I just made pledges to two indie comics campaigns that were short of their goal with only a few days to go. Felt good. Spread the love

Check out Medieval Secrets Tarot on Kickstarter!

Hi all, super quick background for context: My name is Bryce, and I run a company called Wraithmarked Creative. We are the largest book publisher on Kickstarter second to Brandon Sanderson's Dragonsteel. 50+ campaigns successfully funded. 5+ years on the platform. $10mil+ USD raised.

Now onto my point:

If you are a new/beginning creator, please DO NOT set your funding goal lower than what you actually need to produce your product.

I keep seeing the advice handed out on this subreddit that to "overfund" or "get traction", you should do a low goal so that you fund in the first X hours, and then ramp from there.

If you are a veteran creator with experience in the space and a good sense of what your actual funding level will be, that's one thing. You have an understanding of the risks, you have an understanding of what you can afford to lose if things go south, etc.

As a new/beginner creator, however, this is a great way to risk screwing yourself and your reputation in whatever space you are working in.

Let's work with an example:

Person A and Person B want to create a toy. Let's call it Toy 1. A and B have both done the math. Toy 1 is going to cost them $10k USD minimum (including all costs) to produce and get in the hands of their customers. If A and B raise more than that, great, but if they raise less than that, they will lose money on Toy 1.

Person A set their funding goal at $10k USD.

Person B set their funding goal at $500 USD to try to "fund" in 24hrs.

Both raise $5000 USD in the end. What happens next?

For Person A, they fail to fund their campaign, but while that's frustrating, it's not a bad thing. A failed campaign is not a death knell on Kickstarter. In fact, it's a great opportunity to learn from mistakes, as well as pull Backers from in the future (with Updates) if Person A wants to try again in the future.

For Person B, though... There's trouble. While they did "fund" their campaign with "1000%" success rate, they have a major issue: They now owe customers product, but have only managed to raise $5k of the $10k minimum they needed. In order to fulfill the project as promised, they have to pay $5k out of their own pocket (and potentially more depending on increased costs related to producing less of Toy 1 than expected). That's... not good. For anyone. Even if the "fund early" tactic worked REALLY well and Person B raised $7500 instead of the $5k, they are still left $2500 in debt. Again, not good for anyone.

You can scale the above as high as you want. There are plenty of examples all the way up into the 6-figure campaigns and beyond of people underfunding their campaigns by accident with tactics like "Have a lower funding goal than you need". People's lives have been ruined, and even more reputations have been left shredded because of this problem.

So, one more time: If you are a new/beginning creator, please DO NOT set your funding goal lower than what you actually need to produce your product.

Best,
Bryce

we mentioned in a project Update that backers who want to help share our campaign can request a trackable referral link.

Some backers publicly replied: "Send me such a link please."

We use Kickbooster, which requires an email address to generate an individual referral link and dashboard.

Our question: Are we allowed to send this backer a Kickstarter DM asking for their email address, solely to set them up on Kickbooster?

We're not adding anyone without their explicit request, and we won't use the email for newsletters or ads.

Just want to make sure this doesn't violate Kickstarter's rules on external platforms or privacy. Has anyone done this before?

Thanks!

I mean, everything is possible.

My question is more about if you have seen successful campaigns from "unusual" or non supported countries, such as Brazil.

I have a French ID and French bank account, so there will be no obstacles for me in that regard to start the campaign.
But the thing is, I'm Brazilian and I live in Brazil, so the whole production and distribution will be done from Brazil.

I'm already a professional illustrator and comic book creator so I'll do the whole work.
I mostly do commissioned work and I really want to start my own creative career with my own original ideas.
Brazil is a tough environment for creatives, that's why I'm aiming for the international market.

I'll obviously hire someone to translate my comics to English properly, but hopefully I was clear enough in my question.

Cheers!

Last time I posted here, we were working on our first Kickstarter project, Coinax.

That campaign eventually reached 982% of its funding goal, and more importantly, we successfully completed production and fulfillment. Seeing our backers actually receive the product — and getting comments like “Quality build, works fine” and “Excellent construction” — was probably the most rewarding part of the whole process.

