Crowdfunding is an inherently collaborative exercise. It’s remarkably common for the people behind the campaigns to do a write up of the lessons they learned post-closing. These are often called “post-mortems”.
There’s a lot to learn from these posts. The creators writing them are often motivated by a generosity – wanting to ensure others avoid the same mistakes. They are also usually very transparent about the campaign, how they felt, and what they suspect might have worked better.
I’ve pulled together my 10 favourite posts about the crowdfunding experience. I think they’re all worth reading before launching your own project.
1. How Our 500k Kickstarter Campaign Crashed And Burned
The story of the Triggertrap ADA. This is a lesson in how a product-based “pretail” campaign can easily get out of hand.
Read the piece on Medium2. Pay Caesar His Due
Taxes can be a minefield, especially if you are running your crowdfunding project from the USA. The Magazine: The Book raised over $50,000 on Kickstarter, but due to quirks in the tax system, it nearly fell over.
Learn what happened, and how you can avoid it happening to you3. The Art Of Asking
Not quite a case study, but a valuable lesson in one of the most important aspects of crowdfunding anything, from one of the most controversial figures in Kickstarter history, Amanda Palmer.
If you’re interested in learning more about the lessons Palmer learned through her Kickstarter project, she discussed them in more depth with Billboard.
Later on down the track, Palmer launched her Patreon page and has talked in depth about all her crowdfunding experiences with Forbes.
– Amanda Palmer, Forbes
4. Ze Frank: Kickstarter Post-Mortem
In 2012, Ze Frank launched an 11 day Kickstarter project to bring back his 2006 webseries, A Show With Ze Frank. He managed to raise more than 200% of his $50,000 goal.
After the project closed, Ze Frank released a range of enlightening hunches and data based on the project.
Read the post-mortem on Tumblr
5. Moon Hunters Kickstarter Post-Mortem: Stats, Anxieties, and Success
Gaming projects give arguably the best post-mortems. The team behind Moon Hunters released this in-depth case study of their 2014 campaign complete with reflections and data.
Check it out on Gamasutra
6. The Spark Notebook
The Spark Notebook raised nearly 1000% of it’s funding goal from over 4,000 backers in late 2014. Creator Kate Matsudaira has written a series of blogs that break down not only her planning and campaign, but also the execution of her fulfillment.
Initial idea postPlanning postKickstarter post mortemDIY fulfillmentBonus: How to break a big project into small steps
7. Hacking Kickstarter: How To Raise $100,000 in 10 Days
This is the king of “Kickstarter how-to’s”. This post wouldn’t be complete without it. It’s often attributed to Tim Ferriss, however it is actually the story of the Soma Water Filter by Mike Del Ponte.
It breaks down exactly what they did, complete with templates, and is a must-read.
Read the internet’s most popular blog about how to crowdfund
8. Kickstarter Fulfillment With Amazon: Saving Hundreds of Hours, Thousands of Dollars, and a Million Headaches
A tale of two projects. In the first, comic author and Kickstarter creator Tyler James fulfilled all the rewards for his first project, Oxymoron himself. In the second – for The Red Ten – he harnessed Amazon delivery services.
Fulfillment is often the part of the equation people to forget about – but it’s something that absolutely needs considering while planning your rewards.
Find out how Tyler saved time and money by outsourcing to Amazon
9. Lessons for Kickstarter creators from the worst project I ever funded on Kickstarter
This one is written from the perspective of a Kickstarter backer. It focusses on the i+case for iPhone.
I recommend backing projects for a reason. Understanding how it feels to be a backer makes you a better creator.
Discover why this was the worst project Matt Haughey funded
10. My Kickstarter Experience: The Emotional Toll of Crowdfunding
Filmmaker Susan Parker reflected on the emotions that her crowdfunding project, Loving In Limbo, bought to the surface.
If you know of any other must-read post-mortems (or if you’ve written your own), feel free to put the links below in the comments.
