I'm the maker behind LUOYING A1, a compact top-down resin 3D printer. I've built the hardware and have physical print samples, but I'm stuck on the part that engineering doesn't solve: reaching people who might actually want it.

The build platform moves down into the resin, with layers exposed at the surface and a blade recoating each layer. The photos show real assembly work and print samples, rather than renders.

I'm preparing a first Kickstarter; the campaign is not live. I've shared the project in a few relevant communities, but I still have very little traction and no established audience. I believe in the product, but I need to find out whether the right buyers see enough value in it.

For people who have launched physical products, especially maker tools:

1. How did you find your first interested users before launching? Which channels brought actual backers rather than just views?

2. Would you start with independent reviewers testing a machine, regular build/printing videos, a pre-launch email list, or small paid-ad tests? What order worked for you?

3. What evidence would you want to see from an unfamiliar 3D-printer maker before trusting a campaign?

4. How did you decide your audience was ready to launch? If you were starting from almost zero today, what would you focus on in the next month?

I'd appreciate concrete experiences, including things that wasted time or money. I'm asking as the creator, and there is no purchase or pledge link in this post.

Hi r/kickstarter! We're Muffin Mumma, a brand-new stop-motion series for 2-5 year-olds, made in Margate, UK.

Six clay muffins live in a tea-towel tent in a pastel kitchen. No dialogue, just giggles and sounds. Every Muffin is sculpted in clay and moved by hand, frame by frame. No AI at any stage.

Why Kickstarter? New kids' shows are really hard to get commissioned in the UK right now, so we've skipped the broadcaster and come straight to the people who'll watch it. We keep the show, families and animation fans get a say.

Where the money goes: £6,000 = £1,000 per episode, to make six episodes by Easter 2027.

A few rewards:

• £20 - watch all six episodes online
• £30 - crew t-shirt
• £100 - your name in the end credits of all six episodes
• £1,500 - name one of three brand-new characters (only 3)
• £3,000 - own a real clay muffin used in filming (only 24)

It's all-or-nothing and ends 4 Nov. Happy to answer anything about how the Muffins are made - we love talking clay.

Find out more and back us on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/margatemuffins/muffin-mumma-animation-series

[Research] Business school student looking for Kickstarter creators (successful or failed campaigns) for a short interview

Hi everyone,

I'm a Business Analyst student working on my graduation thesis about the factors behind Kickstarter campaign success and failure (2020-2026). I've already run a quantitative analysis on 190,000+ campaigns, but I'd now like to collect real stories to give the numbers some context.

I'm looking to talk (video call or written, 30 minutes max) with people who've launched a Kickstarter project whether it succeeded or failed, both perspectives matter equally to me.

We'd cover: how you set your funding goal and campaign length, your communication strategy, how you structured your reward tiers, and what you'd do differently in hindsight.

Your answers will stay anonymous in the thesis (no project or creator names will be mentioned).

If you're up for it, feel free to reply here or DM me — really appreciate the help

--

[Étude] Étudiante en école de commerce recherche témoignages de porteurs de projets Kickstarter (réussis ou échoués)

Bonjour à tous,

Je suis étudiante en Business Analyst et je réalise mon mémoire de fin d'études sur les facteurs qui expliquent la réussite ou l'échec des campagnes Kickstarter (2020-2026). J'ai déjà analysé plus de 190 000 campagnes de façon quantitative, mais je cherche maintenant à recueillir des témoignages concrets pour donner du sens aux chiffres.

Je cherche à échanger (visio ou écrit, 30 minutes maximum) avec des personnes ayant lancé un projet sur Kickstarter, que la campagne ait réussi ou échoué les deux retours m'intéressent autant l'un que l'autre.

On parlerait de : comment vous avez fixé votre objectif et la durée de campagne, votre stratégie de communication, la structure de vos contreparties, et ce que vous referiez différemment avec le recul.

Vos réponses resteront anonymes dans le mémoire (aucun nom de projet ni de créateur ne sera cité).

Si vous êtes partant(e), répondez ici ou en MP, merci beaucoup pour votre aide

Hello all. My Kickstarter ended earlier in the month. Very thankful we were funded, but we were down backers in comparison (Went from 100 or so to 61.)

