Comment Re:Answering a few questions (Score 4, Informative) 124
Hi Steve,
The comments have definitely had some great and thoughtful feedback we can take (including yours) and use in the continued development of Crowdtilt -- so, know it's being taken into account ;) -- especially the high demand for international expansion quickly. My background is actually in poverty alleviation (having studied development economics and worked in South Africa), and though we built the site originally with a 'Kickstarter for Charities' approach in ming, groups of friends started taking to the beta-version like wildfire; while the non-profits (the realm I knew and came from), would take weeks to start campaigns and would often require many meetings with administrators and boards (all the while, it kept spreading within groups of friends more and more - and they kept requesting features and giving insightful feedback).
I mention this because, early on, we made a really conscious effort to take the development of the site where the users found most value, not necessarily where *thought* it would provide most value. And this just happened to be the direction our users wanted to take Crowdtilt. Though we'd obviously love the type of success Kickstarter has had, our first users began really responding to the idea of taking elements of crowdfunding models out there and providing them to groups of friends instead - and that is where we are today.
If the user-base starts requesting a Kickstarter like model/experience, then that is the direction we would plan on taking it, but right now it seems private, smaller campaigns have been most valuable to users (the vast, *vast* majority of our campaigns are private/groups of friends that don't necessarily want their wedding gift, group vacation, or party-bus campaign to be browsed). It has actually been so overwhelmingly private, that we've wondered what real value the search has for users.
Pardon the typos from the last post (also, did not know it was html friendly!), we've been going like crazy with the growth of the site since public launch on Friday morning. But feel free to reach out to us anytime through the site.
-James
The comments have definitely had some great and thoughtful feedback we can take (including yours) and use in the continued development of Crowdtilt -- so, know it's being taken into account
I mention this because, early on, we made a really conscious effort to take the development of the site where the users found most value, not necessarily where *thought* it would provide most value. And this just happened to be the direction our users wanted to take Crowdtilt. Though we'd obviously love the type of success Kickstarter has had, our first users began really responding to the idea of taking elements of crowdfunding models out there and providing them to groups of friends instead - and that is where we are today.
If the user-base starts requesting a Kickstarter like model/experience, then that is the direction we would plan on taking it, but right now it seems private, smaller campaigns have been most valuable to users (the vast, *vast* majority of our campaigns are private/groups of friends that don't necessarily want their wedding gift, group vacation, or party-bus campaign to be browsed). It has actually been so overwhelmingly private, that we've wondered what real value the search has for users.
Pardon the typos from the last post (also, did not know it was html friendly!), we've been going like crazy with the growth of the site since public launch on Friday morning. But feel free to reach out to us anytime through the site.
-James