BizTech Law Blog
As noted in a prior blog article, investment crowdfunding is awaiting SEC regulations. However, “reward” and “experience” based crowdfunding via websites such as Kickstarter have seen success.
On March 13, 2013, Rob Thomas, the creator of Veronica Mars, launched a Kickstarter project to fund the making of a Veronica Mars movie. Veronica Mars was previously a television show on UPN that aired from 2004 to 2007. It took only 11 hours for the project to meet its funding goal of $2 million dollars. The initial fundraising goal was to raise $2 million in 30 days.
Kickstarter is a private for-profit company that provides a means for creative projects to raise money via crowdfunding. Contributors on Kickstarter cannot earn money from their contributions; instead they are only eligible to earn "tangible rewards." Tangible rewards include things such as custom T-shirts; a meeting with the author or in the case of Veronica Mars, naming a character in the movie, a screening for 50 friends, or even an opportunity to appear onscreen in a speaking role. Some are skeptical about the impact that the Veronica Mars Kickstarter project will have on other crowdfunding efforts. In fact, there is already an assortment of other films looking for funding on Kickstarter that are not having as much luck at finding funding. Other film makers of cancelled television programs are considering similar fund raising efforts.
