August 12, 2026 • 29 mins
Kickstarter CEO Everette Taylor explains how the platform’s new $1 million Culture Fund is opening more doors for creatives and how they can take advantage of the opportunity.
Kickstarter CEO Everette Taylor breaks down the platform’s new video feed and shares key tips for creators looking to tap into the algorithm
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's his way up at Angela. He on a Wealth Wednesday.
So Stacy Tisday is here.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Happy Wealth Wednesdays, everybody, And it is week two of
Wealth Wednesdays, celebrating Black Business Month. And we have yet
another slacker for you today. We have Everett Taylor and
he is the CEO of Kickstarter, and we are just
so incredibly thrilled to have you here and just knowing
(00:27):
about who you were anyway and knowing your backstory, I
just have to tell people you started what your mom
reached out to a classified ad when you were fourteen
years old?
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Fourteen? Wow, you did you well researched?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Oh I know you better than you.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Listen, listen, we got our own AI right here.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah, so you were fourteen years old?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
I was fourteen? Yeah, what happened? Yeah? I was.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
I was running the streets doing things that I shouldn't
have been doing.
Speaker 5 (00:54):
And imagine that, Yes, she applied for you.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
She knows. She called them up.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
It was like, my son needs the interview here, and
they gave me an interview.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I was fourteen years old, They didn't.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
It was for a very junior marketing role for a
nonprofit called Eastern National. And yeah, they didn't even realize
I was fourteen, And at the end of the interview,
I was like, oh, he was like, can you start
Monday at like nine am?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
And I was like I can't.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
I got school and he thought I was a college
sup And I was like, no, I'm a freshman in
high school. But they gave me an opportunity still to
go with that job. And that job changed my life
because it introduced me to marketing. And I tell a
lot of people when it comes to wealth creation, figuring
out what your gift is, what your skill is, what
is the thing that you do better than everybody else?
And to me, it was like you know Ray Charles
(01:43):
on the Keys. To me when I started doing marketing, Yeah,
it was like just such a natural thing. So that
completely changed my life trajectory because it got me out
of the hood. It got me out of Southside Richmond,
and I went into a space with people that were
college educated. I was meeting people from all around the world,
and so that completely changed the trajectory of my life.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Being able to get the opportunity to shout out to
my mom.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
I have to say to your point of there's a
lot of people who when you're younger. Just one thing
like that can change everything. There's so many people that
are great at like hustling, but that turned into a
different type of hustle. Is what can actually make you flourish.
And sometimes it is just being around the right people
because you could be brilliant and so smart, but if
(02:27):
that's not used in the right way, then who knows
what can happen?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Absolutely, and we're celebrating Black Business Month and now you're
the CEO of Kickstarter, but we're not going to get
there yet because you're a serial serial entrepreneur and to
continue that journey or don't want to dwell on this,
but you had some real challenges and I know you
experienced homelessness in high school, but at nineteen you're like,
(02:52):
I know what I'm going to do and you started
your own company. How do how did you have belief
all the things that you experience is where did the
belief that you could do that come from?
Speaker 3 (03:02):
You know?
Speaker 4 (03:03):
I hate talking about this a little bit because some
things are just God given, you know, and some things
you're just built for it, you know, And like it's
you can put yourself in the same circumstances as someone else,
but you might have this unwavering belief in yourself. For me,
I was always super confident. I was always even when
(03:24):
I was young, you know, I was super confident in myself.
I had this mindset of I'm gonna do better. I'm
going to do something different. You know, I'm not going
to just be stuck here doing the same things that
everyone else did. And so for me, I've always had
this incredible sense of awareness about my abilities but also
confidence in what I could do. And so even at
(03:47):
a young age, I was like, no, I'm going to
do something else. And when I was nineteen, you know,
I was working a minimum wate job at Joanne Fabrics Fabrics,
and it was terrible because I would literally go go
there and just the gas money and then grabbing some lunch.
(04:08):
I'm like, did I even make any money today?
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Exactly?
Speaker 4 (04:12):
And so, you know, during my freshman year of college,
I dropped out. After my freshman year, you know, I
threw parties and I enjoyed doing parties and events, and
so I was like, Hey, let me try to start
doing my own parties here in Richmond. And then you know,
I learned how to code a little bit. During my
freshman year. I went to Virginia Tech and a couple
of my buddies. We all built a platform called easy Events,
(04:33):
which was a ticketing platform.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
It was no event right already existed, and I didn't know.
I didn't know. I didn't know event bright existed.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
And you know, we can have conversations of knowing the
value of what you've built because I didn't know at
the time. But yeah, we built that, and yeah, we
sold the company a couple of years later.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
I want to ask you when you started Easy Events, right,
did y'all have the sense to be like, Okay, we're
going to do a business plan.
Speaker 5 (04:59):
Or what is it? Just let's do it and figure
it out.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
You know what's crazy is that I really fumbled my
bag on this one. So I started doing events right,
and I didn't have an LC. I was doing everything
cash whatever. And then what I realized was, you know,
people were starting to sell like this is like two
thousand and nine, so people were actually starting to sell
event tickets online.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
And I was like, oh, I need to build that myself.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
And so I hit up a couple homies that I
went to school with and they helped me build the platform.
And then one of the fathers of one of my
co founders, like established the LC for us and did
all that, but I didn't know what I was I
didn't know what I was doing and what was so crazy.
They helped me build it, and then after that I
continue to run a business without them, But when I
sold it, because of the way that the LC was built,
(05:46):
they each of us owned thirty three percent of the company.
So despite me building the company, I only got to
get thirty three percent of the proceeds. And that's because
I didn't know anything about equity and ownership and things
like that.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
That's a good lesson right there, year, So don't be
so hard on yourself not to build bring up something
else painful. But it was sold after that for like
a lot more.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Yes, yes, man, she's on it.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
Yes, it was sold for a lot more because I
didn't know about the event bright of the world and
the other ticketing platforms in the world. And the person
that bought it from us was also a serial entrepreneur investor.
He knew where he was going to flip it right after,
and so I had to learn a really really valuable lesson.
Not only did I learn a lesson of like ownership,
(06:33):
and equity. Not only did I learn the lesson of
taxes and capital gains, but you know, and the other
lesson I learned was like being well researched and knowing
what you've built and knowing the value of what you've
built because people will take advantage of you. And I
told myself once that happened, I would never be taking
advantage of That's a.
