My Kickstarter Tips and Tricks
I’ve had 4-5 friends hit me up about Kickstarter over the past few months. It’s been a delight to chat with them about what I’ve learned over the past 5 years on 6 campaigns. But I also figure it’s time to write some of this down as a 101 primer, so here you go:
Learn the Platform First
Several of my friends are asking if they should do a Kickstarter campaign, but they haven’t signed up for an account or backed any other campaigns. Learning by doing is the long way. Learning by watching is the shortcut. There are so many incredibly creators and campaigns on Kickstarter. Go sign up for an account. Spend $200 on a few campaigns. Then sit back and watch the creators create. You’ll get their backer updates. You’ll see their struggles. You’ll watch the community interact. It will be the best $200 you’ve spent. Here are a few of my favorite consistent creators:
Read and Learn
I became interested in Kickstarter in 2020 during the pandemic. It just so happened that my employer was having a shipping crisis in a warehouse in Hebron, Kentucky that required as many bodies as possible. I ended up there wearing a mask, affixing Amazon labels on candles and Popsockets in a bustling warehouse. It was borrrrrring. But it gave me time to listen to book called “Kickstarter Launch Formula” by Salvador Briggman. It was a perfect primer. He also had a podcast that I binged on for 10 days while growing pale under the neon lights of said warehouse. It was brutal. But, I’m now grateful I had the time to learn. Life is funny like that.
I’ve also spent a bit of time listening to a podcast called Crowdfunding Nerds. They’re deep and delightful with solid insights. I’d probably recommend them after you’ve run your first campaign, as they are talking deep optimizations.
Do Your Research
One of my friends was interested in doing a Kickstarter campaign around tea. I jumped on Kickstarter and started poking around. A few minutes of quick searching, and I realized tea is not a heavy hitter on Kickstarter. If you’re open to raising $5K there, perfect. If you need $50K, Kickstarter just doesn’t have that kind of audience for your product. Which takes me to the next point…
Bring Your Audience
If you’re going to Kickstarter hoping to launch your brand, you’d better have something super interesting like the world’s first self-adjusting smart belt. (Real talk: that’s the literal stupidest product I’ve ever seen in my life, but who I am to argue with $60K raised?) Don’t expect to magically find your people on Kickstarter. Plan to bring 70% of your own audience, then enjoy the 30% algorithmic benefits of being on a existing platform.
Start Small
On my first project, I was hoping to raise $3,000— just enough to get it off the ground. We raised $20K. It was exhilarating, but also my risk was crazy low as I was learning. Manage your risk and only create a project you think you can actually finish.
This is my MVP version of this blog post. I’ll flesh it out more later and add pictures, probably. Or it might stay like this forever. Hard to tell; hard to forecast.