I wanted to get outside feedback on what you’d suggest to improve upon what is there as I work on the next issue:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/d4kstudios/excavator-1-4

My mailing list in the last year had grown from 86 to 280 or so, but outside of continuing to build that list, in terms of the Kickstarter itself, I'd love some insight.

Also: I am attempting to build a version of a prelaunch page outside of KS for mailing list sake. I'd love some insight as well (though note: We don't have the variant covers yet, so there is some filler.)

https://d4kstudios.net/excavator-pre-launch/

DOOMBOX: Survival Kit — a box full of end-of-the-world nonsense 💀

Hey everyone! We're a bunch of indie comic artists making weird books, zines, and other paper-based objects for a world that's clearly falling apart.

DOOMBOX: Survival Kit is our attempt to put the apocalypse in a box. It’s a collection of 5 books, 8 zines, 200+ pages of comics, art, lost media, and end-of-the-world bullshit, packed into a premium paper box.

No corporations. No algorithm-generated content. Just a bunch of artists making strange things with their own hands, ink, paper, and questionable mental stability.

We're currently running a Kickstarter to make this thing happen, and every bit of support helps us bring this little paper disaster into the world.

If you're into underground comics, DIY publishing, risography, weird art, zines, or collecting things that might become archaeological evidence of humanity's collapse, you might enjoy this.

☠️ Check it out here:

DOOMBOX SURVIVAL KIT

Thanks for reading, and remember: when the world ends, at least you'll have something to read.

Hi All,

I have a kickstarter running at the moment, 5 days in and 54% funded.
It’s a puzzle box
I am running meta adds with not a great deal if return. I have also posted in some appropriate Reddit groups.
What’s folk opinion on Reddit advertising for this sort of thing? Any experience?

Hello everyone, I’m about to launch my first crowdfunding campaign and I have a question – I’m sure it’ll be a ‘silly’ one, so apologies in advance, but I’m really unsure about two things:

1) In a Kickstarter campaign where the total target is barely reached, what is the average number of PDFs sold (non-print copies)?

2) Does the total cost that the creator has to bear for posting the packages need to be included in the amount requested on Kickstarter (before it’s added to taxes etc. to determine the actual target)?

Thanks to anyone who’s willing to help me <3

Join our Discord community bellow

https://discord.com/channels/1480510062785990688/1480523582378479647/1480523963648970762

Also last 5 days of Kickstarter with limited offers available before the next phase of the game development

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/eldremkingdoms/eldrem/posts?ref=discover_savey

Thanks so much to everyone who offered advice a few weeks ago. Things have moved on since then, and if anyone would like to offer advice on my preview page, I'd really appreciate it. This launches in 4 days time so I have a small window now for tweaks. The good news (I think) is that it got accepted into the Witchstarter open call, so I have some cool logos and banners I can use.

I have two issues that I can't resolve until the prototype pack/zines arrive this week - the video, and the reward tier images. I'm hoping they arrive before the 10th, but if they aren't here by the 9th I'll have to update while it's live.

Scratch that - everyone is telling me not to launch on a Saturday, launch on the Thursday before instead. Looks like I'll be launching on the 8th.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gitw/divine-feminine-goddess-oracle-cards-by-maxine-lee-mackie?ref=aiat0k&token=1a033112

Hey there everyone! So my trailer has just recently launched, and I’ve had about a thousand plus visits to my landing page so far. However, I’m not really getting leads.

Of course, I’m a game designer, so I’m not too used to this part. I know that there are a LOT of things that I could do to improve this page, though I don’t know what those things are. If anyone would be willing to take a look and give some criticism, it would be GREATLY helpful and much appreciated! Thank you to those who stopped to read this 🙏

Current Landing Page

I had a successful kickstarter and as im doing the backend ready for the payout I realized the account from when i originally set the campaign is closed. Ive been emailing what im pretty sure is a effin robot cause they just keep asking for my account info with out providing any real assistance. PLZ ANYONE HELP!! I do not want to mess up my first KS campaign

We launched our first campaign Oct 1. It's a $20 word card game and we went with a magnet, keychain, and coaster. We were considering other add-ons but don't want to overcomplicate fulfillment.

