It is one of the first participatory financing companies, created in 2009 by Perry Chen, Yancey Strickler and Charles Adler. Its official website is: https://www.kickstarter.com/, and the TIME ranks it in the "best inventions of 2010" as well as in the "best websites of the year 2011". It has even been described as one of the "smartest ideas for a website since Al Gore invented the Internet", and on May 11, 2015 Kickstarter announces its launch in France.
What is participatory financing? And what is Kickstarter?
Kickstarter gives Internet users the opportunity to finance projects still in the idea stage, in exchange for tangible rewards from the project team. It reduces the burdens associated with traditional investment methods, but it is not an investment in the proper sense: you will not have "shares" in the project, and you will not earn money above. On the other hand, as said before, you will have a reward, such as a letter of thanks, a personalized tee-shirt, a dinner with an author, or one of the first products of a new production line. The reward varies according to the amount committed by the backers.
How to participate?
To participate, start by creating an account. Then, browse the projects proposed on the platform, and once the project is chosen, you will arrive on the page of presentation of the project. In this page, the team talks more about the project: why? how? when? with whom? This will allow you to know all the details of the project. If this convinces you, you will find, to the right of the presentation of the project, the possible rewards. Here is an example of a page of presentation of a project (I stay on the tops, since I like it ;) ):
We must now ... wait! First, the fundraising campaign must end: if it succeeds (there is a minimal sum to be reached for the project to be realized), the team will prepare your reward and send it to you. If the fundraising campaign does not succeed, you are (normally) not charged to your account, or you will be reimbursed (before participating, I advise you to see if the project is likely to succeed ;) ). The deadlines are indicated on the project page, so take a look ;) You will receive an e-mail from the team when the campaign is successful.
How to propose your own project?
To do this, click on "Start a project", then choose the category of the project, its name and your place of residence. You will then land on a page with the basic information of the project, which you will have to complete. For example, it will be necessary to add images, define the duration of the campaign, the objective of financing ... You will then go to the "Rewards" tab, where you can define ... The rewards! You will then need to fill in the tabs "Your Story", "About You" and "Your Account". Once done, go to the "Preview" tab to see the project page, as potential backers will see it. If it suits you, you just have to click on "Submit my project"! There is a waiting period before it is online. If you realize a project, let us know in the comments ;)
The different tabs of a project:
Campaign: Here is the presentation of the project, it is the main page of the project.
FAQ: This is the Frequently Asked Questions page on which you can ask questions directly to the project team.
News: The team will provide information on the progress of the project.
Comments: Here you will see the comments of contributors (the "backers"). Only backers can publish on this page, it serves to encourage the contributor and to interact with the other backers.
Community: You can see the users who participated in this fundraising campaign, as well as their rental.
To know:
There is a "reminder" button, which allows you to tell the site that you are potentially interested in this project. You will receive an automatic mail 48 hours before the end of the fundraising campaign, reminding you that you are interested in this project. Very useful if you want to wait to see if the fundraising is successful or not;)
The participations are generally in dollars, but sometimes the price can be expressed in another currency. Fortunately, the majority of teams also express the dollar price;)
After seeing and participating in several projects, the site will propose you similar projects. But from the beginning, if you go to "explore", and you choose "our favorites", you will have access to the projects selected by the kickstarter team, which can sometimes contain some nuggets ;)
Regarding delivery, depending on the country where the project is created, the price for delivery will be higher or lower: remember to take this into account before taking part in the project. A $10 card package will sometimes cost $20!
VERY IMPORTANT:
Before investing, look carefully at the possible destination of the reward! Indeed, some teams do not plan to deliver the rewards anywhere, excepted in their country -> You may find yourself without rewards if you do not watch it
I personally participated in 3 projects, all of which were fully funded. I have participated in the following projects:
RNG Products SQ1 EDC PEN which is a metallic pen, I took 2: one for me and one for my sister.
Tiny Tops 2.0 Micro Spinning Tops which is a very small top, that I would present to you in my next post ;) I participated in order to have 2 tops in rewards, but by luck I had a third (the team made an error in my order, so they decided to compensate by giving me one more!)
Zen Spinning Top which is a top that I presented in one of my old posts (the first on the tops).
Please tell me what you think of Kickstarter, and if you have already participated in a project ;)
