I totally get Kickstarter now thanks to the Poppy guys

The Poppy guys have done a great job running their Kickstarter campaign – they met their goals early, they’ve hit a bunch of stretch goals, it has been super positive, they have a bunch of great supporters. I think they were super thoughtful about the whole process, and I’m excited to see the product, I am of course a backer.

And it has become clear to me what Kickstarter is really for. It is not about raising money. These guys raised a modest amount, they could have funded this easily themselves or from friends. But they have built a great community of early adopters and backers, who feel like part of the team, who are going to help evangelize the product, who are influentials. And that is what Kickstarter really seems to be about (for tech products, I am clueless about movies or other domains) – it is in some sense a marketing expense, it is the way you reach out to the influentials and early adopters and get them on board and pulling for you, which is a HUGELY valuable asset for a young company. It is certainly not about the cash – the $147K these guys raised, less the Kickstarter and AMZN fees, is nothing compared to the funding needs of the business.