
Ask HN: Why are there no software projects on Kickstarter? - sroussey
Why are there no software projects on Kickstarter? I see hardware projects from both small teams and large companies. But I don’t see any software projects. Why is that?
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thijsvandien
Several projects related to the Django web framework were funded through
Kickstarter, e.g. built-in schema migrations [1], improved support for
PostgreSQL [2], and work on the Django REST framework [3].

[1] [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andrewgodwin/schema-
mig...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andrewgodwin/schema-migrations-
for-django)

[2] [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mjtamlyn/improved-
postg...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mjtamlyn/improved-postgresql-
support-in-django)

[3] [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tomchristie/django-
rest...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tomchristie/django-rest-
framework-3)

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seren
I would say that most _pure_ software project are not necessarily capital
intensive, so if you have an idea you can just execute it, and directly start
selling to customers, so it makes less sense to do a Kickstarter.

Even if you do not really intend to monetize, and you want to develop
something to scratch an itch, a Github account is rather affordable.

~~~
bellsandwhis
So true, even though time and focus is worth lots of $$.

~~~
abbadadda
I'd counter that money can give some runway for the project to better exist
than it otherwise would be able to as a side project. If someone said, "If I
can raise $20,000 on Kickstarter I'll quit my job and work on this full time,
aiming to deliver in 6 months" that's a different value proposition that
simply running a GitHub account and coding in spare time does not afford.

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frou_dh
Patreon ($x/month) seems to have more mindshare since the heyday of the big
all-or-nothing Kickstarter.

~~~
jandrese
Patreon is much better fit for continual software maintenence. You get a
monthly income to keep improving the software.

That said, video games aren't unheard of on Kickstarter. There's a final
product to deliver to the backers so they can check the "successful
Kickstarter" box and then move on to a new project.

------
trumbitta2
The exception: [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/johnonolan/ghost-
just-a...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/johnonolan/ghost-just-a-
blogging-platform)

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forkLding
Don't software-based games count? I always see games asking for funding on
Kickstarter.

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bdcravens
Font Awesome raised money on Kickstarter (I was happy to participate)

[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/232193852/font-
awesome-...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/232193852/font-awesome-5)

I think part of the issue is that most software projects tend to be a service
or have managed components, making it tricky to provide ownership to a
finished product, which is ambiguously stated as a requirement:

> At some point, the creator should be able to say: “It’s finished. Here’s
> what we created. Enjoy!”

[https://www.kickstarter.com/rules](https://www.kickstarter.com/rules)

~~~
sroussey
Wow! $1m raised as well!

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gnicholas
When you're making hardware, there's a logical way to structure backer rewards
by offering the first units off the factory line. You can give these to your
early backers (to incentivize them to sign up) or to people who back later but
pay tons of money.

With software, there is no equivalent of "first unit off the factory line".
You could artificially create this dynamic by releasing the software in phases
to different tiers of backers, but this would probably just anger people
because it's entirely artificial. There are also limitations around apps, for
example Apple won't let you offer TestFlight beta testing as a reward. And of
course, you can't let people buy an iOS app through Kickstarter either.

I had to think creatively about the rewards/tiers for my software kickstarter,
which was successfully funded. [1] We let people who paid a little money vote
on a certain set of features, and people who paid more money could both submit
options and also vote. We also had branded mugs for higher-tier backers as
well, which we drop-shipped via Costco (note: only offer this to US-based
backers...). I think these voting/nominating tiers would work well for most
software, since it's costless to let people vote, and you want to make
something that your users want anyway.

1: [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/72264020/read-across-
th...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/72264020/read-across-the-aisle)

~~~
plutonicks
I've also seen prepay or discounts work well.

Such as a free pro account for life or 50% off platform fees

I like your idea too. Id expect that it would create a trusted beta group that
has more buy in... How did it work out?

~~~
gnicholas
Worked out great! We were fully funded, and I reached out to the community
again when we launched a tool for another platform (Chrome extension). Several
years later, and we still have thousands of active users.

------
toomanyrichies
I would love for something like "Kickstarter for software" to exist. It would
help separate the "oh, that's a nice business idea, you should build it" crowd
from the "I need that app now and will happily pay for an ugly but workable
version of it" crowd.

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purerandomness
Magit, the Git frontend for Emacs, has a Kickstarter:
[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1681258897/its-magit-
th...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1681258897/its-magit-the-magical-
git-client)

------
bradhe
There are lots of software projects on Kickstarter! I think what you're
considering, though, is _consumer_ or _enterprise_ software. Which is because
the incentives don't align that way. The way to capitalize those businesses
isn't through Kickstarter.

------
phaus
There are, just not frequently.

This was a pretty successful product for 2d animation:

[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/esotericsoftware/spine](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/esotericsoftware/spine)

------
dangerlibrary
There are a fair number of video game kickstarters - they have a mixed
reputation.

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blackrock
Does Kickstarter allow you to raise money to build a product, where in
exchange for their support, you offer to give your backers a percentage of
future profits? And with an agreed upon profit sharing restriction.

Or is something like this in contradiction with SEC investing rules.

