Backerkit Announces Crowd Funding Platform

At a time where both creators and backers are expressing reservations about Kickstarter, with issues surrounding adoption of blockchain technology, slow approval times for new campaigns, frustrating or boilerplate responses from staff, lack of safety tools for creators, and creator tools which don't match up to those of other crowdfunding platforms, no competitor has yet managed to compete...

At a time where both creators and backers are expressing reservations about Kickstarter, with issues surrounding adoption of blockchain technology, slow approval times for new campaigns, frustrating or boilerplate responses from staff, lack of safety tools for creators, and creator tools which don't match up to those of other crowdfunding platforms, no competitor has yet managed to compete well (at least in the tabletop gaming space) due to Kickstarter's large market share of that industry.

Companies like IndieGoGo, Gamefound, Game On Tabletop, and others do provide similar services but Kickstarter still reigns supreme in terms of dollars earned, making it hard for creators to jump ship. Other companies have experimented with building crowdfunding functionality into their own online stores.

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The latest crowdfunding platform comes from Backerkit, a company whose pledge fulfillment services many creators and backers will be familiar with. And they've already got a whole bunch of companies on board for their next campaigns -- including TTRPG companies like Monte Cook Games, and baordgame companies like Greater Than Games.

Whether Backerkit has the oomph to compete with Kickstarter remains to be seen, but given that a large percentage of Kickstarter creators and backers already use Backerkit for pledge fulfillment and are already part of its ecosystem (we at ENP use its 'Backerkit Launch' feature for every campaign), they might have a chance. And competition is good for the customer who, in this case, are both the creators and the backers.

Backerkit already offers launch, pledge management, pre-order, and marketing functionality which Kickstarter doesn't, and is used by many campaigns for those services. The only part of that they don't currently do is the actual crowdfunding phase. Having that tie directly into the other services means that a creator can use one company for the whole process.

They're not launching new campaigns yet (although they have that long list of creators they've already talked to and have invited a small number to come on board early), but they plan to open up 'more broadly' in early 2023. Right now there is a site with six projects running from Publishing Goblin, Westley Coleman, Anthony Qualkinbush, Jason Furie, Roll & Play Press, and Corviforms, and over 20 upcoming projects including The Weird by Monte Cook Games.

 

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Nikosandros

Golden Procrastinator
Indiegogo seems to have a bad rep compared to Kickstarter for folks - a perception that they allow more scammy projects than Kickstarter does seems to exist (based on what I'm not sure).
I actually don't know, but the ludicrous LaNasa campaign to raise money to sue WotC wasn't very inspiring...
 


MNblockhead

A Title Much Cooler Than Anything on the Old Site
Bakerkit is half baked right now. And, yes, I know it is in "beta", but they are already running live projects. I am assuming that as it is still in Beta that the projects listed on their landing page are the only projects they have at this point and that once they have a good number of projects they will organize into categories and add search functionality.

We bothers me, however, is I'm not finding where they post their terms and conditions. Everything on the site seems geared to attract creators, and I suppose that makes sense. But I'm not going to back anything without understanding the rules of the service. Also, it would be nice to learn if they are going to add tools or processes to help bakers better vet creators, better understand risks, and better filter out bad actors.

Generally I hear about projects I want to back on Kickstarter by posts on other sites. I don't generally go to Kickstarter looking for things to back unless I'm already on the site interacting with projects I've already Backed. If there was a very compelling project by a creator I already have a lot of trust in, I suppose I would back it on Bakerkit, but at this time I'm underwhelmed by Bakerkit, as a potential backer.
 

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