Crowd Scene | Crowdfunding Success Stories

Sometimes a product comes along that you know you don’t exactly need, but the way it’s made and the skill with which it’s presented makes you buy it all the same. That might go some way towards explaining what happened with the Kickstarter campaign run by our guest on Crowd Scene today. Noam Bar Yohai – a London-based product designer – created a set of refillable, magnetic felt-tip pens and made such a fun campaign video that it made his product irresistible to thousands of people. Noam set a goal of £7,000 in order to bring his product – called Magnetips – to life. After five weeks on Kickstarter the total amount raised stood at a whopping £260,000. He then took the project to Indiegogo and carried on raising money there, this time in US dollars. In total, his crowdfunding efforts for this one simple product have brought in an impressive $425,000 from 7,000 backers. Find the notes for this episode on crowdsceneshow.com

In this episode we’re talking with Ivan Mactaggart, the producer of the hotly-anticipated movie “Loving Vincent” to find out more about its unique production and how exactly it got funded. Have you ever looked at a painting and wondered what would happen if it came to life? What would the portraits say if they could tell their story? That’s what the Oscar-winning creators of “Loving Vincent” had in mind when they decided to make a film about Vincent Van Gogh. This is no ordinary film though – the team behind it are creating the world’s first feature film where every single frame is an oil painting. Having already secured a grant for the movie, the team turned to Kickstarter to raise enough to begin production. In 24 days they raised £53,000 – about $75,000 – from 800 backers. Check out crowdsceneshow.com for the show notes.

This is part 2 of our conversation with filmmaker and crowdfunder Denny Tedesco. Denny has a direct link to some of the greatest pop music ever recorded. Throughout the 50s and 60s, a group of session musicians in Los Angeles – known as The Wrecking Crew – became the go-to musicians for producers and musicians including Elvis Presley, Ella Fitzgerald, the Beach Boys and dozens (if not hundreds) of others. Their phenomenal contribution to pop music was largely uncredited by record labels who may have been too embarrassed to put the same names on so many records. At the centre of The Wrecking Crew was guitarist Tommy Tedesco and in this episode we’re talking with his son Denny who directed and produced an incredible documentary that tells the whole story. Denny released his documentary – also titled “The Wrecking Crew” – back in 2008 and it did fantastically well in film festivals around the world. But to release the film to wider audience he needed to raise enough money to pay the licensing fees for the 120 classic songs featured in the film. Even after receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations, he was still short. So Denny turned to Kickstarter in 2013 to raise a further quarter of a million dollars to cover the rest of the fees. Happily, more than 4,000 music-loving backers shared his vision…

Our guest on this edition of Crowd Scene has a direct link to some of the greatest pop music ever recorded. Throughout the 50s and 60s, a group of session musicians in Los Angeles – known as The Wrecking Crew – became the go-to musicians for producers and musicians including Elvis Presley, Ella Fitzgerald, the Beach Boys and dozens (if not hundreds) of others. Their phenomenal contribution to pop music was largely uncredited by record labels who may have been too embarrassed to put the same names on so many records. At the centre of The Wrecking Crew was guitarist Tommy Tedesco and in this episode we’re talking with his son Denny who directed and produced an incredible documentary that tells the whole story. Denny released his documentary – also titled “The Wrecking Crew” – back in 2008 and it did fantastically well in film festivals around the world. But to release the film to wider audience he needed to raise enough money to pay the licensing fees for the 120 classic songs featured in the film. Even after receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations, he was still short. So Denny turned to Kickstarter in 2013 to raise a further quarter of a million dollars to cover the rest of the fees. Happily, more than 4,000 music-loving backers shared his vision…

We're off on our summer vacations here, but we have some more great shows lined up for August, including conversations with Ivan McTaggart, the producer of the forthcoming movie 'Loving Vincent' – as well as Noam Bar Yohai, creative extraordinaire, who leveraged the trend for adult colouring books and raised a small fortune on Kickstarter. Check back soon for these inspiring guests and many more.