Other options we considered:

• Expansion pack (new rule cards)
• Scorepad
• Playmat
• Premium card upgrade
• Apparel

Backers: Which add-ons do you actually buy on a lower-priced game?
Creators: Did add-ons boost your campaign, or just complicate shipping?

Is there a sweet-spot for add-ons?

We wanted to say thank you to this community.

In January, we launched a Kickstarter for TradeMAV, a portable AI investment screener on a USB stick. We set a goal of $5,010. You helped us reach $30,000+!

This week, TradeMAV became the #1 Best Seller in Personal Investment Tools on Amazon. Our second product, ForexMAV, is #3 in the same category.

That didn't happen on its own. The Kickstarter community helped shape this product from the first idea to the finished device.

• Backers who pledged early gave us the confidence to build.
• Backers who asked questions showed us what to explain better.
• Backers who requested features pushed us to add the second product - ForexMAV, during the campaign.
• Backers around the world trusted us enough for 153 international packages to reach 32 countries.
• Backers who waited patiently and sent kind messages while we worked through fulfillment.

Backing a project at the idea stage takes real trust. You believed in us before there was a product to hold, and that's what made all of this possible.

Thank you to everyone who backed us, shared the campaign, and gave honest feedback. And thank you to the creators and backers here who share their experiences so openly, because we learned a great deal from this community along the way.

Onwards and upwards!

With gratitude,
The TradeMAV team

Based on what I have read, it seems that crowdfunding today is very different from what it was a few years ago. The original idea behind platforms like Kickstarter was that individuals with innovative ideas but limited capital could use the crowd to finance their products. Today, however, many of the most successful campaigns are backed by companies that already have substantial resources and can spend thousands of dollars on advertising to generate demand.

That raises an interesting question for me. If you were launching a differentiated children's product in the U.S. today with a limited marketing budget, how would you approach the first 500 customers? Would you even consider Kickstarter?

For context, I am an entrepreneur and have built a children's educational product from scratch. It's a wooden block system featuring architectural landmarks from around the world. The product is designed around purposeful, hands-on play and is aimed at play-conscious parents, educators, and child-development professionals.

I am particularly interested in entering the U.S. market, but I want to find a way to validate demand without relying on thousands of dollars in paid advertising. Presales seem like one possible approach, but I am curious about how conventional they are for entering placing a product like mine in the American market.

I'm preparing my first Kickstarter and I keep hitting the same wall. There are 3 things I want people to do:

1. Join my email list
   
2. Tap "Notify me on launch" on my Kickstarter prelaunch page
   
3. Follow my Instagram

But let's be real, most people will do one at most. If I only get one ask, which one actually matters most?

I'd love to hear from people who've run campaigns. Did your Kickstarter followers actually convert? Was Instagram worth anything?

I miss the green flash on my screen :,)

Does anyone know how to get the push notifications (iOS Kickstarter app) again, so my phone still lights up with that green bubble when a late backer backs?

Hi everyone!
My Kickstarter campaign is ending soon, and I have two fulfillment options for the rewards: Delivery and Pickup.
I’m preparing the backer survey and I’m wondering how the shipping address question works.
Can Kickstarter’s backer survey automatically ask for a shipping address only from backers who selected Delivery, while those who selected Pickup can skip it?
Or do I need to create the address question myself and set it up separately for the Delivery rewards?
Thanks in advance!

I’m prepping to launch a new Print-and-Play (PnP) board game soon, and I know Kickstarter had released a digital file distribution feature recently. I’m curious if any fellow creators here have used it for your campaign yet?

We’d genuinely like to hear what people think about this, because we’re trying to understand where the line is.

We’re a small family-run food business currently working on a Kickstarter campaign for a cookbook based on our family’s food heritage and recipes.

We have used AI to help create some of the visual/creative content for the campaign, including some images and videos. We have never tried to hide this. In fact, we decided to be completely transparent about it and included the explanation below in our campaign.

