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The Almighty Buck

New 'Creative Fund' Promises To Back Every Project on Kickstarter (venturebeat.com) 43

Posted by EditorDavid from the passing-the-virtual-hat dept.
All Kickstarter campaigns are getting a show of support, according to a new web site. "Every day, The Creative Fund backs all newly launched projects based on our current patronage." It's the newest offering from BackerKit, which also makes a data management platform for crowdfunding campaigns, and so far they've pledged $1 to 10,594 different Kickstarter projects.

An anonymous reader quotes VentureBeat: One dollar doesn't seem like a lot, but it's just a start. BackerKit cofounder Rosanna Yau says that this is more of a proof of concept, to see if their community is willing to rally around the idea. She and cofounder Maxwell Salzberg have set up a Patreon, a monthly subscription service that enables people to support creators directly. All the donations they receive from that platform will be distributed among Kickstarter projects, and the goal is to make sure all projects have at least one pledge....

Yau says that the company is open to contributing more than a $1 in the future. Its Patreon guidelines say that for each $2,000 milestone reached, the fund will pledge $1 more to all Kickstarter projects. If something doesn't get funded, the fund's pledges will get recycled and re-donated to new projects.
A Medium post says the new fund "supports the entrepreneurial spirit of all independent creators, one dollar at a time....

"Everyone deserves some inspiration and a virtual high-five."
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New 'Creative Fund' Promises To Back Every Project on Kickstarter More

New 'Creative Fund' Promises To Back Every Project on Kickstarter

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  • Very optimistic (Score:5, Insightful)

    by vadim_t ( 324782 ) on Saturday July 14, 2018 @10:42AM (#56947176) Homepage

    The problem with that is that kickstarter is full of half-baked ideas and people trying to sell some random thing they dug up on Alibaba as their own creation.

    Personally, what I would want to see instead of a list of very well curated kickstarter projects. A list somebody went through and determined that:

    1. The project is actually physically possible.
    2. The project is actually doable with the skills and tools the maker has.
    3. The project is actually novel, and not simply reselling an existing one.
    4. The project as described makes sense to experts in the associated discipline and seems workable
    5. The maker actually understands what they're getting themselves into and have the knowledge and resources to produce it.
    6. (optionally) The product actually has some sort of practical use to it.

    Such a list would go a long way highlighting the people with a good idea that can actually be realize, and bring more money to those who are truly deserving.

    • Definitely a half baked idea worthy of kickstarter.

      Speaking of which, "half baked" would actually be a good name for kickstarter.

    • Re: Very optimistic (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Itâ(TM)s worse than that. kickstarter is full of fraudsters and people trying to sell snake oil. And that simply drowns out the few real people with great ideas.

      • It be sad thing is there's actually a lot more than a few good ideas on there. Most of them however are wallowing in obscure fail while the charlatans and their "crowd funding consultants" burn the city to the grownd

    • Even in a very limited domain what you're asking is almost impossible since the curators not only need to understand what is being proposed and hot it would position itself in the market, but also have a very intimate knowledge of the people who are proposing it. You're essentially asking for an oracle and probably one that can't be deceived by hucksters using Kickstarter to enrich themselves.

      However, even If what you're suggesting were actually possible, no one would give that away for free on the inter

      • Re:Very optimistic (Score:4)

        by vadim_t ( 324782 ) on Saturday July 14, 2018 @12:02PM (#56947482) Homepage

        I'm not asking for an oracle, but for a good filter.

        You don't need a team full of PhDs to figure out that Air Umbrella [kickstarter.com] was an unworkable and terribly impractical idea, or that Solar Roadways was a stupid idea because it compromised both the function of a solar panel and a road to make a whole that was far worse and more expensive than simply building both of those things next to each other.

        Lots of people in fact pointed that out. A site staffed by a bunch of volunteers with a decent understanding of physics and electronics would go a long way. And if you have $10K to spend, you could hire a bunch of engineers to take a quick cursory look at a bunch of stuff and give a quick opinion on whether it's obviously stupid or not.

        • Okay, so what does this good filter get out of it? It sounds like you have some knowledge and a bit of common sense about you, so why not start this curation website up yourself? I suspect that in answering why you haven't done so already and don't have any intention to do so presently, you'll have answered exactly why this website doesn't exist. But setting aside needing a wide variety of expertise across all manner of different fields, it still doesn't solve the part of the problem that deals with whether

    • The problem with that is that kickstarter is full of half-baked ideas and people trying to sell some random thing they dug up on Alibaba as their own creation.