In this episode we are talking about edible cutlery and huge Kickstarter success with crowdfunder Sarah Munir. ‘Edible’ and ‘Cutlery’ are two words that don’t normally go together and yet this is a remarkable idea that may play a significant role in reducing toxic, plastic waste. In India alone, it’s estimated that 120 billion pieces of disposable plastic cutlery are thrown away each year. So, the invention of edible, biodegradable cutlery provides an alternative that’s good for everyone. Our guest on Crowd Scene today is Sarah Munir, the US representative of the Indian team behind edible cutlery, which recently hit the big time with this idea on Kickstarter. The edible cutlery product is called “Bakeys” – which is a reference to the production technique. Sarah launched the Kickstarter campaign for Bakeys two months ago with a goal of $20,000. 30 days later, she had raised close to $300,000 and her campaign was backed by 9,293 people (including Pete). We find out how she did it and – perhaps more importantly – how it’s possible to eat soup with an edible spoon. Show notes are on crowdsceneshow.com. Please spend a minute to track us down on iTunes and leave us a nice review. Mike will warmly shake you by the hand as a sign of appreciation to each and every reviewer. The Crowd Scene theme music is by Kim Boekbinder. Special thanks also to Jim Fowler. Additional music by Jukedeck – create your own at jukedeck.com

Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared is a YouTube phenomenon. Created in the vein of innocent children’s programming, over the course of each short episode, the action always descends into mind-bending, hilarious terror. The nightmarish combination of puppets, sing-along tunes and raw meat has helped them notch up 100 million views and 900,000 subscribers on YouTube. Our guest on Crowd Scene today is Ben Lole, a London-based creative producer who is part of the core team behind Don’t Hug Me, I’m Scared. Ben’s here to explain how on earth this ever get made… In 2014, after making two episodes on their own, the team turned to Kickstarter in order to raise enough money to create four more. In 29 days they raised £105,000 – that’s about $150,000 for you Americans – from 3,500 backers. In the news we talk about ARKYD – a $1.5m Kickstarter campaign that just refunded its 17,000 backers three years after raising enough money to put a telescope in space. As always, please help us out by writing a friendly review of this show on iTunes. In return for each review, Mike will personally come to your house and perform a scene-for-scene re-enactment of the movie ‘Titanic’. Show notes on crowdsceneshow.com

We're talking about comic book Kickstarter success in this episode of Crowd Scene. The world of graphic novels is a fascinating scene for budding entrepreneurs and storytellers. Certainly the massive success of Marvel Comic adaptations into blockbuster films has demonstrated the mainstream appeal for comic books. In this episode we get some insights into what it takes to create and crowdfund an original comic book as we speak to writer Ryan O'Sullivan and editor Neil Gibson about their work Turncoat and their recent, and very successful campaign on Kickstarter. As always, if you leave a positive review for us on iTunes, Mike will buy you a round of drinks and serenade you with songs from his album.

On the show today we’re talking to Rob Loukotka. Rob is an artist in Chicago who also happens to be a huge fan of the Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner cartoons. He decided to bring these interests together by illustrating a poster containing every single product from the Acme Corporation! If you’ve seen the cartoon, you’ll remember that Acme was the fictional company from which The Coyote bought things like dynamite, bombs, a giant magnet and a whole host of other paraphernalia, all of which was supposed to help him catch the Road Runner. It turned out that Rob wasn’t the only one with fond memories of the cartoon, because more than 3,000 people backed his Kickstarter campaign to create the poster and even though his goal was a modest $3,000, he ended up raising $105,000 in a campaign that ended on Christmas Eve. We also discuss Cory Feldman's adventure into crowdfunding in this week's news. Links to that – and everything else – are on our website crowdsceneshow.com. Check it out immediately. As always, leave a nice review for the show on iTunes and Mike will buy drinks for you and your friends all night long.

Today we’re talking to a guest about whom we know very little and we’ll be talking about an organisation about which we know even less. The Mysterious Package Company is an organization that tells stories using the postal service as its medium. If you sign up, you’ll receive a variety of intriguing, bizarre and sometimes shocking artefacts through the post which, like pieces of a puzzle, together form a fascinating story. Our guest is Timothy Sullivan whose title is “Architect to the Curator” at the Mysterious Package Company. The Mysterious Package Company began in 2012 and in 2015 ran a Kickstarter campaign in an effort to raise $20,000 for a new project of theirs called “The Century Beast”. In just a month, over 1,300 backers helped them raise more than $420,000. With a campaign page that has now been largely redacted by the company (!), our only hope of finding about more about this mysterious enterprise is by talking to our guest on the show today... If you enjoy this show, please leave us a great review on iTunes, it really helps Mike sleep at night.

