 1977. The publisher Online, Inc. was founded the year before. In May 2002, Information Today, Inc. acquired the assets of Online Inc....
threshold pledge system
Threshold pledge system
The threshold pledge or fund and release system is a way of making a fundraising pledge as a group of individuals, often involving charitable goals or financing the provision of a public good. An amount of money is set as the goal or threshold to reach for the specified purpose and interested...
for funding
Funding
Funding is the act of providing resources, usually in form of money , or other values such as effort or time , for a project, a person, a business or any other private or public institutions...
creative projects. Kickstarter has funded a diverse array of endeavors, ranging from indie film and music
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
to journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
, solar energy technology and food
Food
Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...
-related projects.
Model
One of a new set of fundraising platforms dubbed "crowdfunding", Kickstarter facilitates gathering monetary resources from the general public, a model which circumvents many traditional avenues of investment. People must apply to Kickstarter in order to have a project posted on the site, and Kickstarter provides guidelines on what types of projects will be accepted. Project owners choose a deadline and a target minimum of funds to raise. If the chosen target is not gathered by the deadline, no funds are collected (this is known as a provision point mechanism). Money pledged by donors is collected using Amazon PaymentsAmazon Payments
Amazon Payments, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon.com that provides a means to process transactions online. Launched in 2006, Amazon Payments uses the consumer base of Amazon.com and focuses on giving users the same checkout experience available on Amazon.com.Amazon Payments has several...
, and initiating projects requires a U.S. bank account.
Kickstarter takes 5% of the funds raised; Amazon charges an additional 3-5%. Unlike many forums for fundraising
Fundraising
Fundraising or fund raising is the process of soliciting and gathering voluntary contributions as money or other resources, by requesting donations from individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies...
or investment
Investment
Investment has different meanings in finance and economics. Finance investment is putting money into something with the expectation of gain, that upon thorough analysis, has a high degree of security for the principal amount, as well as security of return, within an expected period of time...
, Kickstarter claims no ownership over the projects and the work they produce. However, projects launched on the site are permanently archived and accessible to the public. After funding is completed, projects and uploaded media cannot be edited or removed from the site.
There is no guarantee that people that post projects on Kickstarter will deliver on their projects or use the money to do their projects. Kickstarter advises sponsors to use their own judgement on supporting a project. They also warn project leaders that they could be liable for legal damages from sponsors for failure to deliver on promises. In May 2011 a New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
film student raised $1,726 to make a film, but plagiarized the French film Replay instead. The student publicly apologized and the issue has since been settled.
History
Kickstarter was founded in April 2009 by Perry Chen, Yancey Strickler, and Charles Adler. The Miami New TimesMiami New Times
The Miami New Times is a free weekly newspaper published in Miami and distributed every Thursday. It primarily serves the Miami area and is headquartered near Miami's Design District.-Overview:...
jokingly proclaimed "Kickstarter.com is one of the smartest ideas for a website since Al Gore invented the Internet
Al Gore and information technology
Al Gore served as the Vice President of the United States from 1993–2001. He is the co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. In the 1990s he promoted legislation that funded an expansion of and greater public access to the internet....
."
The startup
Startup company
A startup company or startup is a company with a limited operating history. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets...
is based in Manhattan's Lower East Side
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
. Andy Baio served as the site's CTO
Chief technical officer
A chief technology officer is an executive-level position in a company or other entity whose occupant is focused on scientific and technological issues within an organization....
until November 2010, when he joined Expert Labs
Expert Labs
Expert Labs is a non-profit technology incubator intended to aid government access expertise from interested members of the public. Part of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, it was formed in November 2009, following discussions with the White House Office of Science &...
. Lance Ivy has been Lead Developer since the website launched.
Top projects
As a sample of the type of projects funded by Kickstarter, the following are the top ten projects from the site's most funded projects circa July 2011.- TikTok+LunaTik Multi-Touch Watch Kits (6283%, $942,578) by Scott Wilson
- Capture Camera Clip System (3,646%, $364,698) by Peter Dering
- Blue Like Jazz (276%, $345,992) by Steve Taylor
- Eyez™ HD Video Recording Glasses for Facebook (624%, $343,415) by ZionEyez Team
- Coffee Joulies (3,230%, $306,944) by Dave & Dave
- Pen Type-A (11,279%, $281,989) by CW&T
- HexBright (836%, $259,293) by Christian Carlberg
- Rise and Shine: The Jay DeMerit Story (103%, $223,422) by Nick and Ranko
- Minecraft: The Story of Mojang (140%, $210,297) by 2 Player Productions
- Diaspora (2006%, $200,641) by Daniel Grippi, Maxwell Salzberg, Raphael Sofaer, and Ilya Zhitomirskiy
Overall success rate
Kickstarter has raised $75 million dollars for over 10,000 projects since April 2009. The project success rate is 44%.Other noted projects
- Coffee JouliesCoffee JouliesCoffee Joulies are small, stainless-steel capsules of phase change material designed to be placed in a covered, insulated container cup of coffee to keep it at a drinkable temperature for a longer period of time...
