Lax New Rules Will Make Kickstarter Huge—For Better or Worse

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Cyril Ebersweller says Kickstarter is about to get bigger.

On Monday, Kickstarter introduced a new, looser set of rules for launching projects on the popular crowdfunding site, and as someone who regularly donates funds to such projects, Ebersweller believes the rules will indeed lead to a broader range of Kickstarter campaigns and may spur larger donations as well. Those who were excluded from seeking funding on Kickstarter, says Eberweller, the founder of the hardware seed fund Haxlr8r, now have “a new avenue” to launch their campaigns.

Other longtime investors say the same thing, and this is almost certainly what Kickstarter aiming for. Facing increased competition from crowdfunding operations like Indiegogo–which is much more liberal in allowing a wide range of projects onto its site–Kickstarter is following suit. The new rules are simpler–they’re about half as long–but they also remove bans on certain types of campaigns, and they allow creators to launch campaigns without the approval from Kickstarter’s official community managers. Though it started out as a place mainly for funding books, films, music, and other art, it’s morphing into something that handles not only computer software but as a vast variety of other things, including the gamut of hardware devices.

‘This will allow project creators to move faster and will allow Kickstarter to handle more projects.’

Brady Forrest, a vice president at the hardware incubator Highway 1, is particularly bullish on the new “Launch Now” tool that lets creators bypass the site’s gatekeepers. “This will allow project creators to move faster and will allow Kickstarter to handle more projects at once,” he says. For Emile Petrone, CEO and founder of the hardware marketplace Tindie, this optional tool also just make more sense for certain projects. Successful Kickstarter project creators often know more about their target market than Kickstarter’s community managers, Patrone argues. “The reality is, they are not the ones who should be filtering who is going to be successful and who isn’t–just because it’s impossible for them to do,” says Petrone. “It’s like judging a baby and saying: ‘Well, is that going to be an NBA star?’”

Ebersweller is also excited about a new rule that lets hardware creators offer multiple devices as rewards to contributors, rather than just one. He calls this a “big game changer” that “will help tremendously.” These reward “bundles,” he stays, are attractive not only the average contributor but to prospective retail distributors, who can use Kickstarter bundles to much effectively test the market for a product. Further expanding the reach of its site, Kickstarter has also lifted bans on fundraising for tuition; websites and apps focused on e-commerce and social networking; real estate; bath, beauty and cosmetic products, eyewear, and electronic surveillance equipment.

The Kickerstarter possibilities are now much, much greater. But Petrone also warns that the site’s more lenient rules could lead to heartbreak for some creators, particularly the Launch Now tool. Many Kickstarter projects need more handholding, not less. The typically learn the hard lessons of manufacturing and logistics only after accepting money from customers, he says, and the result is often delays and angry backers.

But Kickstarter, he says, is more concerned with other things. “It would hurt their growth if they put the brakes on.”