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51-447: Following a successful Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign in 2014, the band was able to produce their second album Why Not (released in 2015). A behind-the-scenes docuseries, called All Access Pass , chronicles the songwriting and making of the new record on the band's website. This article on a United States country music band is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC

102-448: A $ 12 million Series A round for Bounce, a marketplace for consumers to access underutilized space in local businesses. In May 2022, the firm announced the launch of its largest fund to date at $ 4.5 billion. The fund is set to focus on cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies. The firm stated that $ 1.5 billion was allocated to seed investments while the remaining $ 3 billion would be earmarked for venture investments. In August 2022,

153-717: A Series A funding round in Applied Intuition , a software company specializing in products for autonomous vehicles (AVs), and Marc Andreessen joined the Applied Intuition board. In 2019 the firm provided $ 15.3 million in Series A funding to Substack , some of which went to bringing high-profile writers into that network. In June 2019 the firm also invested in a $ 9.2 million Series A round in AnyRoad , an experiential marketing platform, and David Ulevitch from Andreessen Horowitz joined

204-547: A company." Additionally, the CEO confirmed that Kickstarter stood by its decision to fire the two employees and would be pursuing legal action to fight their claims. The statement immediately resulted in criticism and calls for boycotts from creators who had previously used the platform, while writer Neil Gaiman tweeted that he would be unlikely to post support for or links to new Kickstarter campaigns "as long as they are anti-union." Kickstarter employees continued to file complaints to

255-462: A data breach of almost 5.2 million users' data, including email addresses, usernames and salted SHA-1 hashes of passwords. On March 19, 2019, Kickstarter's staff announced plans to unionize as part of the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU), which would make Kickstarter the only major tech company to have a union. Shortly after the announcement, three senior staffers released

306-519: A digital health company, and Apeel Sciences , a food science business. In 2017, the firm invested in Sigma, Health IQ, Asimov, and Cadre . In 2018, the firm raised $ 300 million for a dedicated cryptocurrency fund. It has also invested in Imply, Smartcar , PeerStreet, CryptoKitties , Dfinity, Earnin , Pindrop , Tenfold, and Very Good Security. In September 2018, Andreessen Horowitz participated in

357-593: A healthcare technology company. In October 2021, A16z led the round to Raise $ 150M Series B at $ 3B Valuation in Vietnamese studio Sky Mavis, the developer of crypto-based online game Axie Infinity . In December 2021, crowdfunding platform Kickstarter received a $ 100 million investment from a16z's crypto fund with the expectation that it would pivot to blockchain technology. The decision to pivot backfired, alienated many of Kickstarter's users, and ended up damaging its reputation. In March 2022, Andreessen Horowitz led

408-463: A memo dissenting against the decision, claiming that it is too extreme and that it would be a "misappropriation of unions for use by privileged workers." According to Kickstarter employees, they wanted to found a union both for enabling collective bargaining for wages and for "giving employees more clout," allowing them to work for goals that they saw in their interest and the public's interest. In May, Aziz Hasan, then CEO of Kickstarter, announced that

459-403: A number of milestones. A dock made for the iPhone designed by Casey Hopkins became the first Kickstarter project to exceed one million dollars in pledges. A few hours later, a new adventure game project started by computer game developers, Double Fine Productions , reached the same figure, having been launched less than 24 hours earlier, and finished with over $ 3 million pledged. This was also

510-456: A product. To underscore the notion that Kickstarter is a place in which creators and audiences make things together, creators across all categories are asked to describe the risks and challenges a project faces in producing it. This educates the public about the project goals and encourages contributions to the community. Several creative works have gone on to receive critical acclaim and accolades after being funded on Kickstarter. Others, such as

561-684: A project's success or failure on Kickstarter. Some key findings from the analysis were that increasing goal size is negatively associated successfully, projects that are featured on the Kickstarter homepage have an 89% chance of being successful, compared to 30% without, and that for an average $ 10,000 project, a 30-day project has a 35% chance of success, while a 60-day project has a 29% chance of success, all other things being constant. The ten largest Kickstarter projects by funds raised are listed below. Among successful projects, most raise between $ 1,000 and $ 9,999. These dollar amounts drop to less than half in