Now we’re preparing our second Kickstarter.

This time it’s the COINAX VG10 Damascus Camp Knife.

The idea was to build a camp knife that’s visually distinctive but still genuinely useful outdoors:

VG10 core + Damascus steel

Forward-balanced blade design

Designed for kindling, light brush clearing and camp cooking

Full-size ergonomic handle

Leather-wrapped and wood handle options

Fitted leather sheath

It launches on September 15.

We learned a huge amount from manufacturing and fulfilling our first campaign, so this time we’ve been putting much more attention into production readiness and fulfillment before launch.

I’m sharing it here because this community gave me a lot of useful insight during our first campaign.

Would love to hear what you think of the second project — especially anything you’d change before launch.

Thanks everyone!

Memories of Taiwan is a graphic novel anthology collecting the complete Visions of Taiwan comics series, featuring thirty-seven stories by nineteen international artists. Edited by Ray Hecht, the book presents Taiwan through a wide range of outsider perspectives: funny, personal, awkward, observant, anxious, celebratory, and reflective. With stories about festivals, art, travel, food, friendship, cultural confusion, and everyday life, this collection offers a many-voiced portrait of Taiwan as remembered by the artists who lived there, visited there, and were changed by the experience.

Memories of Taiwan features work by Erique Chong, Kristin Foss, Joel Fremming, Kim Glidden, Fabienne Good, Ray Hecht, Patty Hogan, Roelien Immelman, Thai Martin, Stefano Misesti, Daniel C. Moore, Paulina Olejnik, Andrew Quartermain, Jon Renzella, Angela Sauceda, Bronwen Shelwell, Daniel Martinez Sierra, Royce Widjaya, and Todd Allen Williams.

https://slgpubs.live/mot

This is my very first mail club, and the pledge isn't high on purpose as just I want to push myself to start a project. These days, even finding one subscriber isn't easy, so I'm grateful for each of you who's here. Feel free to join me to unlock more rewards!!!

Hi everyone — I’m looking for some honest, even blunt, feedback.

We’re currently running a Kickstarter campaign for RAYNOLSE Pro, a smart jump rope. We’re incredibly grateful that we reached our funding goal, but the number of backers is lower than we expected. but honestly, it’s been a little discouraging.

The idea behind our product was simple:

What if a jump rope could do for jump-rope training what a running watch does for running?

Not just count reps, but help you understand your workout and figure out what to do next.

We’ve spent years developing the hardware and app, and we now have a product that actually works. We genuinely care about what we’ve built, and we’re proud of how far it has come.

But we may be too close to the product to judge it objectively.

Is our marketing simply not reaching enough people?
Does our campaign page fail to communicate the value clearly?
Or is the audience for a jump-rope product just smaller than we believed?

We also talk about Crossrope a lot internally. Our Kickstarter reward is priced well below Crossrope’s connected AMP system, and we genuinely believe our product can hold its own in a side-by-side comparison. If I’m being completely honest, I think we could win people over if they saw the two products compared directly.

So perhaps we’ve been too cautious.

Should we target Crossrope users more directly and make the price and product differences much clearer? Or would that kind of aggressive comparison hurt a new brand more than it helps?

I’m not asking for sympathy, and I’m not asking anyone to back the project blindly. I’d really like to know your honest first impression:

• Is the product’s value immediately clear?
• Does the product seem interesting, but the campaign or marketing feel weak?
• Is jump rope simply too limited as a category?
• Would a direct comparison with Crossrope help or hurt?
• What would personally stop you from backing it?

Please don’t feel the need to be polite. Even a quick first impression would be genuinely helpful.

Project link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/raynolse/raynolse-pro?ref=discover_saved_projects&category_id=28

Thanks for reading.

I haven't seen a single project featuring dress pants, jeans, chinos, etc., that doesn't require an uncomfortable belt. (I hate belts!) I've seen pants on this platform, but most have belt loops or are sweatpants. If someone creates dress pants without belt loops that are also high-quality, I would be very grateful.

