Kickstarter

Kickstarter appears in Eric Migicovsky on Pebble, Kickstarter, and Building for Yourself as the crowdfunding platform that let Eric Migicovsky fund Pebble through pre-orders after conventional venture fundraising failed. Paul Graham encouraged Eric to launch quickly once it became clear investors were not going to fund the new iPhone-and-Android-compatible watch.

In the source, Kickstarter is not only a marketing channel. It is a financing and obligation mechanism: Pebble’s campaign goal was $100,000, the first day brought about $600,000, and the campaign eventually reached $10 million with about 85,000 watches pre-sold. That makes Kickstarter the core platform case for Kickstarter Demand Shock, where visible Customer Pull creates a production, support, and delivery burden before a hardware company is ready.

Connections

• Pebble and Eric Migicovsky - source campaign and founder.
• Paul Graham and Y Combinator - advice and accelerator context.
• Kickstarter Demand Shock, Customer Pull, Consumer Hardware Startup Risk, and Hardware Inventory Risk - concepts surfaced by the campaign.