for the motor kickstarter see kick start and starter engine . for other uses see kickstart disambiguation . kickstarter headquarters brooklyn new york u.s. founder s perry chen yancey strickler charles adler website www.kickstarter.com alexa rank 449 july 2016 1 type of site crowdfunding launched april 28 2009 ; 7 years ago 2009 04 28 kickstarter is an american public benefit corporation 2 based in brooklyn new york which has built a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity . 3 the company s stated mission is to help bring creative projects to life . 4 kickstarter has reportedly received more than 1.9 billion in pledges from 9.4 million backers to fund 257 000 creative projects such as films music stage shows comics journalism video games technology and food related projects . 5 people who back kickstarter projects are offered tangible rewards and one of a kind experiences in exchange for their pledges clarification needed . 6 this model traces its roots to subscription model of arts patronage where artists would go directly to their audiences to fund their work . 7 contents 1 history 2 model 2.1 projects 2.2 categories 2.3 guidelines 3 notable projects and creators 3.1 top projects by funds raised 3.2 project cancellations 4 controversies 5 patent disputes 6 see also 7 references 8 external links history edit kickstarter launched on april 28 2009 by perry chen yancey strickler and charles adler . 8 the new york times called kickstarter the people s nea . 9 time named it one of the best inventions of 2010 10 and best websites of 2011 . 11 kickstarter reportedly raised 10 million funding from backers including nyc based venture firm union square ventures and angel investors such as jack dorsey zach klein and caterina fake . 12 the company is based in the greenpoint section of brooklyn . 13 andy baio served as the site s cto until november 2010 when he joined expert labs . 14 lance ivy has been lead developer since the website launched . 15 on february 14 2013 kickstarter released an ios app called kickstarter for the iphone . 16 the app is aimed at users who create and back projects and is the first time kickstarter has had an official mobile presence . 17 on october 31 2012 kickstarter opened to projects based in the united kingdom 18 followed by projects based in canada on september 9 2013 19 australia and new zealand on november 13 2013 20 and denmark ireland norway and sweden on september 15 2014 . 21 and in spain on may 19 2015 . 22 model edit kickstarter is one of a number of crowdfunding platforms for gathering money from the public which circumvents traditional avenues of investment . 23 24 project creators choose a deadline and a minimum funding goal . if the goal is not met by the deadline no funds are collected a kind of assurance contract . 25 the platform is open to backers from anywhere in the world and to creators from the us uk 26 canada 27 australia new zealand 20 the netherlands denmark ireland norway sweden spain france germany austria italy belgium luxembourg and switzerland . kickstarter applies a 5 % fee on the total amount of the funds raised . 28 their payments processor applies an additional 3 5 % fee . 29 unlike many forums for fundraising or investment kickstarter claims no ownership over the projects and the work they produce . the web pages of projects launched on the site are permanently archived and accessible to the public . after funding is completed projects and uploaded media can not be edited or removed from the site . 30 there is no guarantee that people who post projects on kickstarter will deliver on their projects use the money to implement their projects or that the completed projects will meet backers expectations . kickstarter advises backers to use their own judgment on supporting a project . they also warn project leaders that they could be liable for legal damages from backers for failure to deliver on promises . 31 projects might also fail even after a successful fundraising campaign when creators underestimate the total costs required or technical difficulties to be overcome . 32 33 asked what made kickstarter different from other crowdfunding platforms co founder perry chen said i wonder if people really know what the definition of crowdfunding is . or if there s even an agreed upon definition of what it is . we haven t actively supported the use of the term because it can provoke more confusion . in our case we focus on a middle ground between patronage and commerce . people are offering cool stuff and experiences in exchange for the support of their ideas . people are creating these mini economies around their project ideas . so you aren t coming to the site to get something for nothing ; you are trying to create value for the people who support you . we focus on creative projects music film technology art design food and publishing and within the category of crowdfunding of the arts we are probably ten times the size of all of the others combined . 34 projects edit on june 21 2012 kickstarter began publishing statistics on its projects . 35 as of february 13 2015 there were 207 135 launched projects 7 802 in progress with a success rate of 40 % . clarification needed the total amount pledged was 1 523 718 656 . 36 the business has grown quickly in its early years . in the year 2010 kickstarter had 3 910 successful projects and 27 638 318 pledged . the corresponding figures for 2011 were 11 836 successfully funded projects and 99 344 381 pledged ; and there were 18 109 successfully funded projects 319 786 629 pledged in 2012 . 