Kickstarter is the world’s largest crowd funding platform. The company’s stated mission is to help bring creative projects to life. Since its launch in April 2009 (October 2012 in UK), more than 5 million people have funded more than 50,000 creative projects, such as films, music, stage shows, comics, journalism, video games, and food-related projects. People who back Kickstarter projects are offered tangible rewards and special experiences in exchange for their pledges. This model traces its roots to subscription model of arts patronage, where artists would go directly to their audiences to fund their work.
2013 Kickstarter facts and figures are impressive
- 3 million people pledged $840 million, $913/minute
- Backers came from 214 countries and all 7 continents (even Antartica)
- 807,733 people backed more than one project, 81,090 more than 10
- A total of 19,911 projects were successfully funded in 2013
Kavia customers are using this very powerful resource to help fund and market their projects. Elson Design have designed and developed the PiCE, the ultimate case for your Raspberry Pi computer board. An example of their Kickstarter video is below and funding went towards tooling costs of the die-cast case and injection moulded components Kavia has tooled and just starting their first production order. In discussions with David from Elson Design, the Kickstarter process has been very productive for them not just for funding but marketing their PiCE product to a worldwide audience with opportunities with major distributors as well as additional sales to consumers beyond the initial Kickstarter backing group. David also noted not to give up on the first attempt as they failed to get funding on the first campaign and had to rethink the second campaign.