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612-449: A project. They also warn project leaders that they could be liable for legal damages from backers for failure to deliver on promises. Projects might also fail even after a successful fundraising campaign when creators underestimate the total costs required or technical difficulties to be overcome. When asked what made Kickstarter different from other crowdfunding platforms, co-founder Perry Chen said: "I wonder if people really know what

663-705: A public company in 2019 via an initial public offering raising $ 1.1 billion. Cards Against Humanity originated with a $ 4,000 Kickstarter campaign in 2010. Both Kickstarter and project creators have cancelled projects that appeared to have been fraudulent. Questions were raised about the projects in internet communities related to the fields of the projects. The concerns raised were: apparent copying of graphics from other sources; unrealistic performance or price claims; and failure of project sponsors to deliver on prior Kickstarter projects. Some notable cancelled projects include: Many individual Kickstarter projects caused controversy: In February 2014, Kickstarter announced

714-435: A service ) industries. Between 2006 and 2010, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz actively invested in technology companies . Separately, and together, they invested $ 4 million in 45 start-ups including Twitter . During this time, the two became known as " super angel " investors. On July 6, 2009, Andreessen and Horowitz launched their venture capital fund with an initial capitalization of $ 300 million. In November 2010, at

765-610: A special advisor to Andreessen Horowitz in June 2011. In September 2012, former Washington D.C. mayor Adrian Fenty was appointed Andreessen Horowitz's second special advisor. Fenty was hired to advise the firm's portfolio companies on working with local, state, and federal governments. In 2019, the firm applied to restructure as a registered investment adviser in order to have more freedom to take up riskier bets like cryptocurrency . In 2022, a16z announced GAMES FUND ONE, lead by partner Andrew Chen, its inaugural fund dedicated to building

816-496: A success rate of 37.45% (success rate being how many were successfully funded by reaching their set goal). The total amount pledged was $ 4,690,286,673. The business grew quickly in its early years. In 2010 Kickstarter had 3,910 successful projects and $ 27,638,318 pledged. The corresponding figures for 2011 were 11,836 successfully funded projects and $ 99,344,381 pledged; and there were 18,109 successfully funded projects, $ 610,352 pledged in 2012. On February 9, 2012, Kickstarter hit

867-509: A time when the field of venture capitalism was contracting, the company raised another $ 650 million for a second venture fund. In less than two years, the firm was managing a total of $ 1.2 billion under the two funds. In May 2011, Andreessen ranked number 10 on the 2011 Forbes Midas List of Tech's Top Investors while he and Horowitz ranked number 6 on Vanity Fair ' s 2011 New Establishment List and number 1 on CNET 's 2011 most influential investors list. As of March 27, 2014,

918-529: A year (so that those laid off can return to job openings), and a release from noncompete agreements for those who accept severance pay. In December 2021, Kickstarter announced they would be moving their platform to blockchain , with the aim of making the tools required for creating a crowdfunding site available to anyone. The pivot came on the back of a $ 100 million investment from the crypto fund of Andreessen Horowitz . The decision backfired, alienated many users, damaging Kickstarter's reputation. Kickstarter

969-980: Is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn , New York , that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of February 2023, Kickstarter has received US$ 7 billion in pledges from 21.7 million backers to fund 233,626 projects, such as films, music, stage shows, comics, journalism, video games, board games, technology, publishing, and food-related projects. People who back Kickstarter projects are offered tangible rewards or experiences in exchange for their pledges. This model traces its roots to subscription model of arts patronage, in which artists would go directly to their audiences to fund their work. Kickstarter launched on April 28, 2009, by Perry Chen , Yancey Strickler , and Charles Adler. The New York Times called Kickstarter "the people's NEA ". Time named it one of

1020-516: Is headquartered in Menlo Park, California . As of April 2023, Andreessen Horowitz ranks first on the list of venture capital firms by assets under management , with $ 42 billion as of May 2024. Andreessen Horowitz invests in both early-stage start-ups and established growth companies . Its investments span the healthcare, consumer, cryptocurrency, gaming, fintech , education and enterprise IT (including cloud computing , security, and software as

1071-419: Is one of a number of crowdfunding platforms for gathering money from the public, which circumvents traditional avenues of investment. Project creators choose a deadline and a minimum funding goal. If the goal is not met by the deadline, no funds are collected (a kind of assurance contract ). The Kickstarter platform is open to backers from anywhere in the world and to creators from many countries, including

