BackerKit

TL;DR: The hardest part of having a crowdfunded project is fulfillment. Many Kickstarter projects are delivered late because most of the project creator’s time is consumed by communication and administrative tasks. We took our first-hand knowledge and experience with Kickstarter from Diaspora, and wrote BackerKit, the one thing we wished we, as project creators, had to make our post-Kickstarter lives easier. 

BackerKit helps project creators keep their project on time and on target, and their backers happy and fulfilled. A focused and more organized project means backers get to see the project they support succeed, and they also get their rewards in a more timely manner.

We are currently in beta today, but are already working with early customers to make their lives easier. If you or someone you know could use some help in life after Kickstarter funding, please sign up for our beta at: backerkit.com

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There has been a lot of chatter in the media recently about crowdfunded projects stalling as they try to meet their deadline. Most recently, CNN posted an article that 84% of Kickstarter projects end up missing their delivery date. Kickstarter’s Yancey Strickler posted a reply, asking people to focus on the great things that are made with Kickstarter.

It is no secret that fulfilling a Kickstarter project is hard. Most project creators underestimate the time and money it takes to complete a project. Kickstarter backers always get uneasy as their reward dates get delayed. To paraphrase Yancy, “things worth having take time.” One thing that struck me when processing our own Kickstarter project, Diaspora, is how much time we spent doing things that were NOT our project. Much of our time in the early days was spent on things related to, but not directly a part of, creating Diaspora itself. 

We were not prepared to do a bunch of jobs that we were not very good at, and thousands of papercuts slowed us down. No one was able to give my partners and I advice on how to handle the almost 6,500 people who graciously backed us. Data management, such as keeping backers’ addresses up to date, changing reward options, or making sure everyone received our latest email became a logistic challenge. Getting accurate counts of how many t-shirts and in the correct sizing, while not a difficult task, took hours away from what was most important: developing the product we promised our backers. We went from four guys in an office writing code, to spending too much time focusing on the intricacies of producing t-shirts, stickers and printing CDs. We wanted to spend every waking hour making Diaspora great, but also needed to devote significant time trying to communicate effectively with all our backers. We had this problem two years ago, but this is still a common story for many crowdfunded projects, even to this day.

One thing is certain for 2013: Crowdfunding is going to get bigger. Much bigger. New platforms for funding will evolve, as tons of startups are getting involved in the space. Kickstarters for products, clothes, dogs, APIs, games and open-source projects will continue to develop. No matter what the platform, the way people raise money for creative projects has completely changed for the better.

However, the other half of the ecosystem needs to be fixed—the unsexy problem of communication, fulfillment, and customer service. That’s why we built BackerKit. BackerKit is a magic wand for keeping your backers happy and fulfilled, and keeping your project on time and on target. It is a tool box of software and resources that can be applied to any successfully backed project, whether it is in the arts, software, merchandise, or services. BackerKit enables project creators to focus on what they do best, and handles the important tasks of managing their backer database, communication, and reward fulfillment.

Our first version of BackerKit contains the features all project creators need to save them time:

• Integration with Kickstarter that only takes 5 seconds to get setup, with more crowdfunding platforms coming soon

• Personal accounts let backers see their individual progress of your reward, download digital rewards and get notifications when shipping status changes  

• A backer dashboard lets you drill down rewards and survey responses, and gives you up to the minute reports of how-many-of-what rewards you need to make.

• An instant landing page serves as a home for your project and backers after Kickstarter  

• Partnerships with swag manufacturers to make creating and mailing t-shirts, stickers and buttons is as easy as a few clicks

We have created these first set of features based on our collaboration with many successful crowdfunding projects. BackerKit can help with everything from digital delivery to hooking you up with fulfillment services. No matter the problem, we want to help project creators with every administrative and communication detail that takes away time from them working on their project.

We are currently in beta today, but are already working with early customers to make their lives easier. If you or someone you know could use some help in life after Kickstarter funding, please sign up for our beta at: backerkit.com

Crowdfunding is changing the way creative projects get off the ground. BackerKit will streamline their execution. The next great brands just might start as a crowdfunded project. We’re here to help them get off to a great start. We want to help make great ideas a reality, and help great projects become great products.

You can follow us on Twitter and Tumblr for updates about BackerKit, as well as crowdfunding stories, thoughts, ideas, tips and tricks from our team. You can always email us at hello@backerkit.com. Thank you!