Speaker 5 (06:53):
Good lesson to have learned early on.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Though.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
I want to say, because you were so young when
you did that, that's valuable.
Speaker 5 (06:58):
It's like paying for education.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah, the part that you ended up having to give up,
but then you went on to education, but to become,
like she said, a serial entrepreneur and you launched other businesses.
So let's talk about that.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
You know, so I went and when I learned about
that company selling for what it's so for, I was like, Oh,
I need to go to Silicon Valley. I need to
be in California. And I went to go work with
a guy named Sean Ellis who like led growth at
like dropped box in event right. That's how he knew
about me because it was vent Bright, and you know,
(07:33):
he was like this really well known guy in Silicon Valley,
and so I learned under him. And while I was
learning the ropes of Silicon Valley leading marketing for him,
I started building my own companies. And so I started
with my first marketing firm, and then we built a
company together, and then like over the course of the
next few years, I built several, you know, million dollar
(07:54):
plus companies.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
I think I did four of them for the age
of twenty seven.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
But the difference between me and like my like kind
of white counterparts out there in the world was that
I felt like I had to build profitable businesses right away.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
You couldn't get investors.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
I couldn't get investors, And so the way that I
was thinking about building my companies was like companies that
I could go and make money from, like right away,
right day one, right where I saw like my white counterparts,
you know, I remember like Snapchat, Evan Spiegel, Like they
had no they didn't know how they were going to monetize,
(08:30):
and they would have these big ideas that turned into
these multi billion dollar companies that we used to work.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
We still do with fintech companies. Yeah, and some of
these founders, I'm like, people just give you money that
you just said oh, I want to do this. It's crazy.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
And the funding environment wasn't like that for people that
look like us, and it still isn't in a lot
of ways. But you know, for me, I felt like
a lot of my creativity was was was dampened because
I didn't feel like I could go out there with
the big idea and raise a bunch of capital and
things like that. So I stuck to trying to build
(09:06):
well for myself by building profitable companies that you know,
had high ebadah, and I could go and be able
to pay myself and take care of my family and
make investments.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
So interesting is you put? You know, you got the
marketing bug at fourteen, and you've built all these different
types of companies. So it hasn't been marketing, you know,
I just staying in marketing. At what point did you realize, okay, mate,
I might be good at marketing, but I'm just really
good at building businesses.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Yeah, well, thank you for saying that. I think I do.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Okay, I think, uh once you've done it a couple
of times. So, you know, I started my first company,
sold it. I became head of marketing for a startup
in Silicon Valley, that sold right, I you know, started
a couple of companies that you know, did seven figures
in revenue, and like I was like, wow, everything that
(09:59):
I'm doing is actually becoming successful. And I'm like, Okay,
I think I'm pretty I'm pretty good at this, and
that gave me more. I was already confident in myself.
But once you have the repetition and you do it
over and over and over again, you just learn so
many lessons throughout and you cut out the mistakes and
you just become more efficient, You become more dangerous at it,
(10:19):
you know what I mean. You really become a really
great entrepreneur as you're learning. And for me, I was
just always super customer obsessed and I just identify different
opportunities and I knew how to reach target audiences and
build things and scale things, and yeah, the rest was history.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Something seems different. I've been working a lot all summer
with entrepreneurs on creating the mindset for scaling. It's very
different than growing black entrepreneurs. And they don't sell their company.
That's one of the things. Like they never think, Okay,
I'm building something to make something bigger. And I know
there's a lot of ownership need in our community. But
(10:57):
I think that's one lesson people have to learn a
scaling mindset. But you don't seem to have a problem
with it.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
You know.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
It's interesting. It's it depends on what you're what you
want and what you're looking for. A lot of people
don't realize this, and Angreli, you probably know this. Like
when you go raise capital and you have you know, investors,
and you have a board, and you know, you split
that ownership, Like the board decides how much you get paid, right,
(11:24):
the board decides if you get a bonus when you
own one hundred percent of your Like, so you could
have one hundred million dollar company and be doing two
hundred twenty million in profit, and the board is like, oh,
you have a half a million dollar salary because we're
trying to scale this up to being a multi billion
dollar company. That's what they invested in you for. They
(11:44):
wanted the outsize impact where you can build a five
to ten million dollar business, right that is, say profitable
three four five million dollars a year and pay yourself
to three million dollars a year and it's a much
smaller business than that big business within So it really
depends on what you want. Do you want to build
a business where you're gonna like create a really great
(12:06):
lifestyle business or you know, create you know, like not
that outside wealth, or are you going to go for it?
And if you go for it, you're probably gonna have
to raise a lot of capital and you know you're
gonna have to exit, meaning you're gonna have to sell
the company. You're gonna have to take the company public,
and then that's when you get the money that.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
You really want.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
You may even be forced out.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
You might be forced out.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
You never know what can happen.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Yeah, I want to ask you, with all of this entrepreneurship,
you deciding to take this position as CEO Kickstarter, how
did that happen?
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Who?
Speaker 4 (12:37):
I'll try to make a long story short. So I was,
so I've always had this balance of being an executive
and a founder, right, And I think it kind of
comes from, you know, that place of understanding that a
business could go sideways at any time and you could
always lose a job. And so I've always had this
like really beautiful balance of doing both. And then I
(12:58):
got to a point where where I really wanted to
learn and I wanted.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
To really be at businesses at scale.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
And I took a job as a chief marketing officer
at Artsy and Artsy is the biggest online platform for
art and so I sat there and I really learned.
And I still have my other companies, but I was
really focused on learning. And when I was there, I
reported into a CEO named Mike Steibe, and he really
taught me the ropes of what it meant to be
(13:27):
a CEO of like a billion dollar global type of company.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Right, you have to back up because you told him
you wanted his job.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
I did tell him, Yeah, I did, because what I
what I realized was two things. One was that I
had built some really incredible companies, seven to eight figure companies,
but I hadn't really built anything at scale. So I
really wanted to learn that. The other thing is, for
those who don't know what a CMO is, as chief
(13:56):
marketing officer, you have a very limited trajectory as a
CMO in terms of compensation and opportunities. The people that
really get compensated the best are CEOs, Right, So you
can hit a wall as a CMO.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
That's what boz of Us Saint John always talks about.
When she was a CMO at so many different companies.