The interesting thing is if you build something that brings in $1 billion in
profits, and you continue to pay that small percentage out to your initial
Kickstarter supporters.

~~~
bdcravens
No.

> Projects can't offer equity.

> Investment is not permitted on Kickstarter. Projects can't offer incentives
> like equity, revenue sharing, or investment opportunities.

[https://www.kickstarter.com/rules](https://www.kickstarter.com/rules)

~~~
blackrock
I always found that confounding.

You put up a half-baked idea, and random people will throw a few hundred
dollars at you to help you achieve it. And all they get is a thanks, and
perhaps a mention, and possibly a tshirt.

And sometimes the person never had any intention of building the product to
begin with. It was an elaborate scam.

~~~
bdcravens
Kickstarter knows many projects fail, which is why they want to ensure there
are no guarantees or legal entanglements with the types of projects there. As
a Kickstarter purchaser, you have to know what you're getting into. I actually
was burned by one project (the HydraDock) but I honestly wasn't that angry; I
knew the subtle difference between sponsoring a project and a pre-order.

------
Costrak
I think it relates to the most common reward type permitted for the project
backers. Generally, they get the item they have backed, such as a game, a
movie. This tends to favour physical goods

~~~
eps
Except for computer games, of which there is a ton.

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zadkey
Why would you not consider a computer game a software project?

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codegeek
Software projects have a much lower barrier to entry and doesn't require
upfront intensive capital. The only thing you can do with kickstarter for a
software project is to get paid for your own time building the project. Most
people don't want to pay for that unfortunately. Doesn't have the same appeal
as a tangible physical product that you can showcase.

Kickstarter is for experimental and new things. Software customers are not
looking for new things. They just want their problem solved and will not wait
for a kickstarter project to do that unless you are building the next AI but
then you have the FAANGs doing it already.

~~~
eps
KS has long been used as a promotional vehicle for kick-starting not so much
the product development, but marketing/sales of the same. Often times it looks
like the developers themselves cover the final gap if the project can't
achieve its set goal naturally.

This way they basically go after a permission to spam supporters with project
updates, asking for retweets, mentions, etc. It helps gathering free beta
testing crowd. Perhaps there are also some SEO benefits too.

So in this context OP's question is really quite valid. I'm guessing that no
one has thought about using KS this way yet and it's definitely worth a try.

------
simple10
There are about a dozen notable software projects that raised money on
Kickstarter, but it's a tiny percentage compared to the total.

Font Awesome, Light Table, LiveCode, Lavabit, Diaspora, Ghost, NoFlo Flowhub,
Hypothes.is, etc. used Kickstarter to fund parts of their projects. See
Kickstarter Technology > Software category [1]. There's a steep drop off from
amount raised by notable projects to all other software projects.

The total amounts raised by software projects is significantly less than other
categories like hardware, board games, and art. Mostly this is do to 1) how
Kickstarter rewards work, 2) how Kickstarter marketing works, and 3) the
psychology of backers and existing angel investors.

It's hard to come up with good rewards for software projects. Since
Kickstarter does not allow equity rewards, the only option is a discount or
tangential reward like a t-shirt. People are already accustomed to seeing
special deals or bundles for software that's already built. Giving a 50%
discount or lifetime access on Kickstarter is typically not enough for
potential backers to take the risk for a project in prototype or concept
stage.

Projects that raise $100k+ in any category are almost exclusively driven by
marketing. Ads, influencers, email lists, cross promotions, etc. Kickstarter
will give an algorithmic discoverability boost to projects that are generating
a lot of sales, but you pretty much have to bring your own traffic.

Kickstarter marketing agencies almost always pass on helping software
projects. Disclaimer: I have a marketing agency and get a lot of inbound
requests to help with software, which I turn down. Kickstarter marketing is
already a niche (about 1M backers in the USA) and narrowing further down to
software makes the niche too small to work on most ad platforms.

Software projects with large built-in audiences or existing customer bases
have used Kickstarter to fund new milestones. See Lavabit Dark Mail Initiative
[2]. But we don't see this very often since the risk to reward ratio isn't in
the project's favor. It's unlikely that a software project will get a lot of
organic exposure on Kickstarter. Most of the backers will be existing project
users.

Due to the public nature of Kickstarter and limited campaign length of max 60
days, there's a high risk the raise will be seen as underperforming by the
public or existing angel/VC investors.

Summing it up... if you want to raise money for software by pre-selling at a
discount, you might as well just do it through Stripe and save yourself the 5%
Kickstarter fee and hassle of doing a Kickstarter campaign.

[1]
[https://www.kickstarter.com/discover/advanced?category_id=51...](https://www.kickstarter.com/discover/advanced?category_id=51&sort=most_funded)
[2] [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ladar/lavabits-dark-
mai...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ladar/lavabits-dark-mail-
initiative)

~~~
sroussey
I am curious if KS can improve marketing spend for software project, where the
success of a project is story in and of itself.

~~~
simple10
I've wondered this as well. I think the idea of a small-team open source
project funded on KS in milestones is feasible. However, the promotion would
need to be handled by the community and backers vs the developer team.
Otherwise the time and monetary cost of frequently running campaigns on KS
would be too high of a distraction.

I also think there's room in the market to create a KS alternative
specifically for software that actually helps with promotion.

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bogdanu
I wonder if there's a kickstarter for starting FOSS software/libraries...

