New 'Creative Fund' Promises To Back Every Project on Kickstarter (venturebeat.com)

All Kickstarter campaigns are getting a show of support, according to a new web site. "Every day, The Creative Fund backs all newly launched projects based on our current patronage." It's the newest offering from BackerKit, which also makes a data management platform for crowdfunding campaigns, and so far they've pledged $1 to 10,594 different Kickstarter projects.

An anonymous reader quotes VentureBeat: One dollar doesn't seem like a lot, but it's just a start. BackerKit cofounder Rosanna Yau says that this is more of a proof of concept, to see if their community is willing to rally around the idea. She and cofounder Maxwell Salzberg have set up a Patreon, a monthly subscription service that enables people to support creators directly. All the donations they receive from that platform will be distributed among Kickstarter projects, and the goal is to make sure all projects have at least one pledge....

Yau says that the company is open to contributing more than a $1 in the future. Its Patreon guidelines say that for each $2,000 milestone reached, the fund will pledge $1 more to all Kickstarter projects. If something doesn't get funded, the fund's pledges will get recycled and re-donated to new projects.
A Medium post says the new fund "supports the entrepreneurial spirit of all independent creators, one dollar at a time....

"Everyone deserves some inspiration and a virtual high-five."

Comments

Very optimistic

[vadim_t]

The problem with that is that kickstarter is full of half-baked ideas and people trying to sell some random thing they dug up on Alibaba as their own creation.

Personally, what I would want to see instead of a list of very well curated kickstarter projects. A list somebody went through and determined that:

1. The project is actually physically possible.
2. The project is actually doable with the skills and tools the maker has.
3. The project is actually novel, and not simply reselling an existing one.
4. The project as described makes sense to experts in the associated discipline and seems workable
5. The maker actually understands what they're getting themselves into and have the knowledge and resources to produce it.
6. (optionally) The product actually has some sort of practical use to it.

Such a list would go a long way highlighting the people with a good idea that can actually be realize, and bring more money to those who are truly deserving.

Re:Very optimistic

[vadim_t]

I'm not asking for an oracle, but for a good filter.

You don't need a team full of PhDs to figure out that Air Umbrella was an unworkable and terribly impractical idea, or that Solar Roadways was a stupid idea because it compromised both the function of a solar panel and a road to make a whole that was far worse and more expensive than simply building both of those things next to each other.

Lots of people in fact pointed that out. A site staffed by a bunch of volunteers with a decent understanding of physics and electronics would go a long way. And if you have $10K to spend, you could hire a bunch of engineers to take a quick cursory look at a bunch of stuff and give a quick opinion on whether it's obviously stupid or not.

Time to start a new Kickstarter then

[guruevi]

I plan on starting ~10,000 Kickstarter projects with a goal of $1.

Silly virtue-signalling PR campaign.

[ScentCone]

Silly virtue-signalling PR campaign.

Creative people are better than other people! See? We support all of them! With: a dollar! Now, pour a bunch of money into OUR account so we can signal some more, and, of course, draw a paycheck for the noble cause of administering this absurd bit of nonsense.

Here's an idea: actually VET the projects, and only support the ones that aren't utterly pointless. Otherwise they might as well say they're supporting all the artists at Burning Man by burning a pile of $1 bills in the parking lot outside their office. Or in the driveway outside mom's basement, wherever this is actually run.