马修•里沃德不嫌弃任何1美元。事实上，这位以真人版电影《史酷比》（Scooby Doo）中Shaggy一角闻名的演员希望总共筹集到了15万美元。不过，即便你只掏1美元，他也很开心。里沃德正在热门网站Kickstarter上为他即将拍摄的影片《肥仔主宰世界》（Fat Kid Rules the World）筹集资金。

    当然，里沃德并非这样做的第一人。总部位于纽约的Kickstarter自2008年上线以来已经帮助2万多个项目筹集了资金。Kickstarter会对项目进行预审（审查通过率约为75%），然后免费放在网站上向公众筹集资金，时间最长可达60天。只有筹资目标实现后，Kickstarter才收钱——收取募集金额的5%。处理信用卡交易的亚马逊（Amazon）每笔交易收取3-5%的费用。

    随着众多众筹项目大获成功，Kickstarter也发生了质的变化。曾几何时，它只是个人投资者和独立艺术家们寻找小额投资、为创意项目融资的社区，如今已蜕变成一个大的平台，公司也可以在这个平台上发布项目，筹资大量资金。在这个过程中，Kickstarter的收入构成也在发生变化，创始人Perry Chen早期提到的广告和目录费用到如今已经变成了服务就是一切。《众筹圣经》（The Crowdfunding Bible）一书的作者斯考特•斯坦伯格表示，Kickstarter可能更喜欢那些获得良好支持、营销积极的项目，“它们善于吸引眼球和资金，而其中一部分会进到Kickstarter的腰包。”

    事实上，Kickstarter历史上两个最大的众筹项目的发布者都是成功专业人士和获得天使投资的公司。2012年3月，拥趸者众多的几位游戏设计大家在Kickstarter上发布了视频游戏项目Double Fine Adventure，引来了330万美元投资。新的纪录保持者是Pebble E-Paper Watch，据报道它在上月启动众筹项目前已获得37.5万美元的天使投资。Pebble E-Paper Watch成功筹集了1,000万美元，Kickstarter分得了50万美元。迄今为止，人们通过Kickstarter网站已向各类项目合计投资超过1.75亿美元。

    虽然Kickstarter不愿证实这点（他们拒绝为本文提供信息），但过去六个月网站上的科技项目似乎有所增长。布莱恩•兰姆是iPhone底座Swivl的开发者，这种底座能在用户视频聊天时侦测用户头部位置的变化从而相应转动。2010年秋天，兰姆尝试募资时被Kickstarter拒之门外。虽然Kickstarter没有说明为何拒绝Swivl，但兰姆认为，这可能是因为当时Kickstarter的注意力暂时从产品转至了艺术。结果，Swivlickstarter的竞争对手Indiegogo募集了2.4万美元，两个月前产品已经开始出货。

    Matthew Lillard would like a dollar. Actually, the actor best known for playing Shaggy in the live-action Scooby Doo films would like $150,000. But he'd be happy if you gave him just one. Lillard is raising money on the popular website Kickstarter to fund his upcoming movie, Fat Kid Rules the World.

    Of course, Lillard is not alone. To date, more than 20,000 projects have been hosted on the site since the New York City-based company's 2008 launch. Kickstarter vets projects in advance (accepting about 75% of applicants) and hosts the campaigns, which can last up to 60 days, for free. The company only makes money if the campaign reaches its funding goal — at that time, Kickstarter receives 5% of the campaign's take, and Amazon, which processes the credit card transactions also receives between 3 and 5% of each transaction.

    Success has changed the site's character dramatically. Once a community where individual inventors and indie artists sought out small sums to fund creative projects, Kickstarter has been transformed into a platform where companies post campaigns and rake in large amounts of money. Along the way, the company's revenue scheme has also evolved. Early profiles of founder Perry Chen mention advertising and listing fees, but now the service is all about the points. According to The Crowdfunding Bible author Scott Steinberg, Kickstarter may find well-backed and aggressively marketed ventures to be more attractive. "Those have the best ability to raise awareness and generate dollars, a percentage of which goes into their pocket," he says.

    In fact, the site's two top-grossing campaigns were launched by established professionals and angel-backed companies. In March 2012, a video game project called Double Fine Adventure was posted by well-loved industry veterans and pulled in $3.3 million. The new record holder, the Pebble E-Paper Watch, reportedly had $375,000 in angel investments before kicking off its campaign last month. And of the $10 million that it raised, Kickstarter earned $500,000. To date, people have pledged more than $175 million to projects on the site.

    Though Kickstarter would not confirm it (they declined to participate in this story), there seems to have been an increase in technology projects on the site over the past six months, and Brian Lamb has watched closely as the site has changed. The developer of Swivl, an iPhone stand that rotates to follow users while they video chat, Lamb was rejected by the site when he tried to get funding in Fall 2010. Kickstarter didn't clarify why it rejected Swivl, but Lamb thinks at that time the service had temporarily turned away from products to focus more on the arts. Instead, Swivl raised $24,000 with Kickstarter competitor Indiegogo, and began shipping its product two months ago.

