On September 30 2015, ACWorldwide launched a Kickstarter campaign for, “The ultimate Bluetooth, wireless speakers for Star Wars fans,” with the approval of Disney and Lucasfilm. The campaign’s goal was to raise £60,000 to bring their C-3P0 and Stormtrooper speakers to market.
The campaign raised £36,058 in the first three days before being cancelled unexpectedly on Oct 2, 2015. On that day, ACWorldwide released an update to backers thanking them for their support and explaining that the publicity they received had attracted a tech business investor who offered to fund the project in full.
This decision caused a surge of comments from backers, who were notified by the creators that their pledges will be honored if they verify by email that they would like to continue. Some were pleased that the project has been funded, like one backer who commented:
“Hey Papa G & all at ACWorldwide. Firstly, congratulations on being fully-funded! After all that is what all of your supporters here on Kickstarter wanted. I see the negative reactions or uncertainty of many of us as disappointment at no longer being directly involved in bringing these speakers to market, but I’ll gladly accept the VIP status you have bestowed on us instead.”
Others were unimpressed with ACWorldwide’s handling of the situation, like this other backer:
“Man not an OK way to run a Kickstarter campaign. Will not be following through on my order.”
As more successful crowdfunding campaigns gain the attention of large investors, the questions that come up for creators are: “What is the best decision for my company?” and “What decision will my backers expect?”
“We respect the very few that have decided not to carry on, I hope that they will continue to follow our progress,” ACWorldwide has stated, “if they do change their minds and wish to get hold of one of our speakers we would happily welcome them over.”
Examples like Oculus Rift, which raised over $2 million on Kickstarter and was later sold to Mark Zuckerberg for over $2 billion, are becoming more common. The best solution to this kind of issue is not always straightforward, though.
If anything, creators should think hard about what type of crowdfunding campaign is best for their project. Reward-based crowdfunding platforms (like Kickstarter) are all about the backers and a sense of community, which is why some of ACWorldwide’s backers have been hesitant to accept this change of plans.
These things may be unpredictable – but if there is a good chance that you would accept a private investor deal or sell soon after your crowdfunding campaign finishes, maybe you should go with another model (like investment or debt crowdfunding) instead of rewards crowdfunding from the beginning.
For the Star Wars Speakers campaign, getting a VIP price on the product was not enough for some backers compared to the experience of being involved as a direct supporter of the project.