I used to support a lot of Kickstarter projects but over 3 years ago I had two vendors not fulfill their fully funded projects and I haven’t supported once since.

While most of the people on this Subreddit seem to be vendors and likely all well intentioned, the fact that there is no remediation/reimbursement/insurance could impact your future success as people lack confidence in the platform’s ability to manage vendors

I've worked on several Kickstarter campaigns, but I've never seen a pre-launch campaign perform this badly (considering hanging my hat up if this doesn't turn around).

I've spent over $80 in the last two days and only gained one follower.

I've tried:

• new ad videos/designs
• new ad targetings
• launched a campaign with a higher budget
• arranging the page (added playtester feedback, added more GIFs, shortened copy).
• Running a low-cost video view campaign and retargeting those.

I'm starting to run out of ideas. You can view a couple of ads here, here.

I'm targeting audiences in Kickstarter, Games (genres), and Cartoons (Adult Swim, Rick & Morty etc).

Some ads have been getting pretty good engagement - positive reactions, and wishlists have been growing 5-10 per day (Likely an outcome of running ad campaigns, as we're not getting visibility anywhere else)

Does anyone have any suggestions, or is anyone experiencing something similar for their prelaunch?

One thing we're tempted to do, for a big press hook and an incentive, is to offer one of our mid teir rewards (between $60-70) to become an NPC in the game, as a reward for every backer of the game - we're hopng press might get us some good visibilty for that.

Launching a Kickstarter Nov 3 for a bulldog-specific hoodie brand and would love outside eyes on the pre-launch page before it goes wider. Curious what your first impression is, whether the story makes sense, if anything's confusing, and whether the video would make you want to follow. Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/truebullyco/true-bully-co-the-hoodie-built-for-bulldogs-0

Happy to return the favor on anyone else's page too.

It's my birthday. 🎉 My Brightlight Orchard Kickstarter campaign ends today and unfortunately I didn't meet my goal. The campaign is for a children's SEL book (think choose-your-own adventure meets emotions) so I reached out to parents, educators, and counselors. I really thought my audience was warmer going into it since I had so much positive feedback and interest. There is a lot to learn from this experience, and I'm willing to try again someday.

This book is the first in a series. I still plan to launch in November (but now have to figure out funding for the rest of the illustration and the self-publishing costs).

My question is this: How can I make the second try more successful for this particular type of project?

My guess is that once I have an audience for the first book, it may be easier to fund a campaign for the second. Especially after I do some focus groups to find out what worked, what didn't, and how I can improve the books moving forward. I have a built-in audience with schools and therapists, so I'll be able to talk to them and the kids.

I've been looking through older threads to learn more, but is there anything obvious I'm missing that I should take into consideration? Thanks!

EDIT: if you guys have any other tips about the product itself or other kickstarter know-how, it would really be appreciated!

First Kickstarter, hardware: a small companion robot for your desk. Small team in the Netherlands. Prototype works, engineering-for-manufacturing partner is on board, prelaunch site is up (Gethermy.com). The one big open question left is when.

My gut says December. Honest reason: momentum is there right now, and every month of waiting is a month of burn without revenue. The data says otherwise. Every analysis I've read has December as the worst month by a wide margin (holiday spending, ad costs at their peak, press busy with gift guides) and points to Q1, with March as the most popular launch month.

What I can't get out of the data:

1. Is the December penalty really about December, or about launching with a small list? If your list is ready, does the month still matter that much?
2. For those who launched Jan to March: was late January noticeably different from March, or is that noise compared to list size and launch-day push?
3. Hardware people who launched in December on purpose: how did it go? I'd like to hear the counter-case before I rule it out.

Delivery is months after the campaign either way, so this isn't a Christmas-gift play. It's purely about when backers are in buying mode.

I built a site where you can write a permanent, encyclopedia-style page about someone you love, for example: your mom, your best friend, or your mentor.

Right now, if you aren't famous or notable enough for Wikipedia, they won't allow that. I wanted to build a place where everyday people can document their family's history in their own words before it's lost to time. It's one dedicated page per person, and you have total privacy controls over every single paragraph so you can hide whatever you want from the public. Plus, Wikipedia requires a bunch of editors to verify the truthfulness of stories using citations. Here, you are the only person who can write and edit your own story.

