How Kickstarter Became A Leader In The Creator Economy

4 days ago

Everett Taylor, the CEO of Kickstarter, joins Forbes Talks to discuss Kickstarter's longevity and relevance in the crowdfunding space. Taylor emphasizes Kickstarter's evolution into a broader creator economy leader, supporting creators throughout their journey, not just funding. Taylor also shares his personal journey to becoming a CEO, emphasizing risk-taking and the importance of supporting creators during uncertain economic times.

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Transcript

00:00Hi, I'm Ali Jackson Jolly. I'm here with Everett Taylor, the CEO of Kickstarter. Everett, welcome.

00:09Thanks for being here with us. Thank you. It's always good to be with my Forbes family. You

00:13guys have been holding me down for a long time. Every time we look, you're growing more and more

00:17on what you're doing. So let me ask you this. Kickstarter is about to turn 16 years old.

00:25In many industries, that would mean it was in its infancy. But for crowdfunding platforms,

00:36that's ancient. How have you worked to keep this platform relevant, to keep it, as you

00:43said just a few seconds ago, one of the big dogs in this industry?

00:47Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's been great. When I took over the company, despite us being

00:53number one in our space for a very long time, I mean, we had declining revenue. You could

00:58even argue declining relevance. We had a slew of new competitors coming in the mix. We probably

01:06wasn't as productive as we should be. And so that really motivated me when I got the seat

01:12to make sure that we got Kickstarter back to a place of influence and really leading the

01:17charge and being the innovators in the space. And if you know anything about me, like I'm very

01:23competitive. And so I wanted to bring that momentum and energy back to the platform. And

01:30it's been absolutely incredible. I mean, we've grown revenue year over year, every year since

01:35I've been there. We're on an incredible trajectory. I mean, even just this quarter, I mean, last quarter

01:41in Q1, we dropped 12 new major product features. Like we are just on a roll. It's really, really

01:47incredible to see. In my tenure, we've launched multiple new business lines. We now have a

01:53performance marketing business line. We now have late pledges. We're also about to release

01:58to our entire audience pledge management, which will be another new feature, but also a business

02:05line for the company.

02:06Hold on. What is that? So pledge management, what is that?

02:09Yeah. Pledge management is a fulfillment tool. So when I came to Kickstarter, you know, really,

02:17you know, Kickstarter was just a crowdfunding company. And I wanted to create a true creator

02:23economy leader, right? I didn't want to just be a crowdfunding leader. I wanted to be a leader

02:28within the creator economy space. And to do that, we have to support creators throughout their entire

02:34journey, not just the funding part. And so we've revamped all of our pre-launch tools and we're

02:40coming out with more. We've given people more tools, more access to features, more support during

02:47the crowdfunding period. And then the last part of that is what we call post-campaign features.

02:52We released a feature called late pledges. Now, when your Kickstarter ends, you can continue to get

02:56funding after, which is more of a little bit more of an e-commerce experience. And now with pledge

03:02manager, pledge manager allows people to do shipping, taxes, manage their backers or customers

03:11or however you want to view them. It's really a true fulfillment tool. And it also allows you to

03:17do add-ons and add-ons allows people to be able to get new products and more products to the people

03:23that are supporting them, which actually drives a lot more revenue for creators. And in turn,

03:28obviously drives revenue for us. And so those tools really helps the full circle of the creator

03:35life cycle from pre-launch, funding, post-campaign, and bringing them back to that pre-launch stage.

03:42Kickstarter is looking at, creators are looking at Kickstarter as not just that funding period,

03:47but a platform that they continue to go back time and time again.

03:50So let me ask you this. You don't really define yourself as just crowdfunding platform. So what

03:55is your industry? Who are like, then who are your competitors? Who do you, what do you think

04:01of as your industry?

04:02Yeah. You know, our industry is such a wide range of things. For us, we're reward-based crowdfunding

04:08and we do creative projects. And so we're not donation-based like a GoFundMe, right? When people

04:14come to our platform, it's because they have an idea, they have a new product. And that can be from

04:20anybody. That can be from someone, you know, working out of their basement to, you know,

04:25multi-billion, multi-national firms. I mean, we just had L'Oreal drop a new product on the platform.

