A Project We Love: Our Kickstarter Story
All good things come to those who take action.
When we began our journey to map the surface of Mars there was a lot we didn’t know, and what we didn’t know, we didn’t know. We did however know, that planetary mapping is an important step to furthering space exploration.
There were a number of possibilities, and we decided to use the Kickstarter platform to publish a detailed atlas of the surface of Mars in the style of traditional Earth atlases. Kickstarter provided both a marketplace to showcase our offerings in detail as well as an audience adept at determining what should (or should not) exist in the world. With the future always in mind, we not only wanted to deliver our product to the world, but we also wanted sufficient feedback to help us improve this and future projects.
In January we hit the launch button and waited. Within the first 72 hours, we reached 1/3 of our goal, and within the first week, we completed our goal. Appreciation for our work continued to grow. We were listed as a Kickstarter Projects We Love, featured on Golem.de, and interviewed by Digital Trends. This additional notoriety introduced a fresh wave of interest from new supporters. During our fourth week, the campaign was featured in the official Kickstarter Newsletter, pushing us to nearly 700% of our goal. Kickstarter proved to be the right platform to reach both experienced space professionals and budding enthusiasts.
Exposing oneself publicly through an act of creativity can be frightening. It was for us. Prior to launch we’d spent nearly a thousand hours of our time creating the maps for the Mars Atlas, programming the Mars Portal, constructing a website, fleshing out a Kickstarter campaign, and a seemingly never ending list of smaller tasks. As we hit the campaign launch button, however, we realized that all the work that was put into the project during the past year could end up being uninspiring to our audience. It was a painful prospect.
As many creative minds are aware, taking that plunge and putting something out into the world will, at a minimum, benefit the creator(s) regardless of the outcome. If it succeeds then the creator had sufficiently understood their project and market. If it fails, well, then they’ll have a few more data points that can be used to improve the next project.
“The trouble is, you think you have the time.” - Jack Kornfield. Don’t wait to achieve your legacy and enrich the lives of others.