Welcome to crowdfunding Saturday. It's time to talk about the elephant in the crowdfunding room. Crowdfunding isn't sexy anymore. ICOs are the new hotness, and the volume of money being raised on Kickstarter is down. So, is it doomed?
Let's start with this: Right now, ICOs are in the kind of bubble state crowdfunding never reached, even in the most frenzied days. The sheer volume of money being raised there is astounding, and it seems like everyone thinks they're getting a Lambo.
For the people raising those millions, the Lambos appear inevitable right now. But I definitely see a massive fall in the ICO space in 2018. I'm not saying ICOs are doomed, yeah? People remember pets.com as the harbinger of the dotcom crash, but selling pet food online is big business now.
Crowdfunding has weathered its own boom quite well. It's just that most of the money, right now, isn't on kickstarter. Because financial anxiety is very real, most of the money in crowdfunding right now is on GoFundMe, which people in the US seem to be using as an ancillary healthcare system because theirs is so deeply fucked up (and has been since forever).
Kickstarter is finding new ways to go. One of the big ones is recurring and ongoing projects. When they founded, it was all about the new. But after several companies that were founded on KS came back for new iterations of their products, KS decided to change that mindset. They now have a department for returning projects, realizing they need to be handled differently. Israeli counterpart Headstart would be well served to adopt that mindset. When I launched my own second iteration project, it was frustrating seeing how geared they are to the new and inexperienced.
Kickstarted also bought Drip, and now have their own version of Patreon for ongoing projects. I'll write about Patreon and Drip (and also about how Steemit is in direct competition with them) in a future post.
But for now, my main point is this: crowdfunding is still very much a viable thing. And Kickstarter is a smart, forward thinking company. I am absolutely certain they are considering ways to implement cryptocurrencies and the blockchain into their system.
Past Posts about Crowdfunding:
Crowdfunding rules
Crowdfunding campaigns: Keeping momentum
Crowdfunding Campaigns: The Emotional Toll
Crowdfunding: How Neil Gaiman Saved My Campaign
Crowdfunding: What do you want to know?
Crowdfunding: Steemit As A Crowdfunding Platform
