The Kickstarter - Postmortem

It’s been a little over a week (okay, maybe two) since the end of the Kickstarter campaign for Dad’s Giant Family Organizing, Household Planning, and Event Scheduling Calendar. So here we go with the postmortem analysis of What Happened.

 Not the same thing. But still a pretty fun book.

Buy it and read it because I want Magary to keep me entertained with his writing.

Before that, tho, there are deep thanks to everyone who pledged to the campaign. You are awesome for putting your money where my mouth is. I would also like to appreciate all the folks who campaigned for the campaign. From hitting the share button to passing the link along to interested friends, you all helped tremendously. And somewhat unexpectedly. More on that in a second.

That said, I have a few take-aways from this campaign that I hope helps others in the future. Any sort of situation that requires raising money, from selling scout cookies to first round venture financing, is a difficult and bracing experience. This Kickstarter was quite all of these things for me. So:

Set your expectations for promotion, then go beyond that. My comfort level for shilling to friends and family is very close to zero. I was never comfortable selling oranges for Boy Scouts, and the feeling continues with asking folks to buy into my idea.

However, your family and friends love you. All you have to do is ask, and they will run with a lot of support. They’ll probably promote you a whole lot further than you expect, but they’ll also ask questions that you didn’t think about or generally give you a very needed pat on the butt at exactly the right time.

I truly didn't expect so many friends and family to support and share my idea. It didn't manifest until I published the Kickstarter page and asked for their support. So the lesson is to ask. And if you're already comfortable asking them, find someone else to ask. At least do it once more than you’d prefer. 

Tune out the noise. The second you put a #kickstarter on a tweet, you’re going to have a ton of new friends. 

Now, if you have no problem with talking the project up to your family, then you'll have a good idea on how you're going to deal with the onslaught of "crowdfunding partners" soliciting you. In this first experience, I chose against paying to advertise. I wanted to see what kind of weight the idea itself carried. I'm sure there would have been some benefit to using their services. But for future campaigns, realize it's coming and prepare for it.

That goes directly to the third thing. The Kickstarter campaign represents the beginning, middle, and end of a project, all at once. 

Okay, in order. Hitting the START button on a project is a completely new beginning. It’s a new phase of development, ending any clandestine work that you’ve been doing and begging public input on things you’ve had running through your head. It’s also where the voice in your head turns from a lonely beacon to a chorus of others sharing their opinion. This project is no longer just yours. 

It’s simultaneously the hump middle. You've put in a ton of work, and now another round of something completely different is forming. Know that the Kickstarter campaign is not about coasting to the finish. It's a phase that is low on design, but heavy on networking. Same routine of work that you've had to design your product, but using different muscles as you're trying to impress people rather than the paper or yourself.

And at the same time, it's the end. Sure, there is the visible end, you're not designing any more. But you've also reached this other terminus. You may not know it, but you have been pulling together a network of people and groups for your entire life. You've been chatting and blogging and discussing and recording all these things that people have been (usually silently) paying attention to. USE IT. The more successful campaigns do. Just like in that first thing up at the top, where you have to go outside your boundaries and ask, you've been bringing together the people to ask for a long time. Gather it up and use it.

I can see now that I did not lay this part of the groundwork as well as I could have. There is a smattering of my commentary around, with no sound reason or followers. Many of the more successful Kickstarters have been pulled from a pool of social media. If you're thinking about a campaign in the future, start now to describe how you're building it. Your future patrons are listening.

But that is not reason to throw everything away. You haven't been blogging or posting or chatting or recording? Who cares. That’s really the important final take-away. Don’t let this or any bit of information dissuade you from putting an idea out there. The calendar didn’t get funded. This year. It's a fine idea and I'm working on rehashing it to something better in the future. But people responded really well and I feel quite good about doing it. 

So will you. Hit that start button. Good luck.