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1122-698: The Ouya console, have resulted in commercial failure. The documentary short "Sun Come Up" and documentary short "Incident in New Baghdad" were each nominated for an Academy Award ; contemporary art projects "EyeWriter" and "Hip-Hop Word Count" were both chosen to exhibit in the Museum of Modern Art in 2011; filmmaker Matt Porterfield was selected to screen his film Putty Hill at the Whitney Biennial In 2012; author Rob Walker's Hypothetical Futures project exhibited at

1173-950: The iPhone . The app was aimed at users who create and back projects and was the first time Kickstarter had an official mobile presence. On October 31, 2012, Kickstarter opened projects based in the United Kingdom, followed by projects based in Canada on September 9, 2013, Australia and New Zealand on November 13, 2013, the Netherlands on April 28, 2014, Denmark , Ireland , Norway , and Sweden on September 15, 2014, Germany on April 28, 2015, France and Spain on May 19, 2015, Austria , Belgium , Italy , Luxembourg and Switzerland on June 16, 2015, Singapore and Hong Kong on August 30, 2016, Mexico on November 15, 2016, and Japan on September 12, 2017. In July 2017, Strickler announced his resignation. On April 20, 2020, Kickstarter announced that it

1224-600: The "Best Inventions of 2010" and "Best Websites of 2011". Kickstarter reportedly raised $ 10 million funding from backers including NYC-based venture firm Union Square Ventures and angel investors such as Jack Dorsey , Zach Klein and Caterina Fake . The company was based at 58 Kent Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn until they transitioned to a fully remote workforce after the COVID-19 pandemic . On February 14, 2013, Kickstarter released an iOS app called Kickstarter for

1275-468: The 13th International Venice Architecture Biennale; musician Amanda Palmer 's album Theatre is Evil debuted at No. 10 on the Billboard 200; designer Scott Wilson won a National Design Award from Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum following the success of his TikTok + LunaTik project; the Kickstarter funded GoldieBlox toy gained nationwide distribution in 2013; and approximately 10% of

1326-414: The 20% mark reach their goal. Creators categorize their projects into one of 13 categories and 36 subcategories. They are: Art, Comics, Dance, Design, Fashion, Film and Video, Food, Games, Music, Photography, Publishing, Technology and Theater. Of these categories, Film & Video and Music are the largest categories and have raised the most money. These categories, along with Games, account for over half

1377-534: The 90 companies in its portfolio, and 66 start-ups through its funding of Y Combinator 's Start Fund. The company invested $ 100 million in GitHub , which netted over $ 1 billion for the fund when GitHub was acquired by Microsoft for $ 7.5 billion. In 2013, Andreessen Horowitz invested in Clinkle , Coinbase , Databricks , Lyft , Oculus VR , PagerDuty , Pixlee, Ripple , Soylent , Swiftype and uBiome . In 2014,

1428-848: The AnyRoad board. In 2020, the firm led a $ 150 million Series G round in Roblox , a social video game platform for children. In April 2020, the firm led a $ 50 million Series D round in Figma , a vector graphics editor and prototyping tool. Also in April 2020, the firm raised $ 515 million for a second cryptocurrency-focused fund. In May 2020, the firm made a $ 12 million Series A investment in Clubhouse ($ 10 million in primary capital plus $ 2 million toward purchasing shares), an audio-chat social networking app valued at nearly $ 100 million as of December 2020. In January 2021,

1479-582: The Design, Games, and Technology categories. However, the median amount raised for the latter two categories remains in the four-figure range. There is substantial variation in the success rate of projects falling under different categories. Over two thirds of completed dance projects have been successful. In contrast, fewer than 30% of completed fashion projects have reached their goal. Most failing projects fail to achieve 20% of their goals and this trend applies across all categories. Indeed, over 80% of projects that pass

1530-512: The NLRB, which forced Kickstarter to allow its employees a formal vote on unionization. The vote was held on the morning of February 18, 2020, with 46 voting in favor of joining the OPEIU and 37 voting against. The CEO at the time, Aziz Hasan, said after the vote, "We support and respect this decision, and we are proud of the fair and democratic process that got us here." With this, the OPEIU will now work with