It's because it's not something that's meant to be like
a long term position.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Yeah, I mean it can be.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
It can be, but if you want that, if you
want that. But it's a really tough role to be
in and I and I really wanted to do a
lot more than just be the head.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Of marketing or a CMO.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
And so I told my CEO at the time that
I wanted his job.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
How does somebody respond to.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
That, Well, listen, I was killing it too, so you know.
And I told him when he left when he left,
and he did eventually left and ran another multi billion
dollar company. But I told him that I wanted the
role whenever he left, So prepare me to be a CEO,
because being a CEO of a small seven to eight
(14:57):
figure company is not the same of being at a
global tech company, right, So he really taught me that.
And then I also told myself, I'm not going to
take another CMO role. So I'm getting hit up for
CMO roles from some of the biggest companies in the world.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Which I can't say. Yeah, and I was.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
Turning them down, turning them down, turning them I mean
incredible roles, and I meet this woman who was just like, hey,
I want to pick your brain and I was like, sure,
like black women, I want to support you, and had
no idea who she was. At the end of our meeting,
she said, actually write for the Financial Times, and I
(15:34):
was like, oh wow. She was like, I want to
write a story on you. And now this story kept
getting delayed and delayed and delayed, and then finally we
did it and it came out. Now, if it came
out when it was supposed to, I would not be
the CEO of Kickstarter.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
But that delay ended up happening right.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
When they were looking for a new CEO at Kickstarter,
and one of the board members ended up picking up
The Financial Times that day that I was in it.
And then obviously I went through a long process, six
seven month process to become the CEO of Kickstarter. And
I was a very unorthodox candidate because I was thirty
two at the time. You know, I hadn't run a
(16:12):
company of that scale. But they really took a shot
on me and a chance on me, and.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
It worked out.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
So at that point, Kickstarter was having some issues right
before they hired you. So what was that like and
because we want to talk about how you managed to
turn that around as an unorthodox CEO.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Yeah, I mean listen.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
I was listening to this panel down in Boca recently
a few months ago. It was with a few block
CEOs because it's not a lot of us, and they
were talking about when there is a CEO opportunity given
to us, it's not gonna be a good job.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
It's gonna be a mess.
Speaker 5 (16:49):
You got to put a fire, it's.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Gonna it's gonna be a mess.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
So for me, you know, when I came in, you know,
revenue was in steep decline. The culture was not where
I needed to be. There was a lack of ambition,
like when you've been number one for so long, like
it's really really hard to get people fired up and
be like change you know, change agents. And so for
(17:12):
me coming in, I was like, guys, like I had
this entrepreneurial my mentality of like hey, whatever you thought
was working before, like I don't care, like we're going
to do something new. We're looking at this like a
blank canvas, Like we're not just because we've been number
one for so long, our growth has stalled and if
we continue to do this if you're not grown, you're dying, right,
(17:34):
if you're not evolving as a business. You saw it
a lot during COVID. These people businesses went like this
and they didn't evolve, and now where are they now?
And so for me, I just wanted to come in
there with a new energy, a new level of ambition,
new creative strategy. I was thirty three, I was young,
I was in the culture I still am, and so
(17:54):
I just wanted to bring a new mentality to Kickstarter.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
I you know, I had an entrepreneur background. Gave you
a different wins.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
Yeah, one hundred and ten percent, And just all of
my experiences being a young black man, experiencing the things
that I've experienced, being a creator myself, being a creative
person myself, knowing what it was like not to be
able to have funding for the things that you wanted
to do. But also shift the perception of Kickstarter because
we're not gofund me, we're not donations, We're not hey,
(18:24):
this is a charity.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Like No, you'd be reluctant because of how it looks.
And I want to ask it being a young thirty
two to thirty three year old black man coming in there,
as the CEO and wanting to shake things up?
Speaker 5 (18:36):
How do people take to that.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
I'm gonna look at my my PR person right now.
Speaker 5 (18:42):
I'm just caring.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Is you know, coming in there and doing something, and
people can be resistant, they can push against that.
Speaker 5 (18:51):
Your age, you.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Know, your race, all of those things.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
I would say this while trying to be as respectful
as possible.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Yeah, they're they're not. Everyone was happy for me. Listen, listen, listen, listen.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
They promised, they promised that they were going to bring
in a super experienced CEO, and and they brought me
so I could see. And then everyone that's reporting into
me is much older than me, you know, and things
like that. So yeah, it's a different But listen, I
became an executive when I was for a company that
(19:28):
wasn't my own.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
I became a CMO when I was twenty five. I've
been doing this for a long time.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
That don't FaZe me. Like you could feel whatever feelings
you want. I'll fire you if you don't want to
be here. But like, I'm here to make something happen.
I'm here to grow this company, I mean business. Like
you quickly realize, like my ears right here, she knows
like I do not mess around, like I am about growth,
I'm about bringing change, and they quickly realized.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Even the people that doubted me, they quickly.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Realize, oh, I'm built different and you see the results
years later.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
So one of the many things you do different is
this four day work week.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Yes, I like that.
Speaker 5 (20:10):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
And we were talking about one of the reasons you're
here is to teach entrepreneurs during Black Business Month to
give them motivate them to scale. And one of the
things about scaling is setting that impossible goal with that
impossible deadline. So you see what's essential. And I know
the kind of the concept behind the four day work
week is the same. People are like that means time off,
(20:34):
but it doesn't mean that to you at all.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
No, I want to be very clear, where's where's my
camera is right here? I don't love the four day
work week. I just want to be very very clear,
like for me personally, that is not how I work,
That's not how I do. I have a level of
passion and intensity that cannot be contained to four days.
With that being said, when I came to Kickstarter, they
(20:58):
were already trialing the four day work week, and I
tell people, if you're going to trial a four day
work week, you got a four day work week, because.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Like once you let the genie out of the bottle,
trying to no more virtual.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
Yeah, it's not so for me. I'm not personally a
fan of it. But what I am a fan of
is providing balance for the people that work for me, right,
and to have really fulfilled lives.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Right.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
And so what the four day work week has done
has given people time back to invest into their creativity,
into their family, into the things they love, and you know,
you hope that they come back refresh and energize to
come back to work. It also has has led to
us to be, you know, ruthless when it comes to prioritization.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
You've got to be super.
Speaker 4 (21:51):
Efficient, right and now, listen, it's very very intense to
do and like to do that over time, to try
to continue to get the same amount of stuff done
and in four days and five days.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
It's really really hard.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
If you're a customer support person, you can only do
so many customer support tickets in four days versus five days.
It's just it's just like, you know, that's really really hard.
