Blog - A Kickstarter's Guide

StreetXSW: My biggest entrepreneurial failure…

By Nelson/Roberto On February 1, 2013 · 2 Comments · In Understanding Kickstarter

Why your project won’t go “viral,” a look at how ideas spread online.

By Nelson/Roberto On October 4, 2012 · Add Comment · In Understanding Kickstarter

The success of a Kickstarter campaign relies on the project being shared. Everything about the site from the share buttons to the all or nothing deadline are working hard to get the project to spread. But how does that process happen? Why do some projects get spread far and wide and other do not? Obviously there are many factors to a project’s success. Quality of the project, video, and pitch are all important. However, a great project that isn’t shared doesn’t get funded.

Over the years I’ve been really interested in how ideas spread. I wanted to understand the process because I realized that no matter how great my idea was, if I couldn’t spread it, it would go no where. One of the things that fascinates me about Kickstarter is that it turbo charges the process. When done right it can give your project [...]

The misperception of crowd-sourced funding and the reality of Kickstarter.

By Nelson/Roberto On September 20, 2012 · 1 Comment · In Understanding Kickstarter

StreetXSW: Capturing the moments you missed

Studying failure: What I learned from a Kickstarter project that failed… badly

By Nelson/Roberto On August 16, 2012 · 18 Comments · In Understanding Kickstarter

According to Kickstarter only 40% of projects are successful. That doesn’t really surprise me. Creating a project that really resonates with people is actually very difficult, as I learned the hard way.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have run two successful Kickstarter campaigns. But this post isn’t about those projects. This post is about what I learned from one of my most recent and biggest failures. My hope is that you can learn from my experiences and avoid the painful mistakes that I made. Failing isn’t fun, neither is reliving that failure, but I think it’s important to talk about it so we can learn from our mistakes and figure out what works.

My third project, StreetXSW

Back in February I launched my third Kickstarter campaign called StreetXSW: Capturing the moments you missed for a photo book I wanted [...]

C-Loop Camera Mount: How to use blogs to build momentum for your campaign.

By Nelson/Roberto On March 28, 2013 · Add Comment · In Interviews

Glif an iPhone Tripod Mount: The design project that started a revolution.

By Nelson/Roberto On March 26, 2013 · Add Comment · In Interviews

Capture Camera Clip System: The perfect mix of product and passion.

By Nelson/Roberto On March 21, 2013 · Add Comment · In Interviews

Historically Brewed Compilation Book: The prefect project for first time Kickstarters

By Nelson/Roberto On March 19, 2013 · Add Comment · In Interviews

How to guarantee the success of a Kickstarter project…

By Nelson/Roberto On March 12, 2013 · 1 Comment · In Understanding Kickstarter

24 Hours At The South Street Diner with Melissa Dowler

By Nelson/Roberto On November 9, 2012 · Add Comment · In Interviews

Raising 2.2M for charity with AJ Leon

By Nelson/Roberto On October 31, 2012 · Add Comment · In Interviews

A Kickstarter’s Guide to Kickstarter: Conclusion

By Nelson/Roberto On October 31, 2012 · Add Comment · In Understanding Kickstarter

You’ve read this guide, you’ve researched other projects, you’ve found an audience, and you’ve created a compelling pitch, but your project didn’t make it. You did everything you could to drum up support, but it still wasn’t enough. That’s okay. Maybe your idea wasn’t ready. Maybe you didn’t explain yourself clearly enough. You aren’t necessarily going to get it right the first time. Before I came to Kickstarter I launched many other projects, most of which failed. It was learning from those failures that ultimately helped me be successful.

One of the best aspects about Kickstarter is that you risk very little when launching a project. So even if it fails, it’s not really that bad. You will probably be disappointed, but at least you didn’t spend a lot of time and money creating something, only to find it’s not what people want. You will have learned about yourself and [...]

A Kickstarter’s Guide to Kickstarter: Introduction

By Nelson/Roberto On October 31, 2012 · 18 Comments · In Understanding Kickstarter