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Is it death by a thousand cuts for Kickstarter, and what can a new platform look like?

Let's flesh out the new crowdfunding X tokenization platform. And Kickstarter - Oh how the mighty has fallen

Author

Derek O'Sullivan
June 13, 2024

Thanks for reading. This is chapter 3.

In this chapter:

  1. Poll results from last week

  2. The slow slow death of Kickstarter

  3. The future?

< 1000 words, < 5 min read

We ran a brief poll last week asking Which of the following do you think could potentially be the best use case for a Utility Token?.

Here are the initial results (please ignore my typo!)

I’m very glad to see the front-runner - as it aligns with what I personally think. I see an UpWork X Rewards based platform as a real gap. Which brings me to our first topic this week.

The slow slow death of Kickstarter

It pains me to say so, but Kickstarter is suffering death by a thousand cuts. Where it once set the bar and standards, it is now a follower, dancing around to the tune of others in search of growth. A platform that used to pride itself on innovation, now lacks any. They have followed BackerKit into post campaign surveys and pledges. They have more recently followed Indiegogo with something similar to InDemand. They have resisted allowing real attribution tracking and made a half-assed effort to get their email structure, well, structured. And while their top figure - i.e. pledges says, at this moment:

…I think this is very clearly paper over a crack. I have made my thoughts known in a DM to their CEO (no response!).

Now, let’s take a look at their search on Google Trends:

We may well say that this is normal. And of course, it is only one platform / metric. But, let’s compare with UpWork and Fiverr for instance, and the picture becomes clearer.

Disclaimer, I realize that this is just search volume on Google. But I’ve always found it a decent barometer. And what is it saying? In my opinion, people have lost interest in rewards based crowdfunding, in its current guise. The KS pattern is followed by Indiegogo as well. Why? This is hard to tell, but I suspect some reasons are:

  1. Lack of real innovation

  2. The current sites are too broad - in the first mover space, people want specific niches - think gaming etc.

  3. Lack of accountability leading to reputational damage

  4. More noise and distractions competing for people’s time and attention now

  5. Novelty has worn off

On point 2 above, an interesting case study is Gamefound, a platform solely focused on crowdfunding of new board games. Let’s see how the trend is with this:

This backs up the ‘riches in the niches’ theory. There are others who have honed in on niches. And to be fair, board games have performed well on Kickstarter for years, staying true to their origins.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Kickstarter and the ‘Crowdfunding a project’ mindset. But it’s broken. So what might just take its place? It’s funny you should ask!

The future?

What about a crowdfunding platform for digitally transferrable projects only. And this also becomes a platform to complete the projects.

Bear with me.

  1. Think of a professional that wants a specific solution. E.g. a specific generative AI tool for their business or job. They come to the platform with that project to ‘crowdfund’.

  2. This gets promoted to a possible group of other interested parties and is funded if there is enough interest to hit a min target.

  3. Now, it has to be developed. So it goes to tender on the same platform, much like it would on Upwork or Fiverr, except that it’s all in one place. Perhaps a bidding or tender process for developers, to bid for the project.

  4. This can be paid for with money, or by platform utility token - both the CF and the project delivery.

  5. But the payment is released in tranches, first to the project owners, and then to the developers, as milestones are hit.

  6. Value of utility tokens can also build, within the ecosystem.

Problems being solved when compared to the status quo

  1. Platform available to raise the funds for projects to be completed. And professionals/businesses can collaborate to get projects completed, rather than one having to pay all. And a specific niche project is delivered to, say, 20 ‘backer’s.

  2. Accountability in that ‘crowd’ process. No rug pulls or non fulfilled projects, or at least a limited downside with tranched payments

  3. Attracting better projects, with higher price tags, and hence better developers who follow the money. And because the work is all controlled in one place, there isn’t a possibility of bringing things off platform, as happens now.

  4. Crowd or community collaborative spirit

Thoughts please, in poll below:

What do you think of this idea?

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Another thought or question before we finish this week. Why does the ‘crypto’ world have to appear so murky to the average person? (Of course crypto is inaccurate anyway - let’s call it the blockchain world.) It doesn’t need to. I see a place where very public and accountable ICO’s happen in the real world. Maybe tranched. Some will still fail, of course. But for the correct reasons. We’re not far from this. But ICO’s that start in one country or jurisdiction, and end up 3 jurisdictions later, with more gray than black or white, are definitely not the way forward…

If you have any other ideas / thoughts / feedback, feel free to drop me a line on [email protected] I’d love to hear your thoughts around this.

Until next week, and chapter 4, Go n-éirí leat!

Derek.