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wrt #5-

Little known secret, most successful Kickstarter campaigns have 25% of their demand already assessed and paid for up front. (yes, this includes the infamous Pebble). Since KS is so ubiquitous, it's now generally regarded as a PR/marketing platform as opposed to a funding platform. It would make total sense for these guys to do Kickstarter.

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When talking to people who had run successful campaigns before us, we found that having an audience and a mailing list beforehand was the key driving success factor. Prior to yesterday we had about 200 people, mostly consisting of friends and family. This is the real thing. No one has committed to buying Point, but we hope that some will!

(I'm on the Form team)

Yup, even though KS will take a cut, it's worth getting those people who will pay to do it through KS. It's a very strong signal on your KS campaign page if by the time the buzz hits that you have 25% of your money already there, you'll convert way more than if you only had say 5%. Social proof is a huge factor in sales. The KS campaigns that are are successful and haven't use this technique are generally outliers.

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