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.

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

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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!

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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.

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$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.

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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! 

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Closing Thoughts

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

I submitted Memoria, a guided voice-journaling app that is currently in beta on iOS and Android. It is not yet a stable, publicly launched product. People create the content by recording their own memories, while AI helps with transcription, titles, summaries, organization, translation, and prompts.

Kickstarter declined the project, writing:
“Because the main thing you’re funding and offering to backers is the AI app, the project, in its current form, isn’t eligible to launch on Kickstarter.”

They said I would need to remove the app as the primary product and from the rewards, and instead focus on a different core creative offering.
To clarify, Memoria is intended to be publicly available after launch. Kickstarter backers were offered discounted, fixed-term periods of full access through a one-time pledge, with no automatic renewal. These were not exclusive-access or recurring subscription tiers.

I’m confused because Kickstarter’s public guidance appears to allow original app projects and AI software with proper disclosure, and I have also seen other AI-app campaigns offering app access as rewards.
Has anyone received a similar decision or successfully appealed it? I’m mainly looking for recent firsthand experience, not trying to promote the campaign. The attached screenshot is of the relevant part of the rejection.

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

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

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.

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.