04:30We have such an incredible range of creators. And so I think everyone has their idea of what

04:35crowdfunding is. And that's a problem. You can't put it in a box, right? Crowdfunding is for everybody,

04:42no matter where you are in the stage of who you are as a person, no matter what the size of your

04:47company, we have billion-dollar companies that have started on our platform that continue to

04:52release products on our platform. But we still have indie filmmakers, indie artists. They have

04:57my heart, right? Like those are the people that like really, you know, genuinely get me out of

05:02bed every day. But it's great to have a platform where both can coexist, right? And so, you know,

05:08when I hear a number like 1 billion, I'm like, this is a lot bigger than that because I know our

05:12numbers too, right? And so it is, it's incredible to see the breadth of musicians, filmmakers, tech

05:21innovators, games creators, authors, all on one platform. And the thing is, we're only hitting the

05:28tip of the iceberg. We can do so much more. And that's why I'm creating these features and these

05:33products that support all different types of creators during different parts of their life cycle.

05:39Well, so good. I'm glad you brought up all different types of creators. I know that when

05:43you first took the helm of Kickstarter in 2022, you mentioned that inclusivity was one of your

05:53missions.

05:54100%.

05:54Wanting to bring in more voices, more different, you know, creators that look different or maybe

06:02thought a little differently.

06:03Definitely. So tell me, how, how do you achieve that? And can you, if you can share any numbers

06:10to say, you know, if you know that Kickstarter has become more inclusive, either from the creators

06:16themselves or from the funders?

06:20Yeah. So first off, it starts internally, right? It starts internally by building a diverse team that

06:27is a reflection of the world that we're trying to serve. And so that was the first step is like,

06:31hey, we need to become more diverse. We need to have different types of people. And like, you know,

06:36the word diversity is becoming this like taboo, bad thing. And it's like, no, it doesn't mean

06:41any one particular group of people, et cetera, et cetera. We, I build a team that is excellent.

06:47I build a team that is the best of the best. I will not take anything less than that. But I also

06:53understand when we're trying to serve people globally, across all, you know, all of these different

06:59countries, all of these different people, that is important that we also reflect that

07:03and understand people from all different walks of life. And so it was first starting to build

07:08the team internally to do that. And then the next step was like looking at everything from

07:13our marketing to our product, to, um, you know, how we communicate the emails we sent everything,

07:20like, how can we be better? How can we be more inclusive? And the best way to be inclusive

07:25is to not make any assumptions. And we've really leaned into building products that help

07:31everyone from pre-launch tools, to post campaign tools, to new services like performance marketing,

07:37et cetera, et cetera. Like we've leaned into all of these new tools and really listen to our audience

07:41for the features that they really need to help them and support creators across the board, no matter

07:46what color you are, what race you are, how much money you have. That was really, really important to me,

07:53um, to do, but also at the same time, continue to build things like forward funds. We have forward

07:58funds that help people, um, that come from different backgrounds to help fund their projects

08:02and campaigns and things like that. They might struggle compared to other people. You know,

08:07that is something that was really important to us as well. And then when you look at our marketing

08:12team, you know, my CMO is a black woman. My head of comms is a woman of color. My head of content

08:18is a man of color. Our head of social media is a woman of color. Like that's really important to have

08:22you know, diverse, um, voices in the room, um, that is, you know, controlling emails and controlling

08:30social media and content and marketing and brand strategy and things like that. Um, but the last

08:35thing that I would say is really leaning into creator education. Like that to me has been the

08:40hallmark of, you know, uh, the thing that I'm most passionate about since I've been here when I came to

08:46Kickstarter, um, you know, around 50% of projects were successful on a platform. So you had like a 50,

08:5250 chance to be successful, which is pretty good, right? We are now trending at 65%. That's a 30% increase,

08:59right? Of, uh, people being successful on the platform. And no, no matter how much more revenue

09:05we're making or how, how much more successful we're being, that is the thing I care about most

09:11because our mission is to bring creative projects to life. And the more people being successful on our

09:16platform matters, but it's the work is doing the creator education. It's building the right features.