1581-449: The US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, The Netherlands , Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Spain, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Mexico. Kickstarter applies a 5% fee on the total amount of the funds raised. Its payments processor applies an additional 3–5% fee. Unlike many forums for fundraising or investment , Kickstarter claims no ownership over

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1632-657: The Washington Post, by September 2024, the firm had lost $ 288 million on its Twitter investment. Andreessen Horowitz partners work on behalf of all its portfolio companies, an approach modeled after the Hollywood talent agency, Creative Artists Agency . In 2010, the company hired Margit Wennmachers , a marketing executive at the partner level. As of 2011, the firm had maintained a database of designers, coders, and executives and used it to help fill positions at its start-ups. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers became

1683-571: The blogging platform Medium , Samsara , Improbable, Honor, Inc., OpenBazaar , a blockchain startup, and nootropics and biohacking company Nootrobox . In 2016, the firm led an $ 8.1 million Series A round in Everlaw, a legal technology company, and led a $ 3.5 million Series Seed round in RapidAPI, an API connection platform for developers. Also in 2016, the firm invested $ 2 million in Cardiogram,

1734-451: The company says it was for "performance issues." After these allegations, some Kickstarter creators have started a campaign against Kickstarter to let its employees unionize. On September 28, Kickstarter confirmed that it would not recognise the unionisation effort. In a statement addressed to project creators, the CEO stated that unionisation would turn workplace relations "inherently adversarial" and that it "doesn't reflect who we are as

1785-491: The company would require an election for the union rather than voluntarily recognizing it, saying that "our view is that we are better set up to be successful without the framework of a union." On September 16, the employees filed a complaint against Kickstarter with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) after two employees were terminated. According to the workers, they were fired for unionizing, although

1836-442: The definition of crowdfunding is. Or, if there's even an agreed upon definition of what it is. We haven't actively supported the use of the term because it can provoke more confusion. In our case, we focus on a middle ground between patronage and commerce. People are offering cool stuff and experiences in exchange for the support of their ideas. People are creating these mini-economies around their project ideas. So, you aren't coming to

1887-575: The films accepted into the Sundance , SXSW and Tribeca Film Festivals are projects funded on Kickstarter. The Glowing Plant project was the first and only synthetic biology campaign on Kickstarter. The Oculus Rift began as a 2012 Kickstarter project and became one of the most funded projects at the time. The company was then acquired by Facebook two years later for $ 2 billion. Peloton Interactive sold its first exercise bike on Kickstarter in 2013 with an early bird price tag of $ 1,500. It became

1938-653: The firm announced it would be investing about $ 350 million in Flow , the latest organization begun by WeWork founder Adam Neumann . The purported aim of Flow is to create a branded product in the housing market with consistent community features, reimagining how real estate works in the US. The decision was met with some criticism due to Neumann's previous business issues in his time at WeWork. The firm committed to $ 400 million in equity investment towards acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk that completed in October 2022. According to

1989-542: The firm led a $ 100 million Series B for the audio-chat social networking app Clubhouse , reportedly valuing it at $ 1 billion. In April 2021, it led a $ 220 million Series D for mobile banking and fintech company Current. In July 2021, the firm led a $ 100 million Series A for the NFT marketplace OpenSea , reportedly valuing it at $ 1.5 billion. In September 2021, the firm led an $ 18 million Series A fundraise in Pearl Health,

2040-570: The firm led a $ 57 million Series B round in the A/B testing startup Optimizely . That same year the company invested in several more companies, including Tanium for $ 90 million, BuzzFeed , and Forward Networks. In 2015, the firm invested $ 40 million in Stack Exchange , $ 2.8 million in Distelli, and $ 80 million in cloud-based CAD software company Onshape . Also in 2015 Andreessen Horowitz invested in

2091-672: The firm managed $ 4 billion in assets after the closing of its fourth fund at $ 1.5 billion. In addition to Andreessen and Horowitz, the firm's general partners include John O'Farrell , Scott Weiss , Jeff Jordan , Peter Levine , Chris Dixon , Vijay Pande , Martin Casado , Andrew Chen and Sriram Krishnan . In March 2019, it was reported that Andreessen Horowitz was opening an office in San Francisco . In January 2022, Andreessen Horowitz raised $ 9 billion for its venture capital , growth-stage and biotech-focused vehicles. As of May 2024,

