Hello! I’m Laser.

I’ve created a free 8-hour YouTube class on how to run a Kickstarter. I’ve raised millions of dollars, I’ve run more than 80 crowdfunding projects. I know you are gonna tell me you’re too busy to watch my class, although it is great. So here is the main advice I wish people would absorb about running a crowdfunding campaign. 

Understand how super-projects work.

A lot of folks come to me when they want to launch a Kickstarter for a game, movie, play, musical… that’s awesome! First, let’s take a look at the campaigns that inspired you to want to Kickstarter. Who is the creator? How many fans did they have when they launched the project? How much free content did the release on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, or email before launching their project? It’s possible—even likely—that they’ve been building their audience for years (examples: Exploding Kittens, Starkid, Amanda Palmer, Izzy Roland’s D(e)ad, Rifftrax). They launched to an audience who was already nurtured and ready and HUNGRY for the thing they’re making and/or to make that creator’s dream come true. 

Anyone can launch a successful kickstarter. However…

It’s going to depend on how much you ask for. When I first started running Kickstarters, I made a spreadsheet of a bunch of kickstarters in my genre - the amount they raised, how many backers, how many followers that creator had on twitter, instagram, email lists (if I could get that number). And I found that pretty reliably that there’s a nice trend: about 5-30% of your backers are going to support your project, and they’ll give about $40 per person. You’re not going to get more backers than you have existing audience. Some strangers may back your project… but not more than folks who already know you. 

Now, 5-30% is a really big range. How to you get to the high end of this? You need your audience to be invested in you, to be easy to contact, and to be excited about this specific thing.

Easy to contact - email is the easiest way to do this. Build an email list as early as you can.

Invested in you - tell them your dreams so they can be part of the story. 

Excited about the project - if you’re a model or a musician and launch a video game out of nowhere—your audience may not particularly care. BUT - if you’ve spend 10 weeks sending weekly emails directly to their inboxes about why making a video game will help fulfill your dreams, and get everyone on board… that’s way more likely to work!

You can make your thing for less money than you think. 

You probably won’t get to pay yourself before it is done, unless you do a bunch of the work yourself. Try to teach yourself how to do some things (video editing, sound design) to save some money. 

Kickstarter is never the easiest option.

You’re skipping the gatekeepers, you aren’t writing a grant to get a pile of money, you aren’t hiring a marketing company, you aren’t hiring a bunch of producers who have done this before. Which means you’re doing all of those steps and all of that work comes straight to you.  

Day One Is (almost) all that matters

Generally - you’re going to make 30-50% of your money on kickstarter in the first 48 hours. (and the other 30-50% in the last 48 hours, to be honest). And that early momentum is absolutely vital. I would rather you put all of your effort into preparing your audience before launch, than to promote the kickstarter when it’s already started. Especially these days! My ideal recommendation - don’t launch until you KNOW you can make 80-100% of your initial goal on day one. How? You can get them to sign up for your pre-launch page. Divide your goal (let’s say - $40,000) by $40 - (so that’s 1,000) - that’s the number of people you need to willingly sign up for your pre-launch page before you launch. Skip this step at your peril. 

Calm down about rewards

When building your reward tiers, you need to imagine people, not objects. Who is your $10 person, who is your $25, $50, $75, $120, $250, $1,000, $2,500 person? Design each level to be an irresistible upsell from the previous one. Also - people who give you the least money actually care the most about what they’re getting. When someone gives you $5,000 - they may be happy with a thank-you note. But someone at $10 wants to feel cool, so shout them out in the credits of your movie or something! Invite them to a backer-only zoom party!

And speaking of a backer-only zoom party - try to make as many rewards/stretch goals as possible FREE TO CREATE. 

Also: make things you can easily and quickly send out. You want your audience to be excited - so under-promise and over-deliver… so you can do this thing again! 

Kickstarter is really awesome and all about community.

So don’t hire someone else to promote and do all your social media. Connect with your audience directly! You will learn a lot and it will rule! 

If you worked with me, what would I do? 

I would guide you through this process (basically): 

1. Create an email list and write a welcome email about why this project is a dream come true for you. 

2. Promote your email list on social media.

3. Send out a 300-word email every week for 10 weeks about how you developed this project. Ask your fans to reply to you, and get to know them and the kind of things they like about you! Maybe they want to hear about process, maybe they want advice - more likely they just want you to do the thing you love - share art!! 

4. Ask your friends/family/famous connections to promote your email list 5 weeks before you launch. 

5. 2 weeks before you launch, start promoting your pre-launch page in your newsletter. 

6. Post on social media or perform live at least twice a week for 6 weeks before you launch. Provide value - jokes, videos, art, songs, things your ideal audience will enjoy. 

7. Build a Kickstarter page with 8 or fewer reward levels and no more than 3 physical items, an easily skimmable page, and a 2-minute-or-less kickstarter video. Steal ideas from successful kickstarter pages. 

8. Set your goal to be (number of people who have pre-saved your project x $40).

9. Launch, email, reap rewards. 

Can you work with me?

I currently am very busy and can only work with projects who are aiming to raise over $100k (which means, they have an audience of 100,000 people already). If you don’t have an audience yet, go watch my free class, do the assignments in the first half, and circle back with me when you’re ready!