You Won’t Believe How My Kickstarter Was Funded 600%…and So Can You!
Medium has weird header leading; it needs a subtitle to look right
I have been making Futura Bracket since 2011 and sharing it with wider audiences online (through Tumblr, Twitter and email) since 2012. So long as I enjoy NCAA basketball, it is something I will continue to make in perpetuity, even if the audience is just me.
Futura Bracket is a remarkably dumb product. It contains the same necessary information as literally¹ every other bracket. It excludes basic interactivity built into several brackets offered online. It features exactly zero sponsor logos from which it generates absolutely no revenue. It is black-and-white, generic-supermarket-brand boring.
Futura Bracket’s once broad exposure has narrowed in recent years as tastemaking design blogs have wisely lost interest. Using Kickstarter as a gimmick to draw attention was a low-barrier-to-entry option: risk nothing and invest very little time. All that work paid off.
The fundraising goal for Futura Bracket was $1, and within the first eight hours it was as riveting success. Remarkably, it didn’t end there. Within 24 hours, it had been funded 300%, and, by the campaign’s final buzzer, five backers had contributed a whopping 600% of the ambitious initial target.
As I reflect on the small fortune of $5 and change (after Kickstarter takes 5% and Amazon charges processing fees), I am reminded of something my grandfather told me.
The best way to make a small fortune is to start with a large one.
He was right. And I wish I had a large fortune.
I implore you to share Futura Bracket on internet social media outlets, in office place emails and at friendship gatherings. Use this tiny url pdx.be/2017m or this more memorable url pdx.be/morememorable.
Apropos of nothing, I heard “Telephone and Rubber Band” for the first time recently because Bob Boilen indulged a bit on All Songs Considered and it has been on my mind ever since. Frankly, I don’t know why I even wasted time telling you about Futura Bracket. Have a listen, and then go dig up everything you can on Penguin Cafe Orchestra.
¹ Enjoy this rare sighting of the elusive Correct Use of the Word Literally in the wild. Screen captures are welcome. Copying and pasting is encouraged — it’s the only way this once thriving unit of language will survive.
² Who has two thumbs and can’t stand that Penguin Cafe Orchestra don’t use the accent in Café consistently? This guy.
For more on Michael Buchino, visit buchino.net or creep on his Instagram to get your scroll double-tap scroll scroll double-tap fix.
