After the Campaign: Outcomes of Crowdfunding

We conducted a follow-up survey of large design, technology, and video games projects that attempted to raise money using crowdfunding before mid-2012. We found that reward-based crowdfunding appears to be able to lead to and support traditional entrepreneurship. A very high percentage (over 90%) of successful projects remained ongoing ventures 1-4 years after their campaign. We found that 32% of all these reported yearly revenues of over $100,000 a year since the Kickstarter campaign, and added an average of 2.2 employees per successful project. The survey also suggested that crowdfunding provided many potential benefits beyond the crowdfunded money itself to successful creators, including helping provide access to customers, press, employees, and outside funders. Consistent with other research, many projects were delayed for a variety of reasons, and 37% went over budget. We also analyze the factors that lead to longer-term crowdfunding success.