Before this year, I was fairly clueless as to what I would do my Capstone Project on. While I juggled around a few bizarre ideas, I could not decide on one that I would be willing to stick with for an extended period. Only after browsing through some Kickstarter projects one day was I inspired to focus on the crowdfunding process. I figured that it would be very interesting to break down the journey that crowdfunding campaigns take into a series of steps, and to not just research how to approach these steps, but to also analyze good and bad examples for said step. As the cherry on top, to make my campaign far more exciting to present, I decided also to create my own product, in order to show what I’ve learned from the research I completed in each move. With a plan formulated, I had it approved by Mr. Inouye, and I moved on to my summer research.

My summer reading allowed me to fill in the many smaller gaps in my knowledge of crowdfunding. I was able to learn of the benefits of crowdfunding to fledgling companies, and I was able to analyze the relationship between group-based crowdfunding and more traditional funding methods. I also gained perhaps the most valuable insight, which was that success of a campaign is in the preparation. Thank goodness that this was the case, since the whole structure of this project was to be preparation for my campaign. I also researched 6 interesting people, 3 living and 3 dead, who I would consult with in my quest to creating the perfect crowdfunding campaign, and I was able to gain insight into their own journeys--most importantly, how they came into success/popularity. Having finished my summer research, at that point I had reaffirmed the merit of my Capstone Project. I knew that crowdfunding was viable, vast, researchable, and intriguing, and I planned on using these qualities of crowdfunding to make my own journey as thorough and exciting as possible.

Throughout the four moves that I completed, I found valuable information about how to do one thing or how to avoid another thing, but I feel that what helped me the most was not what other researchers told me, but instead what other campaigns told me. I am very thankful for having thought to research the successes and failures of other campaigns, since I was able to take what these other campaigns did right and wrong and apply it in my own completion of the step. For example, in move 2, “Triton” and “Ring” showed me that a good idea requires substantial testing of the prototype, as well as honesty about the limitations of the product. In that same move, “Oculus” and “Yooka Laylee” showed me that whether a project consists of a game, device, artpiece, or any other medium, it can still be successful if the creator understands the audience of the project. The former also solidified the viability of crowdfunding in my mind, due to the company receiving a $2 billion acquisition from Facebook. In move 3, “Reading Rainbow” taught me that a good story can sometimes be more valuable than the product itself, and “TrapTap” showed me that offering a compelling argument for why your product is better that similar products can go a long way in the success of a campaign. At the same time, “Hashkey” showed me that an uninspired story, as well as failing to understand the audience, will cause a project to fall flat (except in the case of “Potato Salad,” which succeeded by becoming the joke of the internet for a few days). In move 4, “Coolest Cooler” and “Zano” showed me that receiving a lot of money through crowdfunding is not a guarantee of success, and that considering all possible logistics and circumstances is crucial to avoiding demise.

Thankfully, my journey throughout this project was not as “bumpy” as it could have been. In regards to highs and lows, I would consider my journey more as a hike up a mountain, as the whole project seemed more and more complete and exciting as I completed the different moves. A divot in this steady climb was most noticeable to me in move 2, since I had much difficulty determining how to construct a prototype of the Tyvek belt I had envisioned. I was going to just use Tyvek by it stretched and was too thin. I was going to use a classic belt buckle but the Tyvek would not cooperate with is. To eventually reach a successful prototype, I had to be open to trying anything, and I had to listen to the wise advice that others (like my mother, or a woman I met at a local fabric store) gave me. Truly, in regards to unsticking strategies, I would place “consulting others” high on that list. Besides this, however, much of my work was theoretical, and thus went off with little trouble.

Having reached the end of my Capstone Project, it is difficult to rank what I learned in the project. Perhaps, my thesis would simply be that a successful crowdfunding campaign does not just require a good product, or a good story, or a solid plan, or a good video, or good press/campaigning/outreach--it requires all of these things. This plays into the valuable insight I had gained all the way back during the summer--that success is in the preparation. As I mentioned earlier, I saw projects fail from the start, or fail after success. I came to see that every move I had chosen was a characteristic of successful campaigns. I could take a successful product like the “Coolest Cooler” and show how it failed due to missing the characteristic of “well thought out logistics.” I came to see, throughout this journey, that my moves were far more connected than I had planned or thought them to be.
 

What question am I left with, then, after synthesising all that I have seen and learned from the conception of my Capstone Project to now? I feel that the question is simply: “so what category does my product fall in?” I wonder now if, having tried to apply what I learned through research and campaigns to my own product, I actually did enough to guarantee the success of the “Tyvek belt project.” While I at first did plan to launch this project at the end of the journey, I came to realize that I was not in the best place to do so. Perhaps, if ever revisiting this project down the road when I have more knowledge and experience under my belt (please excuse the awful pun), I may finally receive the answer to this question. For now, I can only make guesses at the true potential of what I labored to create this year.

But why should anyone else care? This is a valid concern, but the beauty of crowdfunding is that everyone else should care because they fit into the process. We all can be part of a process where we help other great ideas receive the funds and recognition they desire, and have our own projects either embraced or rejected by the community. Everyone has ideas, and everybody looks for things that make their everyday lives easier, so why not turn to crowdfunding? I know that I personally have a greater appreciation for what goes into a good crowdfunded campaign. While initially I had operated under the assumption that most of kickstarter was useless “crap,” this notion was transformed as I progressed from move to move. What should others do having shared in this knowledge with me? I find it hard to say, but I warn them: you better not try to crowdfund a Tyvek belt--I already have that covered!