Our guest in this episode is Charlotte Eriksson, also known as The Glass Child. Charlotte is a musician in her twenties, a singer/songwriter originally from Sweden, and now based in Berlin. Her passions are music and writing and she says she wanted to “create a life for myself that I could be proud of.” She started her own publishing company “Broken Glass Records” to distribute her albums. And she’s also an author, independently publishing three books. You can find her on Twitter and Tumblr where she has an enormous following of dedicated fans. In addition to her crowdfunding campaign, we talk about how she continues to survive and thrive as an independent artist. Charlotte has written and released five EPs and is currently crowdfunding her third full length album over on PledgeMusic. We find out how Charlotte has achieved so much in her life already and how and why she uses crowdfunding. We are also joined by crowdfunding expert Chris Day. If you enjoy this episode, please leave a positive review on iTunes. Mike will express his gratitude by giving you an enormous hug, even if all you wanted was a handshake. Show notes, as ever, are on CrowdSceneShow.com - please visit this site immediately.

This is part 2 of the Good Spread interview. Plus we have more of Chris Day's weird world of crowdfunding. In this episode we’re joined once more from Nashville, Tennessee by Alex Cox and Mark Slagle, co-founders of Good Spread Peanut Butter. Back in 2011 they were inspired to help address malnutrition in developing countries – and their solution was unusual. But as we hear from Alex and Mark, it hasn’t all been plain sailing – or smooth spreading – they’ve had their fair share of crunchy bits along the way… Be sure to check out part 1 of this interview on iTunes

In this episode we’re joined from Nashville, Tennessee by Alex Cox and Mark Slagle, co-founders of Good Spread Peanut Butter. Back in 2011 they were inspired to help address malnutrition in developing countries – and their solution was unusual. But as we hear from Alex and Mark, it hasn’t all been plain sailing – or smooth spreading – they’ve had their fair share of crunchy bits along the way... They launched a crowdfunding campaign to get their business off the ground. And for every sale of their own peanut butter, they gave an equivalent amount of life- saving therapeutic food to a malnourished child. Alex and Mark set out to raise $65,000 on Indiegogo and by the end of the campaign, 599 backers took the total up to about $70,000. So, let’s find out how they did it. We are also joined in this episode by acclaimed crowdfunding expert Chris Day. As ever, please leave us a positive review on iTunes if you enjoy the show. If you do, Mike will personally bake you a homemade lasagna. Delicious!

Our guests in this show are Erik Baker and Lauren Wells Baker – a husband and wife team who have launched a project called Stickybones. It’s a posable model for stop-motion animators that’s currently kicking up a storm on Indiegogo. Erik and Lauren were looking for $85,000 to make Stickybones a reality and, with five weeks still to run on their campaign, they had already raised $216,000 when we spoke with them. They share some awesome crowdfunding advice and words of wisdom. We're also joined by "crowdfunding expert" Chris Day who challenges us to find the 'odd campaign out' amongst four unlikely-sounding, but mostly real, crowdfunding campaigns. If you enjoy this show, please leave a review on iTunes. If you do, Mike will buy you a beer and laugh at all your jokes.

More top-notch crowdfunding advice in this episode of Crowd Scene. Mike and Pete are joined by Gerado Cid, an entrepreneur and designer who – by cunningly weaving together the world's 214 subway systems, 791 lines and 11,924 stations – has created a stunning map that has taken Kickstarter by storm. The idea was inspired by a 1959 map created by the Architect Constant Nieuwenhuys. He called his idea 'New Babylon', an imaginary borderless system the size of the entire planet were people can travel without restrictions. Gerado and his team have revised this idea to create a map that represents human mobility. In addition, this new format show features "crowdfunding expert" Chris Day who offers up some truly original ideas for wearable tech. Mike also cajoles Pete into reading the news. As always, if you enjoy this show, please write a kind review on iTunes and/or send us actual cash through the post.