37 38 february 9 2012 saw a number of milestones set by kickstarter . a dock made for the iphone designed by casey hopkins became the first kickstarter project to exceed one million dollars in pledges . a few hours later a project by computer game developers double fine productions to fund a new adventure game reached the same figure having been launched less than 24 hours earlier and finished with over 3 million pledged . 39 this was also the first time kickstarter raised over a million dollars in pledges in a single day . 40 on august 30 2014 the coolest cooler an icebox created by ryan grepper became the most funded kickstarter project in history with us 13.28 million in funding breaking the record previously held by the pebble smart watch . 41 in july 2012 wharton professor ethan mollick and jeanne pi conducted research into what contributes to a project s success or failure on kickstarter . some key findings from the analysis were that increasing goal size is negatively associated with success projects that are featured on the kickstarter homepage have an 89 % chance of being successful compared to 30 % without and that for an average 10 000 project a 30 day project has a 35 % chance of success while a 60 day project has a 29 % chance of success all other things being constant . 42 the ten largest kickstarter projects by funds raised are listed below . among successful projects most raise between 1 000 and 9 999 . these dollar amounts drop to less than half in the design games and technology categories . however the median amount raised for the latter two categories remains in the four figure range . there is substantial variation in the success rate of projects falling under different categories . over two thirds of completed dance projects have been successful . in contrast fewer than 30 % of completed fashion projects have reached their goal . most failing projects fail to achieve 20 % of their goals and this trend applies across all categories . indeed over 80 % of projects that pass the 20 % mark reach their goal . 36 categories edit creators categorize their projects into one of 13 categories and 36 subcategories . 43 they are art comics dance design fashion film and video food games music photography publishing technology and theater . of these categories film & video and music are the largest categories and have raised the most amount of money . these categories along with games account for over half the money raised . 36 video games and tabletop games alone account for more than 2 out of every 10 spent on kickstarter . 44 guidelines edit to maintain its focus as a funding platform for creative projects kickstarter has outlined three guidelines for all project creators to follow creators can fund projects only ; projects must fit within one of the site s 13 creative categories ; and creators must abide by the site s prohibited uses including charity fraud like ohio ghost towns where blackfork was not named until 1902 and not 1818 as claimed by fraud . and awareness campaigns . kickstarter has additional requirements for hardware and product design projects . these include 45 46 banning the use of photorealistic renderings and simulations demonstrating a product banning projects for genetically modified organisms . 47 limiting awards to single items or a sensible set of items relevant to the project e.g. multiple light bulbs for a house requiring a physical prototype requiring a manufacturing plan the guidelines are designed to reinforce kickstarter s position that people are backing projects not placing orders for a product . to underscore the notion that kickstarter is a place in which creators and audiences make things together creators across all categories are asked to describe the risks and challenges a project faces in producing it . this educates the public about the project goals and encourages contributions to the community . 48 notable projects and creators edit at 8.5 million the ouya is the 7th largest successful kickstarter campaign . several creative works have gone on to receive critical acclaim and accolades after being funded on kickstarter . the documentary short sun come up and documentary short incident in new baghdad were each nominated for an academy award ; 49 50 contemporary art projects eyewriter and hip hop word count were both chosen to exhibit in the museum of modern art in 2011 ; 51 filmmaker matt porterfield was selected to screen his film putty hill at the whitney biennial in 2012 ; 52 author rob walker s hypothetical futures project exhibited at the 13th international venice architecture biennale ; 53 musician amanda palmer s album theatre is evil debuted at no. 10 on the billboard 200 ; 54 designer scott wilson won a national design award from smithsonian s cooper hewitt national design museum following the success of his tiktok lunatik project ; 55 the kickstarter funded goldieblox toy gained nationwide distribution in 2013 ; 56 and approximately 10 % of the films accepted into the sundance sxsw and tribeca film festivals are projects funded on kickstarter . 57 58 numerous well known creators have used kickstarter to produce their work including musicians jennifer paige 59 paula cole 60 amanda mcbroom 61 de la soul 62 amanda palmer 63 daniel johnston 64 stuart murdoch 65 and tom rush ; 66 filmmakers and actors kevin sorbo 67 alyson hannigan 68 zach braff 69 bret easton ellis 70 colin hanks 71 ed begley jr. 72 gary hustwit 73 hal hartley 74 jennie livingston 75 mark duplass 76 matthew modine 77 paul schrader 78 ricki lake 79 whoopi goldberg 80 kristen bell and zana briski ; authors and writers dan harmon 81 kevin kelly 82 neal stephenson 83 steve altes 84 and seth godin ; 85 photographers spencer tunick 86 shane lavalette 87 and gerd ludwig ; 88 game developers tim schafer 89 keiji inafune brian fargo 90 and rand miller ; 91