Speaker 5 (22:10):
He run a coffee shop, you know, you gotta be
at work.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
You gotta be at work. You know, if you need coffee.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
You know, if he just closed, he closed one day
out a week, your revenue is going to be affected
by that. But what we do, what I tried to
do is just bring a higher level of performance that
we could perform better in four days than we were
at five days. But what I would say is if
I put that same level of performance and prioritization of
(22:36):
five days.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Who knows what.
Speaker 5 (22:39):
Yeah, we don't. We'll never know.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
We'll never know. We'll never know because it's not it's
not changing.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
Like I know how much the people at kickstart to
really value the four day work week and how it's
changed their lives, and I really do care about it.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
And the numbers have reflected growth. And listen, I know
he's only got a few minutes left. So in lieu
of that, I got to make sure we get to
this one million dollar culture funds.
Speaker 5 (23:01):
So can we please talk about I want your job.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
I want your job, I'll tell you.
Speaker 5 (23:07):
So can you talk about this one million dollar fund?
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Because I want people to understand who is eligible for
this right the arts and expression and all of that,
but also this is not like a million dollars to
one person. This is a fund that is spread across
multiple creators.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
Yes, so we launched this campaign called the Power Belief.
If you're in New York City, you'll see in Time
Score and all around the city. And one of the
things that I felt with launching this campaign is like,
if we're asking people to have the belief in people
on our platform to buy their products and support their dreams,
then we should be doing the same. And so that's
(23:43):
where the Culture Fund came about as a one million
dollar fund to support the first This is just the
first million dollars, so this is going to be a
multi year, multimillion dollar initiative. But the first fund is
committed to artists, so the arts, filmmakers, so film musicians,
and music and fashion, fashion designers and so these are
(24:05):
some of the categories that I've personally seen a lot
of creatives struggling with right now finding success in these areas,
and so we want to make sure that we are
able to give an allocate capital to these people because
even just five, ten, twenty thousand dollars can completely change,
you know, the trajectory for somebody. And so that's why
(24:25):
we're really passionate about this. And again this is just
the first trunch, so there's going to be more to come.
And the caveat is that they have to launch a
Kickstarter project so you can get the money. If you're
launching a Kickstarter project in any of these categories.
Speaker 5 (24:40):
And kicks out of will not have any equity in
your company.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Zero equities zero zero, yes zero.
Speaker 4 (24:46):
That's the beautiful thing about Kickstarter is that it really
empowers people to launch new things, launch new creative things.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
New products, whatever.
Speaker 4 (24:54):
Like a lot of the people that we love, the
Spike Lee's, the e Arrays, the thlcs, all these people
have launched Kickstarter projects or a Ring Peloton, all these
companies that people use every day have launched on Kickstarter.
And so we want to continue to empower people to
do this and live out their dreams, especially in this
economy and especially with the way that the infrastructure is
(25:17):
collapsing around creative industries right now.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Where can people find out about the fund and learn
about it.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
And to go to kickstarter kickstarter dot com. There's a
huge banner on kickstarter dot com with the Culture Fund.
Culture Fund. Click on that and yeah, I'll give you
all the details that you need.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
You know, this was something that as part of what
you wanted to do as Kickstarter was having this resurgence
making more money. Well, let's take some of that money
and actually reinvest into people.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
Absolutely, Like you know, so a lot of people don't realize.
People see Kickstarter, they're like, oh, big global tech company.
But also we're actually a public benefit corporation, so we're
still a for profit entity, but we don't maximize just
for profits. We maximize for impact out there in the world,
positive impact out there in the world. So this is
(26:07):
a commitment to the work that we do by not
just being like, hey, how can we just make as
much money for ourselves, but how can we use that
capital to change the lives of people out there.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
In the world.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
For somebody who's starting a Kickstarter, what are some things
you would tell them to make sure that they are
actually can market what it is that they're starting their
Kickstarter for, because you also don't want to get lost
in the shuffle of other people who have kickstarters.
Speaker 4 (26:32):
Yeah, I'll give two big things. One is like video
video video. We live in the world of video, so
your video has to be on point, it has to
be engaging early. It has to be clear, it has
to be concise, because that's how people are looking at you.
We just launch our own like TikTok like video feed
as well on the app.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
That's an exclusive.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
Actually, yeah, and so video is a huge part of it.
Like people aren't reading all the whole page. They want
to they want to feel engaged with you, so the
video is important.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
Number two is listen.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
The way that the Kickstarter algorithm works is you need
to have your community kind of push it in the beginning,
so then the algorithm catches it, and then all the
strangers and all the people that are using Kickstarter will
see your platform, I mean, your your project. And so
a lot of people make the mistake that they launch
a project and then they don't get their friends or
family to back the project or support the project, and
(27:27):
then it just gets lost. You really have to have
a go to market strategy where you're bringing your audience
and doing your marketing up front, because once you get
that going, then all the millions of people that aren't
Kickstarter are going to start to see your project as well.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Do you coach people in that at all?
Speaker 4 (27:41):
Yeah, we have a whole outreach team, Customer Success team,
all the things to help people be successful on that,
and then we have tons of content out there to
help people be successful and launch successfully.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
All right, perfect, I still want your job listen, Hey,
we can talk about it.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
I also want to know.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
How you got it as your name, because you know
how hard that is.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
It's just at ever It everywhere everywhere.
Speaker 4 (28:08):
Instagram, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, everywhere I have.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
I'm a hustler.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
Just get ever Itt.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
I'm a hustler. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Last thing for black business owners out there who have
hustled and grind and grown businesses but want to scale them,
what piece of advice.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
I would just say? What I said a little bit
earlier is like be customer obsessed.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
Like that is that I can't stress that enough, Like
talk to your customers, your potential customers, constantly begetting feedback loops.
Once you get into a point where you feel like
you know best, you've lost right. You have to constantly
be taking the feedback with people, talking to people, finding
out what you can do better, how you can improve,
(28:56):
what things they love, what things they hate. So it's
like being obsessed always, Like I'm on threads and Twitter
and I'm looking at people who might be complaining again
about kickstart and stuff like that, answering them directly, seeing
how I can support them. I love what I do,
and if you bring that level of obsession to your company,
you're going to have success.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
And don't get offended when people are giving their feedback
at all.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
All Right, thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
Thank you, I really appreciate it. Good to see your friend.
