Kickstarter Campaigns and Product vs Category Demand
I wanted to write a quick blog post based on a tweet I shared recently:
I continue to believe that Kickstarter campaigns tell me more about category demand than demand for a given company's actual offering.
— Charles Hudson (@chudson) November 1, 2013
Overall, I continue to believe that Kickstarter (and IndieGoGo and self-starter) campaigns are generally more indicative of consumer interest in a given product category than they are of consumer interest in a given company's product. As others have noted, this is largely due to the fact that most pre-order campaigns generate interest based on the product promise as opposed to the actual product. This doesn't mean that popular crowdfunded / self-started products won't be successful. Rather, I'm just arguing that you shouldn't substitute crowd enthusiasm for the work of figuring out whether a given team has the right product and concept for a given market. Evidence of demand in the form of pre-orders doesn't mean that a given company will be the winner. As always, comments are open. You can also share your thoughts on Twitter by sending me a message @chudson.