Beyond 101: Fund a Kickstarter project

Entrepreneurs make me smile.  I love people who feel passionately enough about something that they are compelled to take action towards it, and I love the combined sense of purpose + determination + delight that successful entrepreneurs are almost required to possess.  Dreamers can have lots of cool ideas, but entrepreneurs do something with those ideas and bring them to a place where they can be shared with the world (and sometimes even transform it).

Earlier this week I learned of an entrepreneur who is using Kickstarter to try to secure funding for his project.  Now, this is nothing terribly new; I hear about ‘really cool’ projects looking for some backing (i.e., cash donations) on a semi-regular basis.  Indeed, I get lots of people knocking on my door (both figuratively and literally) asking for ‘just a small donation’ to help their cause.  From Girl Scout cookie sales, to high school athletic coupon reward programs, to pleading letters in the mail asking for donations to help the hungry, the poor, the animals…there is no shortage of individuals and organizations who want a handout of some cash. And while I would love to say ‘yes’ to every request that comes my way, reality dictates that I must be selective in how I spend my finite amount of money.  (Mortgages and groceries don’t pay for themselves…)  Still, when I learn of a cause that speaks to me, I want to do what I can to help support it.  I know how powerful even a small act of kindness can be; sometimes all it takes to help keep someone going is a brief note of genuine encouragement, or a few dollars towards their efforts.  If I can help someone transform their dream into tangible reality, that is deeply satisfying and rewarding to me. 

So anyway, back to Kickstarter.  A work colleague told me about a cool project titled “One Second Everyday”.  The premise is simple: A person downloads an app to their mobile device, then uses that device to record a small snippet of their day.  The snippet gets trimmed to one second, and the person puts the seconds together to create a video.  The general idea is that the person captures one second each day, so that they can compile a video that covers a full year of memories in just under 7 minutes.  (And of course, if a person chooses to continue to record for 366+ days, over time they can create videos that cover many years, even decades.) 

When I heard this concept (and saw the demo video), I immediately though, “What a cool idea!”  I definitely believe there is positive power in capturing moments from our past (this is one of the many reasons why I write/journal/blog, and why I adore photography), and I thought this video method is a rather genius way to combine the general human desire for both significance and permanence with the modern world’s latest technology offerings (and subsequent short attention spans).  I also appreciate that this entrepreneur was strategic enough to make the ‘cost of entry’ low; a very small ($1) donation would yield tangible benefit for the giver (i.e., a copy of the app once developed).

I hadn’t really been looking for a reason to donate to Kickstarter, but this experience seemed to find me.  So I opened to it, clacked for 30 seconds on my keyboard, and sent off a few bucks to Cesar to help him fund his idea. 

Good luck Cesar!  Here’s to all the dreamers: may they not be satisfied with only ideas, but be driven to put in the effort to become creators.

Stef