Speaker 5 (29:22):
Good to see you. Every Happy Wealth Wednesdays.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Everybody
What's his way up at Angela. He on a Wealth Wednesday.
So Stacy Tisday is here.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Happy Wealth Wednesdays, everybody, And it is week two of
Wealth Wednesdays, celebrating Black Business Month. And we have yet
another slacker for you today. We have Everett Taylor and
he is the CEO of Kickstarter, and we are just
so incredibly thrilled to have you here and just knowing
(00:27):
about who you were anyway and knowing your backstory, I
just have to tell people you started what your mom
reached out to a classified ad when you were fourteen
years old?
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Fourteen? Wow, you did you well researched?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Oh I know you better than you.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Listen, listen, we got our own AI right here.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah, so you were fourteen years old?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
I was fourteen? Yeah, what happened? Yeah? I was.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
I was running the streets doing things that I shouldn't
have been doing.
Speaker 5 (00:54):
And imagine that, Yes, she applied for you.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
She knows. She called them up.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
It was like, my son needs the interview here, and
they gave me an interview.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I was fourteen years old, They didn't.
Speaker 4 (01:06):
It was for a very junior marketing role for a
nonprofit called Eastern National. And yeah, they didn't even realize
I was fourteen, And at the end of the interview,
I was like, oh, he was like, can you start
Monday at like nine am?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
And I was like I can't.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
I got school and he thought I was a college
sup And I was like, no, I'm a freshman in
high school. But they gave me an opportunity still to
go with that job. And that job changed my life
because it introduced me to marketing. And I tell a
lot of people when it comes to wealth creation, figuring
out what your gift is, what your skill is, what
is the thing that you do better than everybody else?
And to me, it was like you know Ray Charles
(01:43):
on the Keys. To me when I started doing marketing, Yeah,
it was like just such a natural thing. So that
completely changed my life trajectory because it got me out
of the hood. It got me out of Southside Richmond,
and I went into a space with people that were
college educated. I was meeting people from all around the world,
and so that completely changed the trajectory of my life.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Being able to get the opportunity to shout out to
my mom.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
I have to say to your point of there's a
lot of people who when you're younger. Just one thing
like that can change everything. There's so many people that
are great at like hustling, but that turned into a
different type of hustle. Is what can actually make you flourish.
And sometimes it is just being around the right people
because you could be brilliant and so smart, but if
(02:27):
that's not used in the right way, then who knows
what can happen?
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Absolutely, and we're celebrating Black Business Month and now you're
the CEO of Kickstarter, but we're not going to get
there yet because you're a serial serial entrepreneur and to
continue that journey or don't want to dwell on this,
but you had some real challenges and I know you
experienced homelessness in high school, but at nineteen you're like,
(02:52):
I know what I'm going to do and you started
your own company. How do how did you have belief
all the things that you experience is where did the
belief that you could do that come from?
Speaker 3 (03:02):
You know?
Speaker 4 (03:03):
I hate talking about this a little bit because some
things are just God given, you know, and some things
you're just built for it, you know, And like it's
you can put yourself in the same circumstances as someone else,
but you might have this unwavering belief in yourself. For me,
I was always super confident. I was always even when
(03:24):
I was young, you know, I was super confident in myself.
I had this mindset of I'm gonna do better. I'm
going to do something different. You know, I'm not going
to just be stuck here doing the same things that
everyone else did. And so for me, I've always had
this incredible sense of awareness about my abilities but also
confidence in what I could do. And so even at
(03:47):
a young age, I was like, no, I'm going to
do something else. And when I was nineteen, you know,
I was working a minimum wate job at Joanne Fabrics Fabrics,
and it was terrible because I would literally go go
there and just the gas money and then grabbing some lunch.
(04:08):
I'm like, did I even make any money today?
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Exactly?
Speaker 4 (04:12):
And so, you know, during my freshman year of college,
I dropped out. After my freshman year, you know, I
threw parties and I enjoyed doing parties and events, and
so I was like, Hey, let me try to start
doing my own parties here in Richmond. And then you know,
I learned how to code a little bit. During my
freshman year. I went to Virginia Tech and a couple
of my buddies. We all built a platform called easy Events,
(04:33):
which was a ticketing platform.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
It was no event right already existed, and I didn't know.
I didn't know. I didn't know event bright existed.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
And you know, we can have conversations of knowing the
value of what you've built because I didn't know at
the time. But yeah, we built that, and yeah, we
sold the company a couple of years later.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
I want to ask you when you started Easy Events, right,
did y'all have the sense to be like, Okay, we're
going to do a business plan.
Speaker 5 (04:59):
Or what is it? Just let's do it and figure
it out.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
You know what's crazy is that I really fumbled my
bag on this one. So I started doing events right,
and I didn't have an LC. I was doing everything
cash whatever. And then what I realized was, you know,
people were starting to sell like this is like two
thousand and nine, so people were actually starting to sell
event tickets online.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
And I was like, oh, I need to build that myself.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
And so I hit up a couple homies that I
went to school with and they helped me build the platform.
And then one of the fathers of one of my
co founders, like established the LC for us and did
all that, but I didn't know what I was I
didn't know what I was doing and what was so crazy.
They helped me build it, and then after that I
continue to run a business without them, But when I
sold it, because of the way that the LC was built,
(05:46):
they each of us owned thirty three percent of the company.
So despite me building the company, I only got to
get thirty three percent of the proceeds. And that's because
I didn't know anything about equity and ownership and things
like that.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
That's a good lesson right there, year, So don't be
so hard on yourself not to build bring up something
else painful. But it was sold after that for like
a lot more.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Yes, yes, man, she's on it.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
Yes, it was sold for a lot more because I
didn't know about the event bright of the world and
the other ticketing platforms in the world. And the person
that bought it from us was also a serial entrepreneur investor.
He knew where he was going to flip it right after,
and so I had to learn a really really valuable lesson.
Not only did I learn a lesson of like ownership,
(06:33):
and equity. Not only did I learn the lesson of
taxes and capital gains, but you know, and the other
lesson I learned was like being well researched and knowing
what you've built and knowing the value of what you've
built because people will take advantage of you. And I
told myself once that happened, I would never be taking
advantage of That's a.
Speaker 5 (06:53):
Good lesson to have learned early on.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Though.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
I want to say, because you were so young when
you did that, that's valuable.
Speaker 5 (06:58):
It's like paying for education.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah, the part that you ended up having to give up,
but then you went on to education, but to become,
like she said, a serial entrepreneur and you launched other businesses.