09:23It's, you know, providing the right support and customer success to everyone. And that's, you know,

09:30what I'm most proud of. Yeah. And so let's talk about, I loved what you had just said about your

09:35leadership team, that it is a diverse team. Um, you and I both know that, um, there are not that many

09:43black CEOs leading global companies. Um, and yet, I mean, I have to tell you, you've made it look kind

09:51of easy, right? Right before you came, uh, to Kickstarter, you were the CMO of, of Artsy. Um,

09:59tell me about why you've been able to, um, carve this path to the top of a, of a global company. And

10:10it may be just so that others can learn from your journey, can think about how you navigated that and

10:16why it was possible for you to be here. You know, Ali, I come from Southside,

10:22Richmond. I come from the gutter. I come from, you know, people, I am living my wildest dreams.

10:31Like I am so grateful and thankful every day to be sitting across from you and all of the work

10:37that you do is so inspiring to me. And it's like, to see people like us doing what we do

10:42is so important. And I didn't have examples of that growing up. I had to like, just figure it out

10:51on my own, you know? And I think for me, the thing that has been like the, the through line throughout

10:58my journey is just never settling and taking risk. And when other people went right, I was like,

11:06all right, I know what that is. So I'm gonna go this way and kind of see what that's about.

11:11Um, and that has been a story throughout my entire life. And whether it was, you know,

11:16dropping out of college, you know, starting my first company at 19, uh, going back to school,

11:22dropping out again, then moving to California, you know, being in Silicon Valley, being in Orange

11:28County, like learning the tech world, uh, moving to LA and now New York. Like I took these risks

11:34throughout my career instead of just being like, Hey, I'm gonna go to college for years, get a job,

11:38work my way up, you know, hopefully get the house with the white picket fence. I was like,

11:43nah, I'm going to be uncomfortable. So I took chances. I created jobs that weren't created for

11:48me as an entrepreneur. Uh, I knew that, you know, bigger companies like a Kickstarter or whatever

11:54would never make me an executive. So I started in startups, right? Where I could gain as much

11:59experience and responsibility as possible. I was very intentional about the spaces

12:04that, um, I went into, um, and the companies that I built and the companies that I joined,

12:09I optimized for learning. I optimized for opportunity. I optimized to have a chance to

12:14have a seat at the table at an early age. I was a CMO at 25, you know? Um, like I said,

12:20me and Forbes have been together for a long time and you guys have seen that journey. You gave me

12:24my first major, major article when I was 26 years old and, or 25, 26 years old. And, um,

12:29um, it's been a journey, but it's about taking risks. And that's the thing that most people are

12:35uncomfortable with is the willingness to take risks. But also I will say,

12:40Ali, the alignment in my life has been absolutely incredible. And I've stepped up every time things

12:47have aligned for me, but I know so many incredible black men and women who deserve to be in these seats.

12:55And I've been so fortunate to be able to have the opportunity to be in a seat. And I feel a huge

13:04responsibility to them, to them, to make sure that I continue to pave the way, um, for others. Um, and

13:12that's so, so important to me. And I know that it's very unorthodox for me to be in a seat, not only

13:17because I'm a 35 year old black man, but I was a CMO before. And it's only a few CMOs that also get this

13:24opportunity. And so like, I just want to break down barriers and show people that you can't

13:30count people out or put people in a box. You can't put me in, if you try to put me in a box,

13:34I'm going to break out of that thing, you know? So this has been a story of my life and I've always

13:39just tried to be different and push the, push the boundaries. Yeah. But let's talk about that because,

13:44um, that ability to, um, you know, to be bold and fearless, um, to do things that are uncomfortable,

13:54is that just who you are? Did you have a mentor who helped you, um, understand that that was what

14:02was needed? Um, you know, is it something that can be taught or do you think it's just, just an innate

14:08quality? See, this is the part where I don't want to discourage people, but the truth of the matter is,

14:17is that I think it's twofold. One alley, I'm just built like this. I I've been like this for as long

14:24as I can remember. I've been ambitious. I've wanted to just be better. I always wanted to be the best

14:31version of myself. I always saw things and I was just like, I want to be more impactful. I want to,

14:37if you set the bar here, I want to be above that bar. And that's just the person that I've been like,

14:42you know, my mom told me, you know, you know, growing up as a young black boy, you got to be

14:46two times better, three times better as everyone else. That's just been my mentality. It's just

14:50something that's so deeply ingrained in me. And as a person, I'm so focused and passionate about

14:57impact and I hate wasting my time. So that's something that's just ingrained in me on the flip

15:02side. I'm so fortunate for certain people that have come into my life. I remember being 14 years old

15:08and I was on the streets doing things that I wasn't, I shouldn't have been doing.