This is Part 2 of a two-part episode. In this part we talk about the crowdfunding campaign and the techniques Ilya and Aaron used to raise more than $400,000. We’re joined by Ilya Rosenberg and Aaron Zarraga, co-founders of Sensel, and inventors of The Morph. Ilya and Aaron believe The Sensel Morph will pave the way for a new generation of tactile, and responsive interfaces – interfaces that will entirely replace the keyboard and mouse and, in doing so, transform the making of art, music and gaming. Wired Magazine went so far as to say that the Sensel Morph “May Be the Future of Input Devices” And TechCrunch calls their invention “A Keyboard On Steroid.s” To turn their their concept into reality they turned to Kickstarter in order to raise $60,000 over the course of a 45-day campaign. Along the way, they attracted more than 1,600 backers, and blew way past their initial target, raising more than $440,000.

We’re joined by Ilya Rosenberg and Aaron Zarraga, co-founders of Sensel, and inventors of The Morph. Ilya and Aaron believe The Sensel Morph will pave the way for a new generation of tactile, and responsive interfaces – interfaces that will entirely replace the keyboard and mouse and, in doing so, transform the making of art, music and gaming. Wired Magazine went so far as to say that the Sensel Morph “May Be the Future of Input Devices” And TechCrunch calls their invention “A Keyboard On Steroid.s” To turn their their concept into reality they turned to Kickstarter in order to raise $60,000 over the course of a 45-day campaign. Along the way, they attracted more than 1,600 backers, and blew way past their initial target, raising more than $440,000. Show notes can be found on crowdsceneshow.com Enjoying the show? Please leave us a positive review. Mike will be happy to buy a drink for everyone who does so.

A majority of Americans consider solar power to be their #1 energy choice but it still makes up less than 1% of total energy production in the US. Paul Droege and his team, along with a rapidly growing base of supporters, have set out to change that. SunPort is their remarkable new device that lets you use the power of the sun without having to install solar panels. Paul set out to raise $75,000 on Kickstarter and, just 30 days later, around 1,700 clean-energy enthusiasts had contributed more than $120,000. Sunport has also been named "Start-up of the Year" by the Consumer Electronic Association. And Forbes magazine has chosen Sunport as its #1 tech-related Christmas item. A perfect stocking stuffer… Thanks for listening! As always show notes are on our website, crowdsceneshow.com

Mike and Pete are joined by Travis Peterson, an entrepreneur and professional trouble maker. He and his brother Nick Peterson are the creators of The Best Prank Birthday Card Ever! – A musical Birthday card that NEVER STOPS PLAYING – well, until the battery dies or you break it. And that's the point. As website Geek Dad puts it: “You know those candles you can’t blow out? This is so much worse.” So, can you think of someone near and dear to you that you’d like to give that card to? Someone you want to drive crazy? If so, you are not alone… Nearly 3,000 fans thought Travis and his team had a great idea and enthusiastically backed the campaign. He and Nick set out to raise just $7,500 on Kickstarter but they obviously touched a nerve out there, because just 30 days later, thousands of backers had contributed an incredible $92,000! AND – they’re back for more – they are currently embroiled in a 2nd campaign that finishes at the end of this year. So, listen in to the conversation as the guys talk crowdfunding, creativity, entrepreneurship, and how a simple, fun idea can attract so much attention. As always, you can find show notes for this episode on our website: crowdsceneshow.com

Imagine a movie that includes everyday of the rest of your life. What would you choose to remember? TED speaker and creator of the ‘1-Second Everyday’ app, Cesar Kuriyama, is our guest in this episode of Crowd Scene. Cesar remembers exactly what he has been doing every day for the last five years. And that’s thanks to the app he created, called ‘1-Second Everyday’. In this episode, Cesar explains how ‘1-Second Everyday’ works, how he was selected to do a TED Talk that’s been viewed over a million times, and how that led to a massively successful Kickstarter and his work being featured recently in a recent hit film. And all it started with quitting his job. Cesar’s Kickstarter campaign attracted a huge amount of media attention and more than 11,000 backers, who shared his passion for this project and raised close to $60,000. You can find more information about this episode and all our of our guests on crowdsceneshow.com