So let's talk about that.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
You know, so I went and when I learned about
that company selling for what it's so for, I was like, Oh,
I need to go to Silicon Valley. I need to
be in California. And I went to go work with
a guy named Sean Ellis who like led growth at
like dropped box in event right. That's how he knew
about me because it was vent Bright, and you know,
(07:33):
he was like this really well known guy in Silicon Valley,
and so I learned under him. And while I was
learning the ropes of Silicon Valley leading marketing for him,
I started building my own companies. And so I started
with my first marketing firm, and then we built a
company together, and then like over the course of the
next few years, I built several, you know, million dollar
(07:54):
plus companies.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
I think I did four of them for the age
of twenty seven.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
But the difference between me and like my like kind
of white counterparts out there in the world was that
I felt like I had to build profitable businesses right away.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
You couldn't get investors.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
I couldn't get investors, And so the way that I
was thinking about building my companies was like companies that
I could go and make money from, like right away,
right day one, right where I saw like my white counterparts,
you know, I remember like Snapchat, Evan Spiegel, Like they
had no they didn't know how they were going to monetize,
(08:30):
and they would have these big ideas that turned into
these multi billion dollar companies that we used to work.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
We still do with fintech companies. Yeah, and some of
these founders, I'm like, people just give you money that
you just said oh, I want to do this. It's crazy.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
And the funding environment wasn't like that for people that
look like us, and it still isn't in a lot
of ways. But you know, for me, I felt like
a lot of my creativity was was was dampened because
I didn't feel like I could go out there with
the big idea and raise a bunch of capital and
things like that. So I stuck to trying to build
(09:06):
well for myself by building profitable companies that you know,
had high ebadah, and I could go and be able
to pay myself and take care of my family and
make investments.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
So interesting is you put? You know, you got the
marketing bug at fourteen, and you've built all these different
types of companies. So it hasn't been marketing, you know,
I just staying in marketing. At what point did you realize, okay, mate,
I might be good at marketing, but I'm just really
good at building businesses.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Yeah, well, thank you for saying that. I think I do.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
Okay, I think, uh once you've done it a couple
of times. So, you know, I started my first company,
sold it. I became head of marketing for a startup
in Silicon Valley, that sold right, I you know, started
a couple of companies that you know, did seven figures
in revenue, and like I was like, wow, everything that
(09:59):
I'm doing is actually becoming successful. And I'm like, Okay,
I think I'm pretty I'm pretty good at this, and
that gave me more. I was already confident in myself.
But once you have the repetition and you do it
over and over and over again, you just learn so
many lessons throughout and you cut out the mistakes and
you just become more efficient, You become more dangerous at it,
(10:19):
you know what I mean. You really become a really
great entrepreneur as you're learning. And for me, I was
just always super customer obsessed and I just identify different
opportunities and I knew how to reach target audiences and
build things and scale things, and yeah, the rest was history.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Something seems different. I've been working a lot all summer
with entrepreneurs on creating the mindset for scaling. It's very
different than growing black entrepreneurs. And they don't sell their company.
That's one of the things. Like they never think, Okay,
I'm building something to make something bigger. And I know
there's a lot of ownership need in our community. But
(10:57):
I think that's one lesson people have to learn a
scaling mindset. But you don't seem to have a problem
with it.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
You know.
Speaker 4 (11:03):
It's interesting. It's it depends on what you're what you
want and what you're looking for. A lot of people
don't realize this, and Angreli, you probably know this. Like
when you go raise capital and you have you know, investors,
and you have a board, and you know, you split
that ownership, Like the board decides how much you get paid, right,
(11:24):
the board decides if you get a bonus when you
own one hundred percent of your Like, so you could
have one hundred million dollar company and be doing two
hundred twenty million in profit, and the board is like, oh,
you have a half a million dollar salary because we're
trying to scale this up to being a multi billion
dollar company. That's what they invested in you for. They
(11:44):
wanted the outsize impact where you can build a five
to ten million dollar business, right that is, say profitable
three four five million dollars a year and pay yourself
to three million dollars a year and it's a much
smaller business than that big business within So it really
depends on what you want. Do you want to build
a business where you're gonna like create a really great
(12:06):
lifestyle business or you know, create you know, like not
that outside wealth, or are you going to go for it?
And if you go for it, you're probably gonna have
to raise a lot of capital and you know you're
gonna have to exit, meaning you're gonna have to sell
the company. You're gonna have to take the company public,
and then that's when you get the money that.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
You really want.
Speaker 5 (12:24):
You may even be forced out.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
You might be forced out.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
You never know what can happen.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Yeah, I want to ask you, with all of this entrepreneurship,
you deciding to take this position as CEO Kickstarter, how
did that happen?
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Who?
Speaker 4 (12:37):
I'll try to make a long story short. So I was,
so I've always had this balance of being an executive
and a founder, right, And I think it kind of
comes from, you know, that place of understanding that a
business could go sideways at any time and you could
always lose a job. And so I've always had this
like really beautiful balance of doing both. And then I
(12:58):
got to a point where where I really wanted to
learn and I wanted.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
To really be at businesses at scale.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
And I took a job as a chief marketing officer
at Artsy and Artsy is the biggest online platform for
art and so I sat there and I really learned.
And I still have my other companies, but I was
really focused on learning. And when I was there, I
reported into a CEO named Mike Steibe, and he really
taught me the ropes of what it meant to be
(13:27):
a CEO of like a billion dollar global type of company.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Right, you have to back up because you told him
you wanted his job.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
I did tell him, Yeah, I did, because what I
what I realized was two things. One was that I
had built some really incredible companies, seven to eight figure companies,
but I hadn't really built anything at scale. So I
really wanted to learn that. The other thing is, for
those who don't know what a CMO is, as chief
(13:56):
marketing officer, you have a very limited trajectory as a
CMO in terms of compensation and opportunities. The people that
really get compensated the best are CEOs, Right, So you
can hit a wall as a CMO.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
That's what boz of Us Saint John always talks about.
When she was a CMO at so many different companies.
It's because it's not something that's meant to be like
a long term position.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Yeah, I mean it can be.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
It can be, but if you want that, if you
want that. But it's a really tough role to be
in and I and I really wanted to do a
lot more than just be the head.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Of marketing or a CMO.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
And so I told my CEO at the time that
I wanted his job.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
How does somebody respond to.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
That, Well, listen, I was killing it too, so you know.
