How Will The Future of Crowdfunding Look Like?

Talking to the Verge, Aziz Hasan, CEO of Kickstarter, made his guess about the future of the crowdfunding platform he leads and, more in general, about the future of the industry for the months to come. This is what he told reporter Ashley Carman.

“What do you think is the future of crowdfunding, and do you think it’ll still be a valuable model?”

“I actually think that in probably the next 12 to 18 months, we’re just going to see a lot more funding that is going to be shifted to essential needs. I think that’s just the nature of what’s happening right now.

What I think that means is a lot of private funding. A lot of public funding is actually going to shift that way, which means that many artists and creators and people with projects are going to need additional ways to fund their work. So I see crowdfunding still being a really important tool going forward, and I think that’s going to continue to be a really viable and really important tool for all this creative work.I really just think that it’s presented itself as a way to remain independent: even as what’s happening around us, you could find your community, you can find the people that want to support you, and that you could actually continue to move that work forward.

“Is the future of Kickstarter solely crowdfunding or more like crowdfunding augmented with different revenue streams?”

“Crowdfunding is a good thing that we do today, and I think that that’s one aspect to your point. There are so many parts of a journey of a creative project that often people don’t focus on. It’s hard to make businesses that really try to create that type of value for fuzzy ideas rather than very clear projects that are ready to be sold. So we’ll continue to look at that space and try to figure out what kind of tools and resources can we create that kind of follow the arc of that creator journey.

So will we be an only-crowdfunding platform forever? Hard to say, but I don’t think so. But I think there’s so much support that creative work needs to make sure that it’s actually realized, and that’s the sweet spot for us. That’s the place where we want to be continuing to create value and make new tools. I think that could go beyond funding, and that can go to many other aspects.”

Read the full interview here.