Kickstarter launches in the UK at the end of the month and there will be lots of media coverage about this "funding platform for creative projects" and its new way of raising money. But, it occurs to me, it's not really about crowdsourced funding at all.
After all, many of the successful projects could arguably have found traditional funding if the founders had been willing to give up some control to traditional third parties, and many of the projects find themselves funded far beyond the original goals.
No, the money's secondary. Something else is going on. This isn't just crowdsourcing, it's momentum sourcing.
Momentum that's derived from proof of concept; momentum that's derived from building a tribe of promoter-users who are incentivised via the range of prizes on offer; and momentum that's derived from being able to leverage critical mass with future investors, distributors and customers.
Most people see it solely as a fund-raising exercise and that's great, but they shouldn't overlook the baked-in marketing. That's priceless.
