Celebrating 15 Years of Kickstarter

Yesterday, Kickstarter turned 15. 

Our first-ever successfully-funded project raised just $35 for an illustration idea. It was proof: This idea – that a community could come together to fund creative projects they believe in – can work. 

$7.9 billion dollars in pledges and 257,000+ successfully funded projects later, these last 15 years have been a testament to the power of creativity, innovation, and most of all, community.

Thank you.

Thank you to the artists, chefs, musicians, tabletop game designers, filmmakers, comic book illustrators, authors, creative hobbyists, creative entrepreneurs, and inventors that have trusted Kickstarter to be a launchpad for your ambitious, innovative, and imaginative ideas.

Thank you to the backers who want to support and be a part of bringing new ideas into the world.

Because of your trust, your creativity, your courage to pursue the new ideas you want to introduce to the world, your innate urge to cheer others on and support them on their journey, so many amazing things have happened: Grammy winning songs and Oscar winning films. 60 Guinness World Records. More than 100 films premiering at Sundance. A thriving universe of indie games and indie comics. Best-selling books. Products that became household names.

And, like all the projects on our platform, we started off as just an idea. 

The idea for Kickstarter all started when our founder wanted to bring his favorite DJs down for a show in New Orleans. It didn’t happen, but it made him think, "What if people could go to a site and pledge to buy tickets for a show? And if enough money was pledged, they would be charged and the show would happen. If not, it wouldn't." 

Years later — on April 28, 2009, at 4:27 PM – after spending years in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn ideating, sketching and debating about how to bring this idea to life – our founders finally put their idea into action and launched Kickstarter.

Today – as artists and creators are increasingly subject to platforms and business models that seek to own their work, their creativity, and their audiences while paying them as little as possible in return – it’s more important than ever to give people the chance to create things independently, on their own terms. 

We’re inspired every day to continue helping creators put their own ideas into action and we’re hard at work building a Kickstarter that is better than ever, giving you exactly what you want to see from us and redefining what we know crowdfunding to be.

I can’t wait for you all to see what we have up our sleeves. Stay tuned.

For now, cheers to an incredible 15 years. 

Everette Taylor

CEO, Kickstarter