Monday, June 28, 2010

Initial Thoughts on Crowdfunding and Crowdsourcing

Thanks for reading. This blog will hopefully share enough of our first crowdfunding project to be useful for you. A few things to set the discussion, but I'll try to present the information to be as general as possible, but must warn you that it will be heavy with references to Social Media, Crowdfunding, Crowdsourcing, etc. It will also dive pretty deeply into Twitter as a Marketing Tool. Not really sure the exact path we'll take, but I'll start at the beginning of my process and bring you up to speed on where we are now, in the last 48 Hours of the project.

A few things to keep in mind:

* Anyone can do this. What we're doing may be unique in it's purpose, but the process and tools are available to anyone willing to spend the time to learn how to use them. I will focus heavily on software, startups and entrepreneurial "stuff," but if you have a passion for something and would like to bring it to market. You'll want to stick around. :)

* Consult "The Google" for a Primer on Crowdfunding and Crowdsourcing. I'll post a link when we're out of time on Kickstarter.

* We've come a long way. It's not an easy thing to do, but you can see your idea through to market. Our focus won't be on details of "failures" see eslacker.blogspot.com for my thoughts on that. We're focused on the awesome groundswell of support around Creative, Innovative, Problem-Solvers and otherwise, motivated folks. We're not interested in what-ifs, general negativity or ways that things can fail. If you spend the mental energy on the what-ifs, the what-is-es never come.

* This will only be valuable if you participate. Visit Kickstarter and take a look around. Find something of interest and see what they're creating. Think of how your project could be "just as good if not better" than something you see. The point here isn't about "better" though, it's about all of us creating stuff together. Don't take it as a personal challenge to "out-do" someone you see, but rather a way to take the good and leave the bad of the example they've given you.

It's pretty cool. If you're not excited yet, visit www.kickstarter.com right now! :)