- metal beans with phase change materialPhase Change MaterialA phase-change material is a substance with a high heat of fusion which, melting and solidifying at a certain temperature, is capable of storing and releasing large amounts of energy...
to regulate the temperature of coffee. - Tick Tock - a short film by Korean American filmmaker Ien ChiIen ChiIen Chi is a Korean American filmmaker. He is the director of the short film "Tick Tock" which won the Best Picture and Best Director awards at Campus MovieFest 2011 - the world's largest student film festival. It is currently the most viewed and highest rated film of Campus MovieFest of all time...
which won Best Picture and Best Director at the International Grand Finale of Campus MovieFestCampus MovieFestCampus MovieFest is the world's largest student film festival. Created in 2000 by four Emory University students, and originally called iMovieFest, Campus MovieFest utilizes Apple Computer laptops, iMovie and Final Cut Pro to give college and university students with all levels of filmmaking...
, the world's largest student film festival. It is currently Campus MovieFest's most viewed and highest rated film of all time. The film went viral and collectively has approximately 1.7 million views online and has been featured on The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
and in other media sources. - Cards Against HumanityCards Against HumanityCards Against Humanity is a politically incorrect multiplayer party game currently available for free digital download or as a published hardcopy as of June 15, 2011. Cards Against Humanity is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial - Share Alike license, making it possible...
- a politically incorrect party gameParty gameParty games are games that some people play as forms of entertainment at social gatherings. Party games usually involve more than one player. There are a large number and styles of party games available and the one selected will depend on the atmosphere that is sought to be generated...
that launched as the #1 game on Amazon.com.
Patent history
In 2006, founder Perry Chen filed two patent applications that focused on Kickstarter's method for fundraising. Both of these patent applications were later abandoned after being rejected.On September 30, 2011, Kickstarter filed a request for declaratory judgment
Declaratory judgment
A declaratory judgment is a judgment of a court in a civil case which declares the rights, duties, or obligations of one or more parties in a dispute. A declaratory judgment is legally binding, but it does not order any action by a party. In this way, the declaratory judgment is like an action to...
against Fan Funded who owns U.S. patent , "Methods and apparatuses for financing and marketing a creative work". Brian Camelio
Brian Camelio
Brian Camelio is an American musician, guitarist, composer, producer, and founder of ArtistShare.Camelio is considered one of the fathers of crowdfunding and potentially "a post-modern Ahmet Ertegun" according to Bloomberg News...
, the founder of ArtistShare
ArtistShare
ArtistShare is a crowdfunding website and labelWharton Innovation and Entrepreneurship Consulted on 10/12/2011 for musicians and other creative artists which allows them to fund their projects utilizing a "fan-funding" model to allow the general public to directly finance, watch the creative...
, is the inventor on the patent. KickStarter says it believes it is under threat of a patent infringement lawsuit. KickStarter has asked that the patent be invalidated, or, at the very least, that the court find that Kickstarter is not liable of infringement.
See also
- ArtistShareArtistShareArtistShare is a crowdfunding website and labelWharton Innovation and Entrepreneurship Consulted on 10/12/2011 for musicians and other creative artists which allows them to fund their projects utilizing a "fan-funding" model to allow the general public to directly finance, watch the creative...
- FondomatFondomatFondomat is an online crowd funding platformfounded in 2011 by Joe Wakeford and Conrad Watts in Prague, Czech Republic quickly and effectively in the Czech currency....
- IndiegogoIndiegogoIndieGoGo is a crowd funding site founded by Slava Rubin, Danae Ringellmann and Eric Schell in 2008. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, California...
- InvestFashion
- LoudsauceLoudsauceLoudsauce is a crowd funding platform for sponsoring ads for social change. Donors choose the level of funding they want to support and their desired medium, such as TV ads or billboards...
- PeerbackersPeerbackersPeerbackers is a crowdfunding web site where entrepreneurs can post projects and raise money to fund those projects. It was founded in 2011 by Andrew Rachmell and Sally Outlaw. Entrepreneurs will submit proposals which will be reviewed by Peerbackers staff, after which they are posted and members...
- RocketHubRocketHubRocketHub is an online crowdfunding platform for creative projects. Creatives including musicians, filmmakers, photographers, theatre producers/directors, writers, entrepreneurs, fashion designers, etc. use RocketHub to raise funds and awareness for particular creative projects and...
- SponsumeSponsumeSponsume is an online crowd funding platform founded by Gregory Vincent in 2010. Its headquarters are in London, United Kingdom. Creative individuals and organisations use Sponsume to raise awareness and funds for their projects...