      Personally, what I would want to see instead of a list of very well curated kickstarter projects. A list somebody went through and determined that:

      1. The project is actually physically possible.

      "It’s kind of fun to do the impossible." — Walt Disney

      The project is actually doable with the skills and tools the maker has.

      The project is actually novel, and not simply reselling an existing one.

      The project as de

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by nmb3000 ( 741169 )

        In all of your examples, those people were spending their own money to try and achieve their goals -- and more power to them. However, Kickstarter is all about getting other people to spend their money.

        This is the key difference and the reason that projects should be vetted before getting supported.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      The problem with that is that kickstarter is full of half-baked ideas and people trying to sell some random thing they dug up on Alibaba as their own creation.

      That's less likely on Kickstarter, there's some very strong guidelines on Kickstarter that generally assure people that the idea isn't as farfetched as one would believe. Though some real doozies do make it through (google BattBump).

      In fact, it's IndieGoGo where I don't contribute for many reasons, including very poor project review - it's not uncommo

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Raenex ( 947668 )

      Such a list would go a long way highlighting the people with a good idea that can actually be realize, and bring more money to those who are truly deserving.

      That's what professional investors are for. I never understood the Kickstarter craze. You want me to plunk down some money, assume all the risk, and my only reward is the product if it's actually made and some token gift? How about giving me a share of the profits instead?

  • ...so far they've pledged $1 to 10,594 different Kickstarter projects.

    Its Patreon guidelines say that for each $2,000 milestone reached, the fund will pledge $1 more to all Kickstarter projects.

    Even with all the projects that will fail to meet their minimum and have the money return to the fund, it probably still does not compute.

  • Every wind turbine gets a Kickstarter!

  • Time to start a new Kickstarter then (Score:4, Funny)

    by guruevi ( 827432 ) on Saturday July 14, 2018 @11:08AM (#56947278)

    I plan on starting ~10,000 Kickstarter projects with a goal of $1.

  • So everyone gets a $1 participation trophy for fulfilling the requirements to be listed?

    Well, except for those who don't actually reach the funding goal, they get nothing, this is utterly meaningless for them.

    And for those who do reach it, great, they can maybe buy a stick of gum.

  • Info suck , not fully altruistic (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    What that $1 backing gets them is automatic updates from kickstarter on the project status. The $1 cost is the price to pay to join the information feed. Sure they could go and mine the kickstarter page but that would be a polling solution and require automated and semi-intelligent page fetches. With the $1 donation backerkit gets emailed on every update and can directly track things.

    Call me a glass half empty kind of person but I see this as not fully altruistic.

  • Silly virtue-signalling PR campaign. (Score:4, Informative)

    by ScentCone ( 795499 ) on Saturday July 14, 2018 @11:34AM (#56947372)
    Silly virtue-signalling PR campaign.

    Creative people are better than other people! See? We support all of them! With: a dollar! Now, pour a bunch of money into OUR account so we can signal some more, and, of course, draw a paycheck for the noble cause of administering this absurd bit of nonsense.

    Here's an idea: actually VET the projects, and only support the ones that aren't utterly pointless. Otherwise they might as well say they're supporting all the artists at Burning Man by burning a pile of $1 bills in the parking lot outside their office. Or in the driveway outside mom's basement, wherever this is actually run.

  • No, they don't (Score:3)

    by sylvandb ( 308927 ) on Saturday July 14, 2018 @12:00PM (#56947472) Homepage Journal

    No, not every project or "creator" deserves "inspiration and a virtual high-five." There are too many fraudulent projects or ones that are simply outright idiotic (like the old one to make a heat exchanger in your fridge or freezer to cool your house).

    The real world isn't about participation trophies or a medal for effort and propagating that attitude is a strong indicator of immaturity.

  • It's like someone looked at communism and thought 'Woah woah, nice idea, but we don't want to get carried away with all the practical stuff'.

    It's like filling up a bucket of water and pouring it into the ocean through a sieve.

  • With the project being to make me $1 richer in exchange for a thank you email.

  • "Everyone deserves some inspiration and a virtual high-five."

    There's plenty of people who don't. Here's one from this morning [nytimes.com].

    Okay, that's a ridiculous example. But there's plenty of shit on Kickstarter that is there specifically to seize the cash and run away. Projects like this only increase the viability of the beg-and-dash business model.

  • Sounds like a participation trophy.

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