15:14And my mom forced me to get a job. And there was a man by the name of Robert Koch. He was the manager

15:21of Eastern National. Eastern National is a nonprofit organization that runs like the gift shops and the

15:26national parks on the East coast. And I went to that interview and he gave this 14 year old kid from

15:33the hood with no work experience. He gave him an opportunity to do marketing and sales.

15:38And that absolutely changed the trajectory of my entire life. And it's those people that come into

15:45your life. I was 29 years old and the CEO of Artsy, new CEO of Artsy had run multiple billion

15:52dollar companies. He could have went with anybody and he took a shot on a 29, 30 year old kid to be

15:58the CMO of the biggest art company in the world. And so, and that, and that's, um, Mike Steve, uh, Mike

16:05Stive. I'm sorry. Um, these are the, these are the things, these are the people that I look at and I'm

16:13so grateful for, you know, and the board of Kickstarter, they were looking for a super

16:19experienced CEO and, you know, they took a chance on me at, you know, 32, 33 years old.

16:26Um, and I'm so grateful for that, but at the same time I delivered and that's important too,

16:32you know? So I'm grateful for the people who given me, who have given me opportunities.

16:36I'm, uh, particularly really grateful for, uh, Mike Stive because he taught me what it meant to be a CEO.

16:45You know, being at Artsy, seeing him, seeing his leadership. Now he's at Tecna,

16:50you know, whatever they do, like 3 billion in revenue, you know, incredible company. But I got

16:55to, to learn from one of the best and see what it takes every day to be a great CEO.

17:00And what is that?

17:02To be a great CEO, in my opinion, is understanding that everything is your responsibility.

17:12If you're the type of person, and I see a lot of weak leaders that do this,

17:16that want to put fault on others. No, everything. I don't care how many employees you have.

17:23I don't care who screws up. It falls on you. And it's your job to fix it. It's your job to figure

17:30out a way. It's your job to find a solution. Um, to be a solution oriented person is so incredibly

17:37important to be humble, to understand that, Hey, certain things are going to be out of your

17:41control, but you do the best you can with what you have. And also to understand you can do none

17:48of this alone. You have to invest in your people. You have to lift them up. You have to give them the

17:55resources to be successful. You have to listen. You have to not only listen internally, but externally.

18:01You have to live and breathe and eat this stuff. Like it's so important. And the, the best CEOs

18:08understand the sacrifices that it takes to be a great CEO. I can't tell you

18:15I have more gray hairs. I, you know, I've, I've had my ups and downs and, and, and it takes a lot to

18:23be a CEO. It takes a lot to be a great CEO and to give so much of yourself and the sacrifices that it

18:29takes to, to, to, to do that. Yeah. And to be a CEO in the year 2025. So let's, let's talk about

18:37that for a minute. You know, I woke up thinking about 2008 because, um, you know, the, the news

18:45cycle has been that the, the financial industry leaders have been talking about, um, 2008. Um,

18:53we had this financial crisis, um, you know, fast forward to 2025, many folks are worried about what's

19:01happening with, um, the tariffs and then the, the shock to the financial systems that we've been

19:08seeing with the ups and spikes and the lows. Um, and yet Kickstarter, um, um, did okay through the 2008

19:18crisis in part because, um, um, people thought creators and founders weren't sure that they could

19:25depend on the financial institutions to, um, to, to fund their dreams, to fund their visions.

19:33Tell me about what the, what this current economic moment means to Kickstarter, how you may have to

19:39change your strategy, um, how you're thinking about, um, adjusting for this moment that we're living

19:46through. I think first and foremost, you have to understand that Kickstarter is about our mission

19:52and it's about impact. It's a, it's truly about our community and creators and keeping them first

19:57always. And so for us, we're doing everything in our power and me personally, I take this personally

20:04to do everything in my power to support creators during this time, as you said, when there is, you

20:11know, um, economic uncertainty, it pushes people in new ways. It makes people, you know, figure out

20:19new ways to make income and do things or chase their dreams because they can't rely on the current

20:24infrastructure to do so. And so we want to make sure that for those people, they have a platform that

20:30gives them all of the support, all of the resources, all of the products, all of the services that they

20:36need to be successful. And that you can talk to a human, you can get the support that you need to

20:41be successful on our platform. I told you about our pledge manager, our pledge manager is going to

20:47help people figure out, you know, how to appropriately, you know, tax and shipping costs

20:54and all these things in this new world that we're living in with these tariffs. Like that's super

20:58important. Our team is heads down every day, working, grinding, making sure that we can do the best that

21:05we can for our creators during this time, giving, you know, we're writing resources, writing blogs,

21:10we're creating content, we're figuring out all the ways that we can, you know, really support people

21:16during this time, because we know it's going to shift, right? We know things are going to shift.

