Go Your Own Way
Cameron Robertson
Cofounder, Lockitron
After Kickstarter denied his Wi-Fi–enabled dead bolt, Robertson created his own crowdfunding platform, Selfstarter. It took off and went on to help the popular lost-and-found app Tile raise $2.6 million.
The Self-Starter
A day after we submitted Lockitron, Kickstarter was putting limitations on gadget projects, such as not allowing renderings. The next day, we were rejected–though they said we were caught under a long-standing rule against ‘home-improvement projects.’
We’d been rubbed so wrongly that we wanted to own the crowdfunding experience. We developed Selfstarter in a week. We were adamant about not charging customers until the creator’s product was ready to ship–and not, like Kickstarter, when the financial goal is reached. Sometimes a creator never ships their product, and funders rightly get upset. Under our new plan, we asked for $150,000 and raised $2.3 million–without charging anyone’s cards.
On Selfstarter, you can keep raising funds after your campaign ends. On a platform like Kickstarter, we’d have had to redirect traffic to our site after the campaign ended. That’s a massive loss.
I wrote a post on TechCrunch after we launched our Lockitron campaign and folks said, ‘We had the same problem. Can you help us out?’ It made sense to open-source the software and give it away for people to use. Nearly $7 million has been raised on Selfstarter. Truthfully, I’m more excited to see where others take it.
Fast Talk: Breaking from the Crowd
- Jack Conte, Patreon Cofounder
- Cameron Robertson, Lockitron Cofounder
- Stephanie Horbaczewski, StyleHaul Fouder and CEO & Freddie Wong, Rocket Jump Studios Cofounder
- WIll Harbin, Kixeye Chairman and CEO
- Youtube Ranter Zack James On The Site’s Biggest Problem: The Networks
- Youtube’s Offer To Aspiring Viral Stars: Studios, Shout-Outs, And Matt Damon
- Kickstarter Cofounder Yancey Strickler: “Nobody’s Project Is Getting Lost.”