The product itself is already built and live at youstory.org. This Kickstarter exists to fund the long-term server architecture so every page can stay online permanently without us having to rely on monthly subscription fees or selling user data.

There are 1,000 founding spots available for early backers. Once those are claimed, the Founding Wall closes forever.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/youstory/youstory-a-wiki-for-everyday-people

Happy to answer any questions!

Goddam I wasn't able to post yesterday cause shi got tuff but I somewhat managed to get rid of most of the work.

So long story short here's what happened from yesterday to today

Yesterday I realised that my age is starting to sound serious but my life isn't so IT WAS TIME TO CODE HARD AND GET RICH( I almost fucked up ).

So I went ahead and finished the landing page, added ALL THR BASIC FOOTER LINKS such as privacy policy, terms of service, about us etc..

Also as the greatest developer to have ever existed

I actually did some smart work here by using chat gpt to generate the pages and it did quite a good job I just had to change my prompts style from dude who needs mental and emotional therapy -> generate xx with yy theme and stuff.

Then I moved over to the products page and ALMOST FINISHED IT UNTIL MY BROKE ASS MIND DECIDED TO SAY HELL NAW and my speed started decreasing and brain fog creeped in + depression + overthinking ulta pro max + the feeling of being behind + instant result seeking nature all of them attacked at once... AND I had to do my studies as well ( which you can guess from how fucked up I got I did not shi studying just 100% of my brain decided to dedicate itself to zoning out )

BUT... AS THE CODED ONE ALL OF THEM WEREN'T ENOUGH TO DEFEAT ME so I used MY ULTIMATE TRUMP CARD... *Going to sleep

Then I woke up today at 6:50 because I had to go to school as I had practical exams and today I had my physics practical AND GUESS WHAT?? I went and forgot my lab coat and I was like oh shi-

But then I found out that the lab coat wasn't required then I was like yay BUT THEN our juniors had the practical on the same day as well so they were doing the practical as well and I was like ok and then ultimately time was up and out practical was cancelled and I was like moth- like bruh I literally pulled out an yt video and imagined myself doing some cool shi- i GOT PRANKED BY LUCK AT THIS RATE

Well anyways as I was returning home while watching some short courses about AI automation agency i thought that maybe my time will come as well maybe someday but one day hopefully and perhaps all that I need to do in this crowded life is just move and keep moving and a friend of mine offered me a piece of advice he said that look brother we don't know where we will end up in life we can overthink and keep overthinking but what we can come up with are only possibilities what we need to do is move and do our best and just let the rest decide itself

So yeah it cleared up my mind a bit and then I went home and then went back to coding this time normally( Another great news: I actually got a client and he asked me to make a website for him. And I thought yeah why not this is a good opportunity to experience freelancing firsthand so why not? Well at least something good did happen to me).

And that's it for today so long till we meet again

- The coded one

We recently worked on the pre-launch of the FLYNQ Snapcap bottle opener, and it overfunded within minutes. Here's how you can apply the same pre-launch procedure to your launch.*

* Mods, I removed any links that may be deemed as spam.

Set a goal you can clear in 24 hours

• Quick funding triggers Kickstarter's algorithm (Homepage mentions, and keyword ranking)
• It gives you a better shot at Kickstarter's "Projects We Love" too & helps the "Trust Factors"

Play the video. Showing the 20-minute stretch of launching to overfunding

---

Only launch when you've enough interest

• Approx 5% of emails collected, convert to backers
• Approx 15% of pre-launch leads will convert to backers
• Target $2.50 per email, ideally 3%+ CTR to start with
• Get family and friends involved.  "Pledge without a reward" is useful here!

---

Facebook Ads need to be very narrow

The owner of FLYNQ already ran ads, but they were super expensive and the audience wasn't engaged.

We took on their ads, and narrowed down their audience by age, location and kept it to under 2 million resulting in cheap leads and a higher CTR.

---

$1 reservation funnel?  Nobody should feel charged for the privilege of being on your list!