21:20When Hollywood is going through trouble, filmmakers are coming to us. When VC money is drying up,

21:27entrepreneurs are coming to us. We know that we are the option during the hardest of times,

21:32and we need to make sure that we show up in the best way for these people. These people are trying

21:38to put food on their tables. These people are trying to live out their dreams and make their

21:43dreams come true. And so it's the utmost of importance for us to show up during this time.

21:48Yeah. And how about both internally and externally? You've talked about building community externally.

21:55You've also talked about it, you know, internally within your company. In this moment in time,

22:01again, where we are seeing some lows and in both culture and financial sentiment, right? How do you

22:13keep your community growing and optimistic? How do you keep people feeling creative and looking towards,

22:23you know, optimistically looking towards solutions?

22:25Yeah, I think it's about setting reality, but also providing hope and optimism. Someone told me

22:31this a long time ago, like, great CEOs set reality, but give hope, right? And I think that's the same

22:38case that I'm thinking about for our community, right? The same perspective is like, hey, this is

22:44the reality. We want to make sure that you are educated during this time and you know what's going on. But

22:49also, we're still a dream factor. We're still a place to help people dreams come true. And we're

22:55going to help you be more successful. We're going to help during this time of uncertainty. So we're

23:00focused on continuing to build our community. We're really hyper-focused on what we call backer

23:05development to get people more engaged, pledging more during this time to support these creators,

23:11because these creators really need it during this time. But, you know, just continuing to be

23:16transparent, I think is key. It's like, be transparent, but give hope, give optimism,

23:21show the way, lead the way. With that, I think is extremely important.

23:25Yeah. So, we're almost out of time, but let me ask you this. Let's end on that, I guess, note of

23:33optimism. What's your, you know, you call Kickstarter the dream maker, I think. Is that what you said?

23:40Dream factory, yeah. Dream factory. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's your dream? Like, tell me,

23:45like, look into the future. What is your dream? Or what's the thing that makes you feel optimistic

23:50about, you know, that Kickstarter and your community and, you know, your kids' community

24:01is going to be, you know, doing good stuff, going to be going, that society's going to be improving,

24:07that things are going to be improving? Yeah. You know, the thing that I'm so encouraged by

24:13is just the explosion in the creator economy. Like, people are coming up now, and they don't want to

24:20be an accountant or a lawyer. They want to be creators. They want to be entrepreneurs. And I think

24:24Kickstarter lives at the epicenter of the creator economy, right? I talk about, the thing that I'm most

24:31excited about is Kickstarter transforming from a crowdfunding company to a true creator economy

24:37company, and a space where you can truly tap into your audience. You download the Kickstarter app,

24:43Ali, you better have it. And if you don't, if you download it today, you'll notice that it goes into

24:47your social apps folder. It's a social platform as well, because during this time where, you know,

24:53these algorithms are more challenging, you can't reach people, people are ignoring emails,

24:58all these things. Kickstarter is where your true supporters, whether they're family, friends,

25:04your grandma, your cousins, or just people that support you, this is where they live. Every time

25:09you launch a new Kickstarter project, everyone gets notified, right? That's so powerful. It doesn't

25:15matter if you have a million followers on Instagram. These 10,000 people that support you on Kickstarter

25:21are the people that are going to continue to support you over time. These are the super fans. These are

25:26super supporters. These are the people that really have your back. So I'm really excited to tap into

25:32that and grow that, really look at how we can grow different verticals on our platform, how we can grow

25:37community on our platform, get people more engaged. And there's just a whole new generation of creators

25:43and entrepreneurs every single day that we can serve. And I'm excited to innovate what we see crowdfunding

25:50and Kickstarter as today. Yeah, well, now we are out of time. Thanks so much for being here with us.

25:56And let's hopefully we can do it again sometime. Yes. Thank you so much for having me.

How Kickstarter Became A Leader In The Creator Economy

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