Particularly interesting interview with Yancey Strickler, the founder of Kickstarter.com.
The project started in 2005 when Yancey met his co-founder, Perry Chen, in a restaurant (where Perry worked as a waiter). Perry came up with the idea for kickster while trying to raise money for a concert in New Orleans. He shared his idea with Yancey who became instantly inspired by the concept of kickstarter.
Problem is that Yancey was a rock critic and Perry was a waiter. A year later they met the third co-founder Charles Edler who was a creative director. At that point the start-up had 3 founders, but still no technical people on the team. Surprisingly this didn’t discourage them. They continued working on the project for 3 years while pitching their idea to artists and musicians.
Small investments combined with love money allowed them to experience moderate success, but it wasn’t until 2008 that things really started to change. By chance they got a warm intro with Sunny Bates. That’s when pieces started falling in place.
So the lesson here is that:
- If you don’t blow up in the first year, don’t give up
- Chance encounter may change everything, so see and be seen!
- You don’t have to be super technical to have a successful start up
See the full interview below (read the description to skip to specific parts in the interview):
