Budding entrepreneur, inventor, artist, filmmaker or designer? Forget Dragons Den! Kickstarter is a new way to fund creative projects; they work on the principle of all-or-nothing funding. Projects must be communicated well, preferably via video on the kickstarter website. If backers like the project they can choose to invest. If and only if a threshold is achieved the project creator receives the investment. For full details how it works click here.
Let’s look at the Kickstarter stats for 2011:
- Launched Projects: 27,086
- Successful Projects: 11,836
- Dollars Pledged: $99,344,382
- Rewards Selected: 1,150,461
- Total Visitors: 30,590,342
- Project Success Rate: 46%
It’s a great site for US citizens, but it is limited to them :
“Am I eligible to start a Kickstarter project?
To be eligible to start a Kickstarter project, you need to satisfy the requirements of Amazon Payments:
Be a permanent US resident and at least 18 years of age with a Social Security Number (or EIN), a US bank account, US address, US state-issued ID (driver’s license), and major US credit or debit card.
Projects must also follow the Kickstarter guidelines.
”
A better alternative for UK residents is http://www.indiegogo.com/
Roy, thanks very much for the tip. We only came across this site this morning as a matter of fact, but it looks really good. There is another variation on the concept called http://getitmade.com/ but they don’t seem to be following there own advice. It hasn’t changed in the past year or so. http://www.indiegogo.com/ seems the place to go from the UK.
A good opportunity taking applicants till the end of January is ‘Starter for 6’ ran by the Cultural Enterprise Office based in Glasgow:
http://www.culturalenterpriseoffice.co.uk/website/default.asp?menu=s46&page_sel=s46
I personally have just been through their fast track program and not only is it a great opportunity to pitch for Grant funding (yes, free money!!!) but their resources, advice and ongoing support is priceless!
Good Luck