Perry Chen, Yancey Strickler, and Charles Adler founded Kickstarter in 2009.
The platform was created to help people raise money for creative projects before those projects were completed. Campaign creators set a funding goal and deadline, and supporters usually received rewards—such as a product, experience, or acknowledgment—in return for pledging money.
Kickstarter launched publicly in April 2009. Its model uses all-or-nothing funding: if a campaign does not reach its goal by the deadline, pledges are generally not collected. This approach was designed to prevent creators from receiving too little money to carry out the promised project.
Kickstarter is often confused with donation platforms such as GoFundMe or membership services such as Patreon. Kickstarter is primarily associated with finite creative projects, including films, games, design products, music, and publishing. It does not normally give backers ownership shares in the projects they support.