Is Russ Clarke's TerraTech the next Minecraft? The Guardian certainly thinks it's a contender and a growing fanbase and list of awards are proof of its early success. Russ is founder of game developer Payload Studios and is the lead developer of TerraTech. He joins Mike and Pete in the studio for this edition of Crowd Scene. TerraTech is a physics-based game about exploring an alien planet, mining resources and blowing stuff up! But it’s not a typical video game – as you explore worlds you’re inventing, finding resources and building vehicles– in that sense it’s not unlike a new kind of Lego. In fact, as Russ puts it, TerraTech is like "Lego with guns". Russ set out to raise £35,000 on Kickstarter to bring TerraTech to life and by the end of the campaign, more than 1,600 backers took the total over £39,000. Russ shares a wealth of advice both as an entrepreneur and as a crowdfunder. If you enjoy this episode, please post a review of Crowd Scene on iTunes. Thanks for listening. As ever, all show notes for this episode – including links to everything mentioned in the show – can be found on our website crowdsceneshow.com

Matthew Moore, founder of ‘Do Better Games’ and creator of the game Bring Your Own Book is our guest in this episode. About himself, Matthew says, "I did everything from DJing to selling sheepskin seat covers before finding my home in game design." Bring Your Own Book is a game where players literally bring their own books along and win or lose based on their ability to find interesting, amusing or witty responses to questions found in the game’s deck of cards. Matthew explains how the game works and also how he managed to raise 400% of his goal on Kickstarter. He was looking for $13,000 and ended up a month later with more than $55,000, raised from around 1,900 backers. This episode of Crowd Scene also marks the 'Inaugural Podcast Playing of Bring Your Own Book'! Mike, Pete and Matthew have fun playing a few rounds of the game during the show. Bring Your Own Book was selected as one of eight games for the 'Tabletop Indie Showcase' for the inaugural PAX South in 2015. Along with designer Luke Nalker, Matthew prepared his Kickstarter campaign to coincide with that event. As ever, find the show notes for this episode on crowdsceneshow.com

Any Back to The Future fans out there? You’re in for a treat. The ‘Power of Love’ is strong in this episode! We meet director Jason Aron to discuss his fantastically successful Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for a real labour of love, a feature-length documentary called Back in Time about the greatest time-travel trilogy of all time, Back to the Future. Jason shares behind-the-scenes tales of meeting Michael J Fox, the inspirational role the famous DeLorean played in getting his project started, and talks about what he’s learned along the way of what’s been a 2 ½ year journey from concept to screen. Jason and his team wanted to raise $50,000 on Kickstarter …But… by the end of their campaign they had raised 1.21 gigawatts of excitement from 2,383 backers who between them pledged more than $143,000. Great Scott! Since the interview, Jason has successfully sold the rights to his film and the release date is October 21, 2015 – the very date that Marty McFly visited in Back to The Future 2! Even before its release, Back in Time has attracted a massive amount of press from around the world from publications including The Hollywood Reporter, People.com, Time (appropriately enough), Esquire, Slash Film and Variety. So we hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did. Lots here to learn when it comes to crowdfunding – and who can resist a chance to reminisce about Back To The Future – the movie that Steven Spielberg once described as ‘defining the taste of buttered popcorn’? Show notes and links to everything mentioned in this episode can be found on our website at crowdsceneshow.com If you enjoy this episode, please leave a nice review for us on iTunes!

In this episode we’re joined from Denmark by Claus Raasted, the ‘King of Live Action Role Play’. Also known as ‘LARP’, Live Action Role Play is where people playing characters come together in a themed setting and interact to create an original story. Hugely imaginative and inventive, these are large-scale events held over several days that can be challenging to create. It’s growing in popularity around the world, but it’s already big in Denmark. We talk about a Harry Potter inspired Live Action Role Playing weekend that Claus and his team successfully crowdfunded. They call the experience: The College of Wizardry. Claus set out to raise $50,000 on Indiegogo to bring The College of Wizardry to life. By the end of the campaign, 764 live action role play enthusiasts took the total amount raised up to $163,000. Claus also talks about how this nascent form of entertainment compares with traditional storytelling such as books and movies. He shares some fascinating thoughts on the nature of identity and also discusses the issue of 'bleed' where the personality of a character played in a LARP can creep into a player's real life. He's a superb guest and whether you are familiar with LARPs or not, this is one episode you won't want to miss. Links to everything we talk about can be found on our website, crowdsceneshow.com If you enjoy this show, please leave a positive review on iTunes. Thanks for listening!

