6 Reasons Crowdfunding Campaigns Fail. We’ve featured a lot of successful crowdfunding campaigns on Patents & Prototypes. Our goal is to provide an environment of learning for all who attend the live shows or watch the replays afterwards. If you have watched, you’ll notice that we often ask some very basic and fundamental questions as they relate to the successful fund raising campaign or product development life cycle. However, we never really touch on why crowdfunding campaigns fail. Well the truth is, there is no one universal answer but one can come to some simple conclusions. 1) Market Size You may have a brilliant idea for a product that you know you can execute on, but if there is no market for the product or it is too niche, a crowdfunding campaign is sure to fall flat and help you avoid investing in something not enough people will buy. 2) Crowdfunding site demographics There are a lot of crowdfunding sites popping up and often they service different demographics. 3) Bad Idea 4) Timing 5) Too Expensive.
6 Most Successful Kickstarter Campaigns Slideshow. 5 Kickstarter Champs Share the Secrets of Their Success. This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business. Watching your product come to life through public support after pouring blood, sweat and tears into it is every entrepreneur's biggest dream. Kickstarter has become famous for making that a reality, serving as the birthplace of many now-thriving small businesses. But just because Kickstarter has made it easier for you to raise awareness about a product doesn't mean that your campaign will be successfully funded. In fact, just assuming your product will be a hit with consumers and not taking intiatives before, during and after the project launch is a sure-fire way to fail. We spoke with some online entrepreneurs who found success on Kickstarter about what small businesses need to know before launching a campaign — and what they wish they would've known before launching their own.
Meet the Entrepreneurs — Jason Rohrer. 3 keys to successful crowdfunding campaigns. (Flickr photo via JMRosenfeld) There’s change in the air. Entrepreneurs I talk to can smell it. Especially those that are focused on consumer products. The smell of money. Kickstarter. Money just waiting to be scooped up. Thanks to recent high-profile successes like the Pebble: E-Paper Watch which broke the $10 million barrier for funding (so successful it had to be closed to new backers to preserve fulfillment for those who had already pledged) to Amanda Palmer’s campaign that just broke the $1 million barrier for a music project, and Double Fine Adventure which raised $3.3 million, crowdfunding has exploded in interest amongst businesses as an alternative to more traditional means of funding a new venture. And in many ways Seattle game companies have been leading the way with a number of high profile campaigns.
No less than five Kickstarter campaigns with roots in the Seattle gaming community have netted almost $3.5 million in funding in the last few months. Here are a three: 1. 2. 3. HOW TO: Create a Successful Kickstarter Campaign. Bosavi is a blindingly bright, lightweight, ultra-compact headlamp designed by Dan Freschl.
Freschl has years of experience developing batteries for pacemakers, defibrillators and electric vehicles, and he drew on this to make a pretty awesome headlamp. His project is currently on Kickstarter and he has shared some words of wisdom for other people who are interested in launching their projects using crowd-sourcing. I am the creator of Bosavi. I wrote the following pearls of wisdom with Product Design projects in mind, because that is where my expertise lays, but much of the information is relevant across all Kickstarter categories.
Be passionate First and foremost, you must create something you have a true passion for. Don’t launch too early Give yourself twice as long as you think you’ll need to create your product before launching. Create good-looking prototypes You will need some really good-looking prototypes to show in the video and promotional images. Pick a stylish cover image. 9 Essential Steps for a Killer Kickstarter Campaign.