    然而，与此同时，Kickstarter接受了一款类似的产品Galileo.。今春，这款产品吸引眼球的推广视频在互联网上被众多博客广为转载，项目最后筹资超过70万美元。Galileo的开发者杰本•贝维特是Joby创始人，Joby生产的Gorillapod可变三角充电底座曾风行一时。到目前为止，Swivls已销出1,500台，但产品当初准备上市时必须与Galileo的Kickstarter众筹项目争夺媒体关注度，尽管后者当时只有一款原型机。“没出货之前，一切都是虚的，”兰姆说。

    这话或许没错，科技产品的高失败率就是证据。数字面前，兰姆也难以反驳。Galileo的筹资额超出Swivl近3000%，它的成功主要归功于众筹推广。总部位于迈阿密的Max Borges Agency只代理科技产品，目前已经代理了十几个Kickstarter项目，其中就包括Galileo。为吸引更多众筹客户，Max Borges Agency引入了创意定价，帮助资金紧张的项目购买推广服务。根据自己对产品信心的强弱，Max Borges Agency可以收取较低的预付费用，之后根据募资金额按比例提成，或者如果众筹目标未能实现，它甚至干脆不收钱。创始人麦克斯•伯吉斯认为这样的客户更具挑战，因为他们不是知名品牌，通常甚至没有样品可送至媒体。他说：“我们其实卖的是点子，希望人们能接受。”

    如果产品走俏，也可能会带来不利的一面。Kickstarter名气越来越响，项目越来越技术化，产品设计师可能最终有负众望。不同于只需应付几个风险投资人，他们必须抚慰多达几千名小投资人。即便是轻松的小规模众筹项目，比如Power Laces，（它筹集了2.5万美元，希望实现科幻电影《回到未来》（Back to the Future）中描绘的自动系鞋带），一旦延迟，有些投资人就会不耐烦地跺脚，要求公布进展。Kickstarter最初的项目大多比较简单，确实有其道理。因为简单的项目容易执行。

    但更糟糕的情况是没有完成筹资目标。马修•里沃德的项目在Kickstarter网站上还可以挂8天，这8天很关键，因为他离筹资目标还差2.8万美元。或许，他应该学学独立音乐家阿曼达•帕尔默是如何成功筹资120万美元的。帕尔默承诺如果有人肯出1万美元，她会突然登门造访，给他们化上华丽的妆容，拍照留念，请他们吃泰国菜，一醉方休。如果你看过里沃德在《夏日捕手》（Summer Catch）里的表现，你就知道酒是个好东西。

    译者：老榆木

    In the meantime, Kickstarter accepted a similar product dubbed Galileo. The device's slick promotional video was picked up by blogs all over the internet this past spring, and the project raised more than $700,000 in funding. It was developed by JoeBen Bevirt, a founder of Joby, the company that brought the popular Gorillapod line of flexible tripods to market. To date, almost 1,500 Swivls have sold, but when units were ready to ship, it had to compete with Galileo's Kickstarter campaign for media coverage -- even though the latter was only a prototype. "Until it actually ships, it's vaporware," Lamb argues.

    That may be true — as the high failure rate of tech products attests — but Lamb can't argue with the numbers. Galileo out-raised Swivl by nearly 3000%, a success largely attributable to the marketing put into its campaign. Miami-based Max Borges Agency, which only represents technology products, has worked with around a dozen Kickstarter projects, including Galileo. In an effort to engage more crowd-funded clients, the agency has introduced creative pricing to help the cash-strapped projects pay for the publicity services. Depending on its confidence in the product, the firm may charge lower up-front fees, work for a percentage of the funds raised, or, in some cases, charge nothing at all — if the campaign's goal isn't met. Founder Max Borges views these clients as more challenging because they are not name brands and often have no have samples to send out to the press. "You're really selling an idea and hoping that people are going to latch onto it," he says.

    And if the products do catch on, there are consequences. As Kickstarter grows in popularity and projects become more technical, product designers will sag under the weight of their promises. Instead of answering to a few venture capitalists, they'll have to appease to a few thousand micro-financiers. Even the most light-hearted campaigns — like Power Laces, which raised $25,000 in an effort to build automatically tying shows like in Back to the Future — have seen delays with backers stomping their feet demanding updates. There is a reason Kickstarter's projects were largely simple at first. Simple projects are easy to execute.

    But it could be worse; the campaign could simply fail to hit its mark. With 8 days to go, it's crunch time for Matthew Lillard — he still needs $28,000 to fund his project. Perhaps he should take a page from indie musician Amanda Palmer's $1.2 million campaign playbook. For $10,000, she promised to invade the donor's home, slather them in glam-rock makeup, take photos, feed them Thai food and get them drunk. Hey, if you saw Lillard's work in Summer Catch, you'd know booze could only help.