In this episode we’re joined by Clifton Roozeboom who shares the story behind his amazing PocketLab – "a science lab in your pocket". PocketLab has been featured by the likes of The New York Times, TechCrunch, Buzzfeed, Popular Science and now, here on Crowd Scene, we have an in-depth interview with the inventor behind it. Clifton has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and his specialty is the fascinating world of sensors – the devices that measure the world around us. We talk about his successful campaign – The PocketLab – a remarkable device that makes all kinds of experiments easy by gathering data about the real world and visualizing it in real time. Clifton’s goal on Kickstarter was to raise $25,000 to bring PocketLab to life. By the end of his campaign 916 backers took the total way beyond his goal to more than $114,000! Clifton tells us exactly how his Kickstarter campaign proved to be so successful. If you enjoy this show, please leave a positive review on iTunes. Full show information can be found at CrowdSceneShow.com Thanks for listening!

In this episode of Crowd Scene we talk to award-winning audio producer Matt Hill. We hear about his successful Kickstarter project of last year to make a show called 'The Media Podcast' which was previously part of the Guardian’s media empire (and known there as 'Media Talk'). Buzzfeed recently named 'The Media Podcast' as one of the 'Top British Podcasts you need to start listening to’. After the Guardian decided to stop work on that show, everyone involved with it – including Matt – felt passionately that there would be enough support from their fans to take on the show independently. And that’s when they turned to crowdfunding. In his own words Matt describes the show like this: “The Media Podcast is the UK's premier audio programme for the media sector; a podcast for the industry, by the industry. Hence the name.” Matt also talks about what makes great stories, shares his thoughts on the phenomenon of Serial and more. Enjoy the show! As always, find show notes for this episode over on CrowdSceneShow.com If you enjoyed this episode, posting a positive review on iTunes can help us find new listeners.

In this episode we’re talking with Kelly Angood, an incredibly talented London-based designer. We’ll be hearing about her successful Kickstarter project from 2013 “The Pop-Up Pinhole Project” to create a unique, affordable camera – it’s a fully-working pinhole camera made of cardboard that you assemble yourself. Initially part of a student project, Kelly took a legendary Hasselblad camera, something exclusive and unattainable for many, and re-imagined it in everyday, accessible materials. So in order to fund this project, Kelly set her sights on a goal of £15,000 and by the end of the campaign 881 pinhole-camera-enthusiast backers had helped her more than double that and took the total over £35,000 – which is around $54,000. Among the many amazing things that were said about the project, Fast Company called it: “a celebration of vintage cameras, papercraft, and medium format film photography in one. It’s not designed to make photography simple; it’s designed to make photography fun.” Kelly has a lot to share and talks about everything from setting up her first "Studio" in her father's garage to the specific steps she took to reach – and blast past – her goal on Kickstarter. Find show notes for this episode on CrowdSceneShow.com and if you enjoy this episode please leave a positive review on iTunes. Thanks for listening!

In this episode we’re joined by Thane Richard, the COO of Outernet – the new company with an incredible mission: to broadcast the most important content of the web to the two thirds of the world – or 4.3 billion people – that do not have access to the internet. Providing access to people is a competitive business. Facebook wants to use a fleet of drones. Google is trying out weather balloons in their Project Loon, and Tesla’s Elon Musk wants to use low-cost satellites. But Outernet is offering an alternative: an offline FREE library accessible to anyone, anywhere. And the role of our guest, Thane, is a big one. He decides what content is broadcast. Outernet's crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo was ambitious too – they wanted to fund a receiving device called Lantern that would shine the light of information into remote corners of the world. And because it works offline, Lantern could provide vital news during natural disasters, making it an essential addition to one’s emergency disaster kit. Their work has been featured widely: on the BBC, Wired, Forbes and others. Outernet’s goal on Indiegogo was to raise $200,000 to bring Lantern into the world… And almost 7,000 backers took the total up to $626,000. An impressive result. So let’s find out how they did it. Find notes for this episode on CrowdSceneShow.com. If you enjoy this episode, posting a positive review on iTunes really helps the show – thanks!