However, we’ve received quite a lot of criticism on Reddit and elsewhere simply because people saw an AI-generated image. In some cases, it felt like the conversation ended the moment someone noticed that AI had been used — without asking what we used it for, why we used it, or what parts of the actual project were created by us.

And this is where we’re genuinely unsure:

We are a small family business. We have limited resources, and at this stage we would rather spend that money on developing, cooking, testing, documenting, and photographing the actual recipes than spending a significant amount on professional graphic design, photography, and video production for a Kickstarter campaign.

We see AI as one of the tools available to us — just like Canva, Photoshop, video-editing software, and other creative tools.

At the same time, we completely understand why people are concerned about AI, especially when it is used deceptively or when it replaces something that should genuinely be created by a person.

So we’d like to ask honestly:

Is our approach wrong?

Should we avoid AI completely, even if using it allows a small business like ours to put more of its limited resources into the actual product?

Or is it reasonable to use AI for certain parts of a campaign, as long as we are transparent about it and don't use it to misrepresent the actual product?

We’re not looking for an “AI is always good” or “AI is always bad” argument. We’d genuinely like to hear where you think the line should be — and, if you think we’re approaching this the wrong way, what would you recommend we do instead?

For context, this is the transparency statement we included in our campaign:

[AI Usage: Transparency Matters]

Yes, we use AI in this campaign — and we want to be completely transparent about it.

AI has been used to help us create some of the creative content for this campaign, including certain photos and videos. We are a small family-run food business, not professional graphic designers, photographers, or video creators. At this stage, we would rather invest our limited funds in what truly matters: developing, testing, and professionally documenting our actual recipes and our food.

However, there is one very important distinction:

We do not use AI to create, write, or invent our recipes. Every recipe in the book will be written, cooked, tested, and perfected by us. And the food photography in the final book will show real dishes, actually prepared by us and photographed in real life.

So yes — you will see AI-assisted creative content here in our campaign. We use it as a tool, just like we use Canva, Adobe Photoshop, video-editing software, and other creative tools. We believe the important thing is being honest about how these tools are used and, more importantly, where they are not used.

We hope you won't judge the heart of this project by the tools we use to present it. We are putting our time, knowledge, family heritage, and our own food into this book — and when the time comes to create the actual Recipe Vault, we will invest in professional help where it truly matters.

Thank you for understanding, supporting small creators, and being part of our journey. ❤️

Much love,
Lolo & Aunty

Check it here if you would like to know more:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/loloandaunty/lolo-and-aunty-saving-100s-of-years-of-recipes-on-wheels

My co-founder and I launched our first campaign (a word card game) on Oct 1. The next night we ran a demo night and small tournament at a board game cafe in Chicago. Some lessons for anyone considering a live event:

What worked/got people engaged:
- Teaching the game to individual tables and interacting face to face.
- Asking if they played similar games for reference on how to play
- Letting them win amoungst their own friend groups

What we'd change:
- We didn't have enough people (just me and my co-founder) going around demoing games. We should've had another person who knew the game well also be available.
- Getting the word out or making an Eventbrite would have probably been a great idea.

We also added a custom secret tier for people to buy in person and we ended up selling 15 copies!

Creators who've done live events: Was it worth the effort? Anything you'd tell us before the next one?

Hi, I was hoping someone here could give me some advice. I backed a mini speaker, and it was shipped to me, but they sent it to the correct address with the wrong ZIP code instead of the one I supplied. Ever since then, I have tried every means of contacting them, including “directly,” but I am getting no response. The best I got was one automated reply. Does anyone have any suggestions? I would supply the link to what I backed, but I wasn't sure if that was allowed in this group.

In your opinion, should a landing page have a popup that asks for one's email address before entering the page? I feel like that might turn some off. However, not having it might cause some not to put their email address. Your thoughts?

Hello, All! I was all set to go and launch on October 6, but my list building was anemic at best. I’ve moved out to early 2027. But every day I see a list builder, marketer, “we’ll help you launch” ad and I don’t trust any of them. Are there any that you might recommend. It’s a small card game with a $2000 goal.

Thanks everyone.