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Mining Kickstarter Data Reveals How To Match Crowdfunding Projects To Investors

Posted by timothy on from the arbitrage-opportunities dept.

KentuckyFC writes Since 2001, crowdfunding sites have raised almost $3 billion and in 2012 alone, successfully funded more than 1 million projects. But while many projects succeed, far more fail. The reasons for failure are varied and many but one of the most commonly cited is the inability to match a project with suitable investors. Now a group of researchers from Yahoo Labs and the University of Cambridge have mined data from Kickstarter to discover how investors choose projects to back. They studied over 1000 projects in the US funded by over 80,000 investors. They conclude that there are two types of backers: occasional investors who tend to back arts-related projects, probably because of some kind of social connection to the proposers; and frequent investors who have a much more stringent set of criteria. Frequent investors tend to fund projects that are well-managed, have high pledging goals, are global, grow quickly, and match their interests. The team is now working on a website that will create a list of the Twitter handles of potential investors given the URL of a Kickstarter project.

20 comments

  1. Simple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Find sucker. Sucker hands money over.

  2. it's just like dating! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I want a tall guy with a big thick dick and an even thicker wallet. Must respect women, by which I mean give me money.

    1. Re:it's just like dating! by Mister+Liberty · · Score: 1

      Wrong forum.
      Your criteria are a failure combination. The hidden but implied fifth criterium (virtually no mental capacities) cannot be met here.

  3. Potato Salad Investors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Considering how far left most of slashdot is, I'm surprised more of them don't hate the pure capitalism of Kickstarter.

  4. Mining? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Like what spammers do? Collect addresses to pitch products to without solicitation?

  5. Kickstarters are not investors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They get no ownership, they get no control, they get no legal claim on any benefit. Kickstarters are philanthopists hoping to get a 'donation gift.'

  6. goodbye Kickstarter by Tom · · Score: 2

    The moment I get spam about Kickstarter projects, I'll delete my account there. Who else?

    Kickstarter is a cool concept, but one of the things that made it cool is that at its core, it has this idea of presenting your idea and letting people come to you. The more you reverse it, by "reaching out" (marketing speak) aka spamming (real human speak) people with your project, the more it is simply and advertisement platform. And nobody gives a flying fuck about advertisement platforms, as we can see from the absence of the Internet equivalent of the shopping channel.

    --
    Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
    1. Re:goodbye Kickstarter by Anubis+IV · · Score: 2

      These are independent researchers, not Kickstarter itself, and as the summary says, they'd be spamming you via Twitter. The simple fix is to remove your Twitter handle from your Kickstarter profile, that way they don't have a way to engage in an activity with you that they'd verbalize by using marketing speak buzzwords.

    2. Re:goodbye Kickstarter by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      as we can see from the absence of the Internet equivalent of the shopping channel.

      Uh, the whole Internet is a shopping channel. I mean if you want time-limited deals, there's always woot, Amazon Gold Box, and dozens of other sites. Add in the like of time-limited coupon companies like GroupOn and the like, and you're pretty much there.

      Anyhow, I've backed over a dozen Kickstarters. My main criteria, other than maybe two people who I consistently back, is promotion. And I don't mean just posting on Facebook or Twitter. If you can't get people excited about it that they post it on big sites like Gizmodo or Engadget, then your project is either hard to explain, boring, or doesn't solve any problem.

      Hard to explain projects are just that - if you can't tell me what your thing does, why it's better than other things, or how it compares to existing things, then I'm not interested. If you can't explain it to me, you can't explain it to anyone else, and I don't even think you're able to explain it to yourself and figure out what the thing actually does. (Leading to scope creep, feature-itis, and all sorts of other things.)

      Boring projects - well, why can't you make it interesting? Even boring things like office software must have something you're doing better than everyone else, and if you can't get excited about that, neither is the public. Yes, your project may do a mundane thing, that's fine, but if you can't get excited about it, it's going to fail. If you can't make me excited about it, then it's going to fail, too because excitement and enthusiasm feed off one another.