And I told him when he left when he left,
and he did eventually left and ran another multi billion
dollar company. But I told him that I wanted the
role whenever he left, So prepare me to be a CEO,
because being a CEO of a small seven to eight
(14:57):
figure company is not the same of being at a
global tech company, right, So he really taught me that.
And then I also told myself, I'm not going to
take another CMO role. So I'm getting hit up for
CMO roles from some of the biggest companies in the world.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Which I can't say. Yeah, and I was.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
Turning them down, turning them down, turning them I mean
incredible roles, and I meet this woman who was just like, hey,
I want to pick your brain and I was like, sure,
like black women, I want to support you, and had
no idea who she was. At the end of our meeting,
she said, actually write for the Financial Times, and I
(15:34):
was like, oh wow. She was like, I want to
write a story on you. And now this story kept
getting delayed and delayed and delayed, and then finally we
did it and it came out. Now, if it came
out when it was supposed to, I would not be
the CEO of Kickstarter.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
But that delay ended up happening right.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
When they were looking for a new CEO at Kickstarter,
and one of the board members ended up picking up
The Financial Times that day that I was in it.
And then obviously I went through a long process, six
seven month process to become the CEO of Kickstarter. And
I was a very unorthodox candidate because I was thirty
two at the time. You know, I hadn't run a
(16:12):
company of that scale. But they really took a shot
on me and a chance on me, and.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
It worked out.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
So at that point, Kickstarter was having some issues right
before they hired you. So what was that like and
because we want to talk about how you managed to
turn that around as an unorthodox CEO.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Yeah, I mean listen.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
I was listening to this panel down in Boca recently
a few months ago. It was with a few block
CEOs because it's not a lot of us, and they
were talking about when there is a CEO opportunity given
to us, it's not gonna be a good job.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
It's gonna be a mess.
Speaker 5 (16:49):
You got to put a fire, it's.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Gonna it's gonna be a mess.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
So for me, you know, when I came in, you know,
revenue was in steep decline. The culture was not where
I needed to be. There was a lack of ambition,
like when you've been number one for so long, like
it's really really hard to get people fired up and
be like change you know, change agents. And so for
(17:12):
me coming in, I was like, guys, like I had
this entrepreneurial my mentality of like hey, whatever you thought
was working before, like I don't care, like we're going
to do something new. We're looking at this like a
blank canvas, Like we're not just because we've been number
one for so long, our growth has stalled and if
we continue to do this if you're not grown, you're dying, right,
(17:34):
if you're not evolving as a business. You saw it
a lot during COVID. These people businesses went like this
and they didn't evolve, and now where are they now?
And so for me, I just wanted to come in
there with a new energy, a new level of ambition,
new creative strategy. I was thirty three, I was young,
I was in the culture I still am, and so
(17:54):
I just wanted to bring a new mentality to Kickstarter.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
I you know, I had an entrepreneur background. Gave you
a different wins.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
Yeah, one hundred and ten percent, And just all of
my experiences being a young black man, experiencing the things
that I've experienced, being a creator myself, being a creative
person myself, knowing what it was like not to be
able to have funding for the things that you wanted
to do. But also shift the perception of Kickstarter because
we're not gofund me, we're not donations, We're not hey,
(18:24):
this is a charity.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Like No, you'd be reluctant because of how it looks.
And I want to ask it being a young thirty
two to thirty three year old black man coming in there,
as the CEO and wanting to shake things up?
Speaker 5 (18:36):
How do people take to that.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
I'm gonna look at my my PR person right now.
Speaker 5 (18:42):
I'm just caring.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Is you know, coming in there and doing something, and
people can be resistant, they can push against that.
Speaker 5 (18:51):
Your age, you.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Know, your race, all of those things.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
I would say this while trying to be as respectful
as possible.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Yeah, they're they're not. Everyone was happy for me. Listen, listen, listen, listen.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
They promised, they promised that they were going to bring
in a super experienced CEO, and and they brought me
so I could see. And then everyone that's reporting into
me is much older than me, you know, and things
like that. So yeah, it's a different But listen, I
became an executive when I was for a company that
(19:28):
wasn't my own.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
I became a CMO when I was twenty five. I've
been doing this for a long time.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
That don't FaZe me. Like you could feel whatever feelings
you want. I'll fire you if you don't want to
be here. But like, I'm here to make something happen.
I'm here to grow this company, I mean business. Like
you quickly realize, like my ears right here, she knows
like I do not mess around, like I am about growth,
I'm about bringing change, and they quickly realized.
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Even the people that doubted me, they quickly.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
Realize, oh, I'm built different and you see the results
years later.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
So one of the many things you do different is
this four day work week.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Yes, I like that.
Speaker 5 (20:10):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
And we were talking about one of the reasons you're
here is to teach entrepreneurs during Black Business Month to
give them motivate them to scale. And one of the
things about scaling is setting that impossible goal with that
impossible deadline. So you see what's essential. And I know
the kind of the concept behind the four day work
week is the same. People are like that means time off,
(20:34):
but it doesn't mean that to you at all.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
No, I want to be very clear, where's where's my
camera is right here? I don't love the four day
work week. I just want to be very very clear,
like for me personally, that is not how I work,
That's not how I do. I have a level of
passion and intensity that cannot be contained to four days.
With that being said, when I came to Kickstarter, they
(20:58):
were already trialing the four day work week, and I
tell people, if you're going to trial a four day
work week, you got a four day work week, because.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Like once you let the genie out of the bottle,
trying to no more virtual.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
Yeah, it's not so for me. I'm not personally a
fan of it. But what I am a fan of
is providing balance for the people that work for me, right,
and to have really fulfilled lives.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Right.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
And so what the four day work week has done
has given people time back to invest into their creativity,
into their family, into the things they love, and you know,
you hope that they come back refresh and energize to
come back to work. It also has has led to
us to be, you know, ruthless when it comes to prioritization.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
You've got to be super.
Speaker 4 (21:51):
Efficient, right and now, listen, it's very very intense to
do and like to do that over time, to try
to continue to get the same amount of stuff done
and in four days and five days.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
It's really really hard.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
If you're a customer support person, you can only do
so many customer support tickets in four days versus five days.
It's just it's just like, you know, that's really really hard.
