There are some many of people out there who are creative and talented enough to come up with an idea be it a product, book or new technology that will have an impact on the world. For a large number of these creative individuals, one of the major stumbling blocks in seeing their ideas go from concept through to reality is capital!
The task of looking for investors is a daunting process and can put people off the idea of getting their idea off the ground. But, there are avenues out there through which creative minds can easily look for funding. One of them is Kickstarter where you ask the crowd for funding.
Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform;
crowdfunding: a process where many people invest small amounts of money which add up to a large amount (click to tweet)
Besides having an idea that you are serious about making a reality, there are a few things that you need to do in order to get started on Kickstarter with the main ones being:
- Funding goal – you need to have a funding goal for the amount of money you will need to get your project off the ground
- Rewards – to get the crowd to pledge, you need to offer them rewards in exchange for their money. The rewards can be anything from a signed copy of a dvd (if your project is a film/documentary) or limited edition of a product you have designed
- Pitch video – the video gives you the opportunity to pitch your idea/product and explain why it is worth the investment
From there on in, it is up to the crowd to determine whether or not they should invest in what you have to offer. As a creator, it is a matter of waiting to see if you people like your idea enough for it to reach the funding goal. If your fundraising goal is met, you receive all of the money that has been pledged and you can get started with your project.
If funding falls short of your goals, you do not get anything. Kickstarter says that this is something that they put in place to protect the community in the following ways; a creator will feel more compelled to see their idea through if they reach their funding goal but this may not be the case if they fall short but still receive the money pledged. For backers, they are only charged when the funding goal is reached and at this point a lot of people will have thought it is a good idea and also pledged money and hence they don’t end up in a situation where they are the only one to have made an investment in a project that won’t go anywhere due to lack of funding.
If I were a startup looking for funding, Kickstarter would be one of my options. One of the main reasons being that, you retain full ownership of your company. In the case of regular investors, cash would more than likely be exchanged for a stake in the startup. Another benefit is that you could reach your funding goals a lot quicker and easier as it is all done in one place versus having to go from investor to investor and pitching your idea time and time again with no guarantee of funding.
The platform has worked wonders for people with brilliant ideas with 27,357 projects being successfully funded of which more than 5,000 were for amounts over $10,000 and 7 projects managed to raise varying amounts over $1,000,000.
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