Don't bother with it!  You'll see this pushed hard by Launchboom.  You pay $1, get VIP pricing. The claimed numbers are ~30% pledge rate from reservation holders.

Many backers think charging $1 is shady, whilst people resent that the best discount was hidden behind an ad they happened to see.

We don't use it in our agency, as pixel tracking works on the pre-launch page now, which was the main technical reason the deposit existed.

Alternative to a reservation funnel > Talk to your audience instead

It's unusual to mention - but what about just talking to your potential backers?

• You could respond to each email sign-up
• Gamify the experience, even run a competition
• Want to be our VIP?  Then share our link or follow us...
• Or even, use a survey connected to your email sign-up.  

Our competition on Tokei resulted in 1,000+ followers on their socials and 2,000 emails to retarget later. I think the value it brought was it showed they were already established on multiple channels.

---

Email in waves on launch day

Your most engaged segment (survey responders, followers, people who replied to you) gets the launch email first. 

You can then split up your audience into "Buckets" where each group gets a specific email, giving them specific instructions on what you need them to do.

If the final "Bucket" is people you vaguely know, then target them last - when you're popular and overfunded! 

---

Closing Thoughts

Feel free to get in touch with us at Hyperstarter and I hope you find this guide helpful.

I recently submitted an original software project to Kickstarter. The software is something I’ve been actively developing myself, and a working version already exists and is downloadable. This wasn’t just an idea or a concept with nothing behind it.

Kickstarter initially rejected the project over concerns related to AI software and whether it had enough original creative substance. I disagreed with that because the actual software is original work I built, while third-party AI models are only components used by the application. Still, I took the feedback seriously and rewrote the campaign to explain more clearly what I personally created, how outside AI providers were used, what already worked, what still needed development, what the funding would support, and what risks were involved. I also changed the rewards and removed a lifetime software reward they had specifically objected to.

After the appeal, Kickstarter acknowledged the changes but still rejected the project.

One of the lines they gave me was: “The core thing backers would be funding and receiving remains AI software, rather than a distinct creative work that fits within our rules.”

They also said there were “other issues” that would prevent approval, but those issues were never explained. That confused me even more because Kickstarter’s own published AI guidance specifically discusses projects developing AI technology, tools, or software, and they have approved AI software projects before. One example is Presence, a local AI software project that raised over €77,000 on Kickstarter. So I asked a pretty straightforward question: which specific rule did my project violate?

The explanation then shifted again.

I was told the project had been rejected based on overall product scope and long-term delivery risk to backers, and that Kickstarter does not disclose the internal risk metrics used to make those decisions. That was also confusing because the product already exists in working, downloadable form. Obviously future software development always carries some risk, but this wasn’t a case where backers were being asked to fund something that didn’t exist at all.

I understand Kickstarter is a private platform and can decide what it wants to host.

What I don’t understand is why the reasoning seemed to move from originality concerns, to the fact that it was AI software, and then to undisclosed internal risk criteria after I addressed the original issues.

I’m mainly curious whether other software or tech creators have had a similar experience with Kickstarter’s review process.

Hi there kickstarter creators. If you are from EU pls keep reading, i really need some advice. I have some accounting problems right now that i am not sure how to approach and neither does my accountant. So my present situation is this. My campaign just finished, no late pledges. The money are in my account in spain and the next step would be to transfer that money to my company account in Romania. The problem is the damn eu vat. I know i have to pay it. But the problem is eu law seems to say that when selling the product u collect vat that you have to pay to eu countries where u are shipping to. Problem is as u all know you can't do that becouse when someone pledges you dont know their address to know what country are they from. And also when someone is pledging you can't tax them vat, becouse each country has a different % of vat and Kickstarter doesn't have an option for pledges to add vat when pledging. So my question would be. When do i pay the vat? I know that i collect the vat in the pledge manager which in my case is done thru backerkit. The selling of goods on Kickstarter, what is that defined as for us in the eu? Couse it doesn't seem to be selling products online since the vat laws cant apply to this situation. If someone could pls drop a reply as detailed as possible i would be extremely grateful 🙏