Kickstart the Horse, Then the Cart

Now that I've hung my shingle back out, I have rediscovered the pleasure of giving helpful advice to old friends and new. The most common requests from new friends seem to revolve around Kickstarter. I've learned that hope springs eternal. Also, I've learned that I need to find a formal job ASAP, because I keep talking myself out of money.

Here is the thing I keep saying at no cost to potential clients:

The community is the horsepower that drives your cart. It's not the other way around, and I have no magic bullet that will make the cart pull the horse. (And if you happen to get lucky, and the cart ends up taking off and attracting entire HERDS of horses, you will find you are going very fast but have no way to steer.)

Besides already having the horse, your cart needs to be ready to roll. Kickstarter is not the place for initial funding, unless your wants are few and your needs are fewer. Ideally, you don't go to Kickstarter without a working prototype and your key team in place. This isn't 2011, or even 2014. The customers know quite a bit about risks and potential and realistic goals by now, and they aren't going to line up to support a "product" that is still just a concept -- or a creator who believes he can get an old school MMO to market for three hundred grand.

If you feel lucky, and you already have investors to pitch, you might be able to use Kickstarter to prove that (1) your existing community is excited for the product and (2) is willing to put their money where their Twitter support is. I don't recommend this course unless you're very, very confident in your public support.

But about that community and public support!

What I specialize in, for people with a great idea and a roughed out product but no following, is building you a community that will result in something that looks like the hockey stick graph.

(Image courtesy of Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/sageworks/2016/10/23/navigating-the-make-or-break-years-as-you-create-hockey-stick-growth/)

I need six months, preferably a year. That sounds like a lot, but what you get at the end are customers passionate about your product and evangelists for your brand. People engaged with your content and willing to share it. People who have a relationship with your company, who will be tolerant of bumps in the road and production errors. These are the customers who will go out and tell their friends to support you, and buy in at a higher level than someone who hears about you through a press release or a sponsored ad. And best of all, this customer base will transfer to other products (although parsing out how you make that work is an article by itself).

So, as much as I would love to, I can't create a word of mouth campaign in three weeks that will deliver passionate, engaged, loyal customers.

If you have already hitched your cart in front of the horse, there are some things I can do for you:

• Rewrite your text to make it shorter, more engaging, and more realistic as to risks and challenges
• Overhaul your rewards to make them more compelling
• Incentivize referrals
• Give you a crash course in customer psychology
• Energize your social media in support of your campaign
• Recommend the content you use to illustrate your intentions

I can do all that for anyone at any time, so give me a call. And, if you want a groundswell of grassroots support, call me...early in the process.