众筹网站Kickstarter的成功之路

    然而，与此同时，Kickstarter接受了一款类似的产品Galileo.。今春，这款产品吸引眼球的推广视频在互联网上被众多博客广为转载，项目最后筹资超过70万美元。Galileo的开发者杰本•贝维特是Joby创始人，Joby生产的Gorillapod可变三角充电底座曾风行一时。到目前为止，Swivls已销出1,500台，但产品当初准备上市时必须与Galileo的Kickstarter众筹项目争夺媒体关注度，尽管后者当时只有一款原型机。“没出货之前，一切都是虚的，”兰姆说。

    这话或许没错，科技产品的高失败率就是证据。数字面前，兰姆也难以反驳。Galileo的筹资额超出Swivl近3000%，它的成功主要归功于众筹推广。总部位于迈阿密的Max Borges Agency只代理科技产品，目前已经代理了十几个Kickstarter项目，其中就包括Galileo。为吸引更多众筹客户，Max Borges Agency引入了创意定价，帮助资金紧张的项目购买推广服务。根据自己对产品信心的强弱，Max Borges Agency可以收取较低的预付费用，之后根据募资金额按比例提成，或者如果众筹目标未能实现，它甚至干脆不收钱。创始人麦克斯•伯吉斯认为这样的客户更具挑战，因为他们不是知名品牌，通常甚至没有样品可送至媒体。他说：“我们其实卖的是点子，希望人们能接受。”

    如果产品走俏，也可能会带来不利的一面。Kickstarter名气越来越响，项目越来越技术化，产品设计师可能最终有负众望。不同于只需应付几个风险投资人，他们必须抚慰多达几千名小投资人。即便是轻松的小规模众筹项目，比如Power Laces，（它筹集了2.5万美元，希望实现科幻电影《回到未来》（Back to the Future）中描绘的自动系鞋带），一旦延迟，有些投资人就会不耐烦地跺脚，要求公布进展。Kickstarter最初的项目大多比较简单，确实有其道理。因为简单的项目容易执行。

    但更糟糕的情况是没有完成筹资目标。马修•里沃德的项目在Kickstarter网站上还可以挂8天，这8天很关键，因为他离筹资目标还差2.8万美元。或许，他应该学学独立音乐家阿曼达•帕尔默是如何成功筹资120万美元的。帕尔默承诺如果有人肯出1万美元，她会突然登门造访，给他们化上华丽的妆容，拍照留念，请他们吃泰国菜，一醉方休。如果你看过里沃德在《夏日捕手》（Summer Catch）里的表现，你就知道酒是个好东西。

    译者：老榆木

    In the meantime, Kickstarter accepted a similar product dubbed Galileo. The device's slick promotional video was picked up by blogs all over the internet this past spring, and the project raised more than $700,000 in funding. It was developed by JoeBen Bevirt, a founder of Joby, the company that brought the popular Gorillapod line of flexible tripods to market. To date, almost 1,500 Swivls have sold, but when units were ready to ship, it had to compete with Galileo's Kickstarter campaign for media coverage -- even though the latter was only a prototype. "Until it actually ships, it's vaporware," Lamb argues.

    That may be true — as the high failure rate of tech products attests — but Lamb can't argue with the numbers. Galileo out-raised Swivl by nearly 3000%, a success largely attributable to the marketing put into its campaign. Miami-based Max Borges Agency, which only represents technology products, has worked with around a dozen Kickstarter projects, including Galileo. In an effort to engage more crowd-funded clients, the agency has introduced creative pricing to help the cash-strapped projects pay for the publicity services. Depending on its confidence in the product, the firm may charge lower up-front fees, work for a percentage of the funds raised, or, in some cases, charge nothing at all — if the campaign's goal isn't met. Founder Max Borges views these clients as more challenging because they are not name brands and often have no have samples to send out to the press. "You're really selling an idea and hoping that people are going to latch onto it," he says.

    And if the products do catch on, there are consequences. As Kickstarter grows in popularity and projects become more technical, product designers will sag under the weight of their promises. Instead of answering to a few venture capitalists, they'll have to appease to a few thousand micro-financiers. Even the most light-hearted campaigns — like Power Laces, which raised $25,000 in an effort to build automatically tying shows like in Back to the Future — have seen delays with backers stomping their feet demanding updates. There is a reason Kickstarter's projects were largely simple at first. Simple projects are easy to execute.

    But it could be worse; the campaign could simply fail to hit its mark. With 8 days to go, it's crunch time for Matthew Lillard — he still needs $28,000 to fund his project. Perhaps he should take a page from indie musician Amanda Palmer's $1.2 million campaign playbook. For $10,000, she promised to invade the donor's home, slather them in glam-rock makeup, take photos, feed them Thai food and get them drunk. Hey, if you saw Lillard's work in Summer Catch, you'd know booze could only help.