What a difference a day makes. Around 24 hours ago, I was busy stumping for XOXO, which—at that point—was a pipe dream of a festival event here in Portland.
Now? Thanks to Kickstarter, XOXO is fully funded, sold out, and over subscribed.
And the cofounders? A little stunned.
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According to project cofounder Andy Baio:
The reaction was explosive and immediate. In fact, I’d fully intended to write about the launch on Tuesday morning, but within 30 seconds of posting the Kickstarter project, my inbox exploded. I knew that Kickstarter’s new social features were powerful, but this was intense. Before I’d even tweeted it myself, 20 people backed the project.
As far as I know, XOXO is also the biggest event ever funded on Kickstarter. When I first started working with Kickstarter in 2008, the idea of funding events came up regularly. Kickstarter was originally inspired by a concert that Perry wanted to throw in New Orleans back in 2001, but didn’t want to deal with the up-front risk. I’ve always thought it was a perfect use for the site, but up until this point, barely anybody’s tried to fund their entire ticket sales on it. I think this really validates Kickstarter as a tool for funding events.
In a little over two days, the Kickstarter community gave Portland an amazing conference. How much luckier could we be?
Stay tuned. The best is yet to come.