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2142-497: The firm manages $ 42 billion in assets. In 2009, Andreessen Horowitz made its two first investments: one in business management SaaS developer Apptio and the other in Skype stock. According to Horowitz, the investment was seen as risky by other experts in the field who believed the company would be crippled by ongoing intellectual property litigation and direct competitive attacks from Google and Apple . The company's founders viewed

2193-479: The first time Kickstarter raised over a million dollars in pledges in a single day. On August 30, 2014, the "Coolest Cooler", an icebox created by Ryan Grepper, became the most funded Kickstarter project in history, with US$ 13.28 million in funding, breaking the record previously held by the Pebble smartwatch . From 2012 to 2013, Wharton professor Ethan Mollick and Jeanne Pi conducted research into what contributes to

2244-801: The investment as a success following Skype's sale to Microsoft in May 2011 for $ 8.5 billion. In 2010, Andreessen Horowitz invested $ 10 million in cloud company Okta while leading its Series A Round. In 2011, Andreessen Horowitz invested $ 80 million in Twitter, becoming the first venture firm that held stock in all four of the highest-valued, privately held social media companies at the time: Facebook , Groupon , Twitter , and Zynga . Andreessen Horowitz has also invested in Airbnb , Lytro , Jawbone, Belly , Foursquare , Stripe and other high-tech companies. In 2012, Andreessen Horowitz invested in 156 companies, including

2295-690: The money raised. Video games and tabletop games alone account for more than $ 2 out of every $ 10 spent on Kickstarter. To maintain its focus as a funding platform for creative projects, Kickstarter has outlined three guidelines for all project creators to follow: creators can fund projects only; projects must fit within one of the site's 13 creative categories; and creators must abide by the site's prohibited uses, which include charity and awareness campaigns. Kickstarter has additional requirements for hardware and product design projects. These include The guidelines are designed to reinforce Kickstarter's position that people are backing projects, not placing orders for

2346-428: The move went forward. On December 15, a week later, Kickstarter responded to the controversy in a blog post that clarified the company's position but did not indicate a change of plans. Andreessen Horowitz AH Capital Management, LLC (commonly known as Andreessen Horowitz , or a16z ) is an American privately held venture capital firm, founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz . The company

2397-513: The projects and the work they produce. The web pages of projects launched on the site are permanently archived and accessible to the public. After funding is completed, projects and uploaded media cannot be edited or removed from the site. There is no guarantee that people who post projects on Kickstarter will deliver on their projects, use the money to implement their projects, or that the completed projects will meet backers' expectations. Kickstarter advises backers to use their judgment on supporting

2448-704: The round to raise $ 450 million at a $ 4B Valuation in Yuga Labs (known for Bored Apes). In October 2022, it was reported that the US Securities and Exchange Commission were investigating Yuga Labs , due to concerns that sales of their digital assets violated US investment laws. In March 2022, the firm led $ 27 million Series A for the Rutter, a universal API for commerce data. In March 2022, a16z with Lux Capital co-led an $ 90 million round of Los Angeles–based machine-parts start-up Hadrian Automation. In April 2022, a16z led

2499-473: The site to get something for nothing; you are trying to create value for the people who support you. We focus on creative projects—music, film, technology, art, design, food and publishing—and within the category of crowdfunding of the arts, we are probably ten times the size of all the others combined." On June 21, 2012, Kickstarter began publishing statistics on its projects. As of December 4, 2019, there were 469,286 launched projects (3,524 in progress), with

2550-519: The union effort, Kickstarter United, to bargain with Kickstarter management for a contract. As of May 2, 2020, 60% of the workforce was part of the union. On December 8, 2021, Kickstarter announced a plan to develop a decentralized protocol on blockchain platform Celo to build an open source and blockchain-based crowdfunding infrastructure and then move its own website to that system. The announcement prompted backlash from creators and backers on Twitter , many of whom pledged to abandon Kickstarter if

2601-551: Was likely going to lay off workers due to the coronavirus pandemic causing the number of active projects to be "about 35% below what it was at this time last year with no clear sign of rebound." The layoff was reported by the union to affect up to 45% of the employees, although Kickstarter has yet to report the scale of the layoff as of May 2, 2020. The union negotiated a settlement for laid off employees including four months of severance pay and up to six months of continued health benefits for anyone who gets laid off, recall rights for

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