Speaker 5 (22:10):
He run a coffee shop, you know, you gotta be
at work.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
You gotta be at work. You know, if you need coffee.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
You know, if he just closed, he closed one day
out a week, your revenue is going to be affected
by that. But what we do, what I tried to
do is just bring a higher level of performance that
we could perform better in four days than we were
at five days. But what I would say is if
I put that same level of performance and prioritization of
(22:36):
five days.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Who knows what.
Speaker 5 (22:39):
Yeah, we don't. We'll never know.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
We'll never know. We'll never know because it's not it's
not changing.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
Like I know how much the people at kickstart to
really value the four day work week and how it's
changed their lives, and I really do care about it.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
And the numbers have reflected growth. And listen, I know
he's only got a few minutes left. So in lieu
of that, I got to make sure we get to
this one million dollar culture funds.
Speaker 5 (23:01):
So can we please talk about I want your job.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
I want your job, I'll tell you.
Speaker 5 (23:07):
So can you talk about this one million dollar fund?
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Because I want people to understand who is eligible for
this right the arts and expression and all of that,
but also this is not like a million dollars to
one person. This is a fund that is spread across
multiple creators.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
Yes, so we launched this campaign called the Power Belief.
If you're in New York City, you'll see in Time
Score and all around the city. And one of the
things that I felt with launching this campaign is like,
if we're asking people to have the belief in people
on our platform to buy their products and support their dreams,
then we should be doing the same. And so that's
(23:43):
where the Culture Fund came about as a one million
dollar fund to support the first This is just the
first million dollars, so this is going to be a
multi year, multimillion dollar initiative. But the first fund is
committed to artists, so the arts, filmmakers, so film musicians,
and music and fashion, fashion designers and so these are
(24:05):
some of the categories that I've personally seen a lot
of creatives struggling with right now finding success in these areas,
and so we want to make sure that we are
able to give an allocate capital to these people because
even just five, ten, twenty thousand dollars can completely change,
you know, the trajectory for somebody. And so that's why
(24:25):
we're really passionate about this. And again this is just
the first trunch, so there's going to be more to come.
And the caveat is that they have to launch a
Kickstarter project so you can get the money. If you're
launching a Kickstarter project in any of these categories.
Speaker 5 (24:40):
And kicks out of will not have any equity in
your company.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Zero equities zero zero, yes zero.
Speaker 4 (24:46):
That's the beautiful thing about Kickstarter is that it really
empowers people to launch new things, launch new creative things.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
New products, whatever.
Speaker 4 (24:54):
Like a lot of the people that we love, the
Spike Lee's, the e Arrays, the thlcs, all these people
have launched Kickstarter projects or a Ring Peloton, all these
companies that people use every day have launched on Kickstarter.
And so we want to continue to empower people to
do this and live out their dreams, especially in this
economy and especially with the way that the infrastructure is
(25:17):
collapsing around creative industries right now.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Where can people find out about the fund and learn
about it.
Speaker 4 (25:23):
And to go to kickstarter kickstarter dot com. There's a
huge banner on kickstarter dot com with the Culture Fund.
Culture Fund. Click on that and yeah, I'll give you
all the details that you need.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
You know, this was something that as part of what
you wanted to do as Kickstarter was having this resurgence
making more money. Well, let's take some of that money
and actually reinvest into people.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
Absolutely, Like you know, so a lot of people don't realize.
People see Kickstarter, they're like, oh, big global tech company.
But also we're actually a public benefit corporation, so we're
still a for profit entity, but we don't maximize just
for profits. We maximize for impact out there in the world,
positive impact out there in the world. So this is
(26:07):
a commitment to the work that we do by not
just being like, hey, how can we just make as
much money for ourselves, but how can we use that
capital to change the lives of people out there.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
In the world.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
For somebody who's starting a Kickstarter, what are some things
you would tell them to make sure that they are
actually can market what it is that they're starting their
Kickstarter for, because you also don't want to get lost
in the shuffle of other people who have kickstarters.
Speaker 4 (26:32):
Yeah, I'll give two big things. One is like video
video video. We live in the world of video, so
your video has to be on point, it has to
be engaging early. It has to be clear, it has
to be concise, because that's how people are looking at you.
We just launch our own like TikTok like video feed
as well on the app.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
That's an exclusive.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
Actually, yeah, and so video is a huge part of it.
Like people aren't reading all the whole page. They want
to they want to feel engaged with you, so the
video is important.
Speaker 3 (27:03):
Number two is listen.
Speaker 4 (27:04):
The way that the Kickstarter algorithm works is you need
to have your community kind of push it in the beginning,
so then the algorithm catches it, and then all the
strangers and all the people that are using Kickstarter will
see your platform, I mean, your your project. And so
a lot of people make the mistake that they launch
a project and then they don't get their friends or
family to back the project or support the project, and
(27:27):
then it just gets lost. You really have to have
a go to market strategy where you're bringing your audience
and doing your marketing up front, because once you get
that going, then all the millions of people that aren't
Kickstarter are going to start to see your project as well.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Do you coach people in that at all?
Speaker 4 (27:41):
Yeah, we have a whole outreach team, Customer Success team,
all the things to help people be successful on that,
and then we have tons of content out there to
help people be successful and launch successfully.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
All right, perfect, I still want your job listen, Hey,
we can talk about it.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
I also want to know.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
How you got it as your name, because you know
how hard that is.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
It's just at ever It everywhere everywhere.
Speaker 4 (28:08):
Instagram, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, everywhere I have.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
I'm a hustler.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
Just get ever Itt.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
I'm a hustler. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Last thing for black business owners out there who have
hustled and grind and grown businesses but want to scale them,
what piece of advice.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
I would just say? What I said a little bit
earlier is like be customer obsessed.
Speaker 4 (28:35):
Like that is that I can't stress that enough, Like
talk to your customers, your potential customers, constantly begetting feedback loops.
Once you get into a point where you feel like
you know best, you've lost right. You have to constantly
be taking the feedback with people, talking to people, finding
out what you can do better, how you can improve,
(28:56):
what things they love, what things they hate. So it's
like being obsessed always, Like I'm on threads and Twitter
and I'm looking at people who might be complaining again
about kickstart and stuff like that, answering them directly, seeing
how I can support them. I love what I do,
and if you bring that level of obsession to your company,
you're going to have success.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
And don't get offended when people are giving their feedback
at all.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
All Right, thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
Thank you, I really appreciate it. Good to see your friend.
Speaker 5 (29:22):
Good to see you. Every Happy Wealth Wednesdays.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Everybody
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