Writer and Director Mark Lobatto is our guest on this episode of Crowd Scene. Mark is in the studio with hosts Michael Ogden and Peter Dean and shares how he developed and then successfully crowdfunded his short film, Blue Borsalino. A staff pick on Kickstarter within hours of launching, and a success within 4 days, neither of these achievements came by chance. From the beginning Mark planned and strategised how best to reach an audience for his film and fund his passion project. Mark talks about his approach to developing stories, finding a team, and staying motivated. He also digs into how he built his mailing list to ensure it was effective, and comments on his approach to shooting his personal campaign video. A young, upcoming filmmaker with his second short film now under his belt, Mark explains why he feels being honest with yourself and with your audience is key when you’re creating stories and why it’s crucial to follow your instincts. Find the show notes and links for this episode on CrowdSceneShow.com

Rebecca Melsky and Eva St. Clair, aka Princess Awesome, are two Washington DC moms who took Kickstarter by storm. They campaigned to create a new, original line of clothing for girls that would upend traditional thinking – their clothes for girls feature designs with ninjas, robots, dinosaurs, math and science stuff because these things belong on girls' clothes just as much as on boys'. Their Kickstarter campaign resonated with thousands of parents and raised nearly eight times the amount they were after. In this episode Rebecca and Eva share their inspiring story, their advice on running a successful campaign and talk about what it took to make their plan a reality. Check it out!

Hosts Michael Ogden and Peter Dean take a breather between regular episodes to share their thoughts on talking with J Todd Coleman and Gordon Walton of Crowfall in the previous show. We also give a shout out to our Crowdfunding Pick of The Week (great name!) with a campaign that has the funniest video you are ever likely to see on Kickstarter, but will it be enough to get through Pete's famously high humor threshold? We wrap things up in this episode by talking a little about our forthcoming guests on KickStars – the dynamic duo of Rebecca Melsky and Eva St Clair, aka Princess Awesome. Check it out!

Creative Director J Todd Colman and Exec Producer Gordon Walton are two of the most influential figures in the gaming industry. Venturing into the world of crowdfunding for the first time with their passion project, “Crowfall", they built a base of 50,000 fans before they even started their Kickstarter campaign, and more than doubled their fundraising goal to reach nearly $2 million in 30 days. On this episode of Crowd Scene they tell Mike and Pete exactly how they did it. Both Todd and Gordon are highly articulate, and very generous with their recommendations on what to do and what not to do in crowdfunding. They also share their 'Guest Picks', talk about how to keep a big, creative team moving in the same direction, and how, as crowdfunding evolves, it’s become necessary to be transparent with your backers and see them as collaborators. This episode is a lot of fun.

Designer, entrepreneur and Kickstarter crowdfunder Victor Mathieux is a great guest on this episode of Crowd Scene. Victor’s goal with the ‘Flip Band’ project is to improve peoples’ lives by providing a simple method to change their habits, stick to resolutions and meet their goals. On this episode, Victor talks passionately about what it means for him to be an entrepreneur, how doubt is always part of the equation, and how he works past that by reminding himself that ‘haters gonna hate, makers gonna make.’ Victor also talks about his use of virtual assistants, shares his best crowdfunding hacks for running a successful campaign, gives his ‘Guest Pick’ for another favorite project, and tells hosts Mike and Pete it’s easier to replace a bad habit than to quit something. And what words of wisdom does Victor have taped to his wall? Find out on this episode of Crowd Scene.

In the very first episode of Crowd Scene, hosts Michael Ogden and Peter Dean talk with New York singer-songwriter Kim Boekbinder about her "Infinite Minute" Kickstarter campaign that might just have broken a world record. Kim, a veteran of crowdfunding, shares her wisdom, tips for success and lots more.