5.10.2011 - Notes From A Kickstarter Project
A few days into the Arcade project launching on Kickstarter I was going over how many donations we needed to hit everyday if we were going to pass our goal. I was actually obsessed. I was constantly checking to see if we had any new backers and when we did I felt a jolt of satisfaction and when we didn’t I felt a sense of failure. This was no way to spend the next month.
After talking to my dad about our daily goals and these mathemetical projections I was coming up with, he interjected a piece of advice that has changed my approach to Kickstarter: Concentrate on what you can control. It sounds obvious, but in the midst of a Kickstarter project that had to raise $20,000 in a short period of time it was revelatory and resulted in a subtle, yet vital change in attitude.
I realized that Irene and I have no control over how much and how many people decide to back our project. There is no sense in judging our success solely by the percentage of our project that is funded, rather we should judge judge it on a number of factors that are directly related to our day-to-day efforts. That way at the end of the day I knew we had done all we could do. Even if we didn’t see a large increase in backers we knew that we put in a good days work and that eventually all the effort will pay off.
What we have been concentrating on is getting the word about our movie and it’s Kickstarter project by talking with people. Emailing, tweeting, posting on Facebook, talking to the lady next to me in line at the movies. If someone writes me I try to write them back immediately. We have been spreading the word about our project in every way we can. It is really beginning to show positive results. Passion is contagious and if you show how strongly you feel about your project others will feel it and want to help. And when they do offer help, it’s an amazing feeling, much better than neurotically checking my email looking for that new backer.
-Kurt
p.s. Thanks Korey, for the design help! Anyone need a graphics design edge, please look at http://www.bureaunyc.com/ and tell them Kurt sent ya ;-)
I love the Chinatown Fair token. I am working with Shawn and Ryan at Homage on a t-shirt inspired by the token artwork that will be available to those that donate to the Kickstarter project. We are launching the project next week! Yesterday I heard from Jamin at Kill Screen magazine that they would like to put the project on their Kickstarter Curated page, placing the Arcade documentary alongside amazing projects curated by Kill Screen such as the Minecraft documentary, the video game museum MADE, and the Nature of Code Book Project. What an honor!
Kill Screen magazine is so cool. Seriously. It is a beautiful magazine with really well written articles and beautiful art.