      That's my criteria. Sorry, I don't wan to know about other projects. If you can't get yourself out there on one of the ultimate sales platforms, then you need to rethink your strategy. Build it and they will NOT come. You need to make them aware of it first.

    3. Re:goodbye Kickstarter by harborpirate · · Score: 1

      Actually no. As a repeat backer (~20 projects), I'd really like to know when a project comes along that there is a high likelihood I would back. I've been posting a request for years now that Kickstarter put together an opt-in option that would email me when "backers similar to you are backing a new project". As long as such an email was reasonably accurate about when I'm likely to back, and didn't spam me incessantly with art projects, it would be great. It certainly would be heaps better than the weekly email that Kickstarter sends out right now, which is loaded with stuff that I have no interest in. At this point I just shunt it to trash folder without reading it.

      I occasionally miss on good/interesting projects simply because they don't manage to reach me through social media or any other means. Kickstarter at this point has a pretty severe discoverability problem, and I feel anything that helps cut through that issue would be a positive development.

      --
      // harborpirate
      // Slashbots off the starboard bow!
    4. Re:goodbye Kickstarter by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      I occasionally miss on good/interesting projects simply because they don't manage to reach me through social media or any other means. Kickstarter at this point has a pretty severe discoverability problem, and I feel anything that helps cut through that issue would be a positive development.

      No, it is not kickstarter's problem about discoverability. It's the projects problem about marketing. If a project isn't cool enough to be broadcasted everywhere, then there are serious concerns about it. I mean, if it's not cool enough that backers start posting about it everywhere and anywhere (social media, blogs, news sites, etc), then either you hang out with the wrong crowd, or the project may not be as cool as originally envisioned.

      Kickstarter is not about "build it and they will come" (in fact, unless you're already established, that will NOT happen). Projects need marketing, and project owners need to find a way to champion their project. If you can't get someone excited about your work, why the hell should I get excited?

    5. Re:goodbye Kickstarter by Tom · · Score: 1

      Uh, the whole Internet is a shopping channel.

      It's not. It's a shopping arcade or something. If you don't see the difference, I can't help you.

      --
      Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
  7. No shit, Sherlock by Hognoxious · · Score: 1, Troll

    Professional, sophisticated investors act in a professional way using sophisticated techniques, whereas dilettantes dabble.

    I'm shocked, yes shocked!

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  8. This may backfire by roman_mir · · Score: 2

    Kickstarter is already providing the tools to connect innovators with investors, datamining investor information in order to target them personally like that may backfire and rather than entice them to invest more it may turn them against the very concept. Everybody needs a some degree of control over their actions and choices, stop pushing people, they are not your puppets.

    --
    You can't handle the truth.
    1. Re:This may backfire by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Quiet! I don't need to hear any more of your Commie Double-Talk!

      Let the Invisible Hand of the market find its own way. I'm sure you'd like to make a bunch of new Government regulations for Kickstarter - no thanks, pinko!

  9. Not investors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    People who fund projects on Kickstarter are not investors. They are pre-ordering, not investing.

    1. Re:Not investors by sacdelta · · Score: 2

      While a number of projects certainly are treated this way, it is this attitude from users that has ruined my enjoyment of backing projects.

      Backers are certainly not investing in the traditional sense since they do not get any share of profits, etc, but once upon a time, they were investing in having an idea become available. I backed many projects just to see the idea come to be. Ideas that could not get funding through traditional means. Between a mix of people who were trying to get a fast buck and backers loudly complaining that their "pre-order" was taking too long, it just became too much trouble.

      People could no longer take chances on interesting things because they had to provide constant assurances to backers that they would get their loot.

      A project pretty much has to be good to go now which has made it difficult for new people to get into the game with fresh ideas. There is too much risk those projects might fail and backers will come screaming for their money back.

      --

      Brought to you by: "Al"toids - the curiously weird mint.

    2. Re:Not investors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's unreasonable to expect people to "back" something without gaining anything from it. "The satisfaction of seeing ideas come to be" is not a good enough return for me to put my money on something.