The Art of the Kickstarter Stunt

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The Art of the Kickstarter Stunt

sparkhouseRunning a Kickstarter campaign is hard. The headlines from groups like Pebble and PrintrBot, breakaway successes that completely explode onto the internet, are what stick out on our Facebook and Twitter feeds. More likely, though, the Kickstarter campaign is an intense, month-long grind.

If the project is off to a slow start, it’s common for the project creators to start pulling out all the stops to try and get their project over the finish line. With the clock ticking down and the tested patience of friends and family, it’s a moment that calls for quick thinking and unorthodox tactics. I call this moment the Kickstarter Stunt.

I’ve seen people try to host events. More commonly, I’ve seen campaigns try to offer a new reward level (we did that with OpenROV). But today Zach Supalla sent me a link that really took the Kickstarter Stunt to another level: he’s open sourced the Christmas lights on his house, allowing anyone to log in and control his house lights from their browser.

In an effort to appeal to the internet’s inner Clark Griswold, Zach has rigged up his house to spread the holiday spirit in a way that highlights the unique, internet-controlled possibilities of the Spark Devices he has created. You can log in and control the house for yourself here.

I hope this pushes Spark over the finish line. It’s worth my shillings. Touché, Zach.

6 thoughts on “The Art of the Kickstarter Stunt

  1. How do we make DIYBio sustainable? | Beyond The Lab says:

    […] possible funding routes. An amazing project such as OpenPCR was funded through Kickstarter. But, as MAKE’s David Lang points it out, running a crowdfunding campaign to kit up your home lab may pretty often be a tough experience. […]

  2. SpotOn NYC: DIY Science – How do we make DIYBio sustainable? | SpotOn says:

    […] funding routes. An amazing project such as OpenPCR was funded through Kickstarter. But, as MAKE’s David Lang points it out, running a crowdfunding campaign to kit up your home lab may pretty often be a tough experience. […]

  3. How do we make DIYBio sustainable? « Into Oblivion says:

    […] possible funding routes. An amazing project such as OpenPCR was funded through Kickstarter. But, as MAKE’s David Lang points it out, running a crowdfunding campaign to kit up your home lab may pretty often be a tough experience. […]

  4. MAKE | Crowdfunding: If at First you Don’t Succeed… says:

    […] done. Quite successfully, too. You may remember Zach from his valiant (but not quite successful) attempt to kickstart his internet-connected lightbulb last year. For most of us, raising $125,000 would be a huge […]

  5. Kickstarter: If at First you Don’t Succeed… - IT Clips says:

    […] done. Quite successfully, too. You may remember Zach from his valiant (but not quite successful) attempt to kickstart his internet-connected lightbulb last year. For most of us, raising $125,000 would be a huge […]

  6. Blake says:

    Wow it’s trippy to read this, especially since Spark is now another of KS’s breakaway successes.

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Co-Founder of OpenROV, a community of DIY ocean explorers and makers of low-cost underwater robots. Author of Zero to Maker. And on Twitter!

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