Kickstarter doesn't validate your product; it validates your pitch (and that's okay)

I came here to praise Kickstarter, not to bury it, but this article on major corporations using Kickstarter for product research reminded me of a lesson we covered at the Louisville Digital Association's crowdfunding workshop a few months ago: Kickstarter is sales training, not product research.

Well, that's not entirely fair. Kickstarter does provide some basic market research about your product description and maybe your price point, but only in the context of your marketing. Kickstarter can't validate a product that doesn't exist. It can only validate what you're putting in front of the consumer and all Kickstarter puts in front of the consumer is your marketing pitch.

Kickstarter validates your marketing pitch, not your product.

The 33 best stories, pictures and ideas of Sept. 2012

Kickstarter (Photo credit: Scott Beale)

Below are the 33 links I shared on Twitter in Sept. 2012 that subsequently earned at least 100 clicks.

1. Black Swan Farming (890) 
2. Things I’ve quit doing at my desk (692) 
3. "The truth is that if your company sells hardware today, your business model is essentially over." (560) 
4. The 2 Biggest Mistakes I Made When Learning to Code (491) 
5. "A startup is a company designed to grow fast. Being newly founded does not in itself make a company a startup." (490) 
6. 29 Things I, as a designer, wish more tech startups knew (453) 
7. Cosmo, the Hacker 'God' Who Fell to Earth (424) 
8. "PayPal have all the power of a bank and yet none of the responsibility." (412) 
9. Everything's broken and nobody's upset (376) 
10. xkcd's Click-and-Drag megacomic in a zoomable map interface (330) 
11. Web Design is 95% Typography (326) 
12. The only 2 ways to build a $100 million business (316) 
13. The Ultimate Guide to Writing Better Than You Normally Do. (309) 
14. "Statistically, one third of all [PINs] can be guessed by trying just 61 distinct combinations!" (281) 
15. Be nice to those that serve you (238) 
16. Why Women Should Stop Trying to Be Perfect (224) 
17. Stanford announces 16 free online courses for fall quarter (218) 
18. The care and feeding of software engineers (or, why engineers are grumpy) (215) 
19. What’s The Most Difficult CEO Skill? Managing Your Own Psychology (187) 
20. The Difference Between Apple & Amazon In One Chart (187) 
21. Let Shit Happen (159) 
22. Neil Gaiman's 8 Rules of Writing (158) 
23. Meeting A Troll... (How the Anonymous Web Enables and Disguises Sociopathy) (154) 
24. Corruption in Wikiland? Paid PR scandal erupts at Wikipedia (153) 
25. Why I Refuse to Vote for Barack Obama (146) 
26. Solving Gen Y's Passion Problem (141) 
27. Dear Programmer, I have an idea (135) 
28. Marissa Mayer Tells Yahoo Employees Products Must Ship In 6 Months, Or Don't Bother (123) 
29. "NoPassword means you don't need a password or a complicated OAuth scheme. Just email." (122) 
30. Infographic - How big is our own solar system? (119) 
31. Working From Home? You're a Better Worker (117) 
32. Kickstarter Is Not a Store (111) 
33. Amanda Palmer's Million-Dollar Music Project and Kickstarter's Accountability Problem (103)

Stats gathered via Buffer.

Me, a Famous Author and 2 Functional Nerds vs. The Avengers, Garageband, Arkham City and Kickstarter

When my pals over at the Functional Nerds podcast decided to retool their format, they couldn't come up with a better guinea pig to pair with multi-talented multi-media author Matt Forbeck than me. The evidence of their desperation is enshrined forever in Functional Nerds Episode 082 – FN vs. The Avengers, Garageband, Arkham City and Kickstarter.

I am blissfully silent while the big kids are talking, but manage to get my meta-nerd shots in about the new Marvel movie meta-franchise, and its consequences for the career of some guy named Joss Whedon. Sandbox Batman and the revenge of online author donations also come up, and we even discuss the virtue of having a recording studio in your pocket (or are you just glad to see me?).

This podcast features original music by John Anealio. That alone is worth a listen.

Related articles

• Author Matt Forbeck to Write 12 Novels in 2012 (wired.com)
• What the Next Batman Game Should Be (mau64.com)
• AVENGERS Trailer Feels Good In Your Eyes (nerdist.com)

From Twitter 02-24-2011

Image by library_mistress via Flickr

• How the Bubble moves to main Street http://dlvr.it/HTMPn
  
• 'The Way Is Open If We Want to Take It': The Dystopian Spirit in 21st-Century SF http://dlvr.it/HTTJK
  
• DailyDirt: Spaceships On The Drawing Board http://dlvr.it/HTZV5
  
• 5 assumptions about social search http://dlvr.it/HTfCR
  
• Death By Air And Thunderbolt: Is It The End Of The Line For The MacBook? http://dlvr.it/HTl3F
  
• RT @robmay: Everything I learned about doing a startup came from doing a startup... not reading blogs about it.
  
• The Privatization Of Public Data Sets A Bad Precedent http://dlvr.it/HTsxM
  
• Louisville Kickstarter: Help Jenn Stout Make Her New CD http://dlvr.it/HTz6j
  
• Lunch? LUnch!!!
  
• Yet Another Person Sues Google Because They Don't Like Pornographic Results When People Search On Their Name http://dlvr.it/HV42Y
  
• Trust and utility http://dlvr.it/HV9YD
  
• RT @jaymgates: Gmail, I do NOT accept your failure this morning. Shape up NOW. This is your final warning.
  
• SciFi Library in WA Needs Funds http://dlvr.it/HVGTn
  
• Yahoo To Shut Down MyBlogLog On May 24 http://dlvr.it/HVLGK
  
• Making rules is admitting failure http://dlvr.it/HVS5X
  
• New ways to experience better collaboration with Google Apps http://dlvr.it/HVXKR
  
• Success, Joy and Health are Contagious (So Be Careful Who You Work With) http://dlvr.it/HVbyq
  
• RT @tmbg: If they want to bring it back, have 'em call us! RT @hodgeman We believe we have the name of the exec who cancelled SCHOOLHOUS ...
  
• Trailer: Source Code http://dlvr.it/HVqc7
  
• What Watson did next http://dlvr.it/HVwp4
  
• Can America Function More Like a Fiscally Responsible Company? It’s up to Us, the Shareholders http://dlvr.it/HVzrG
  
• RT @cascio: Wondering which superhero Joss Whedon is going to kill in the #Avengers movie. Has to be someone we care about (so Hawkeye l ...
  

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