Kickstarter

Over break I spent a good bit of my time helping my friends in LA with their start-up t-shirt/art company. One of their main tasks during my visit was planning an event to coincide with the launch of their Kickstarter. At the time I knew very little about Kickstarter or how it works; however, upon learning more I thought it was something important and useful to share with our class especially as many of us move into the funding stages of our ventures.

Kickstarter ( found at http://www.kickstarter.com ) is the largest funding platform for creative projects. Kickstarter works by allowing start-ups in various fields and genres to set a funding goal before the beginning of their event. Then by getting the word out their to various people and organizations, they nudge people in pledging money towards their overall funding goal. Only if the funding goal is reached in the amount of time allocated for the campaign, do the companies actually get to retain the money pledged. Generally, investors receive some sort of thank you gift for their pledge which is typically related to the project itself. If the funding goal is not reached then investors keep the money they pledged.

Kickstarter offers start-ups the chance to test their ideas in a risk free manner and oftentimes will even provide the initial capital to launch their project. Kickstarter is definitely a tool many of us could use later to help gather initial funds for our project.

Also, if any of you would like to learn more about my friends start-up, you can find information at http://www.sicapparel.com. Their kickstarter launch takes place this upcoming Sunday, March 25th. Please let me know if you would like more information!