Communications of the ACM

ibly liberating thing. It lets you call the shots and do what you want to do.

For Kickstarter, we have operated in the black since our 14th month of business; June 2010, we were in the black for the first time, and we have stayed there. We operate within our means. Every dollar we spend, we are quite thoughtful of because this is not a big VC check; this is money that was earned through people having success with our service, so we think very carefully about how we spend that. If you are able to have your own source of revenue, you are able to sustain yourself. You do not have to sell out; you can continue to operate in whatever way you like.

That leads to the second point, which is that you should be idealistic.

When you start a company or any sort of project, you are compelled by some deep, burning thing in your heart; there is something you really want to change. There is something you really want to be different. Those things come from very idealistic places, but the challenge as something exists and is out there in the world is that every day, there are infinite opportunities to compromise on that vision. It could be that a competitor has done something that seems like it might be successful; it is not something you ever thought you would do, but “oh wait, do we have to do this now?” Is this the new term of engagement?

You have to be very careful about your beliefs. You do not want to sink into the morass of industry standards, because industry standards are lowering every single day by everyone trying to chase growth, chase revenue, and stay alive. It allows other people to do the same. You have to lock in your values and the ideals behind your project from the very beginning, at that nascent stage where it is all romance, and you are just dreaming how big, how powerful can this thing be. Think about the things that are important to you at that early moment, and lock them in. Make sure you always stay true to those things, that you act with integrity.

Protecting New Ideas

We were very clear about this for Kickstarter from the very beginning; I and my co-founders Perry Chen and Charles Adler vowed from the beginning that we never wanted to sell Kickstarter, we never wanted to try to IPO.

cal businesses, small shops run by

New Yorkers for their community. But commercial real estate has become the new easy way to make money, and so the rents get jacked up. The person that has been there for 30 years gets pushed out, and a Bank of America goes into its place. This is how a city dies. This is how a culture dies, and this is increasingly happening.

Battling Moneyed Imperialism

This is the globalization that is appearing around the world. It is a moneyed imperialism that is changing local cultures. It is really hard to talk about, and it is really important to talk about at the same time. Berlin is feeling this. It seems like any city that has any kind of dynamic culture or where young people live starts to experience this, and it is unclear what to do about it. This is true for entrepreneurs, it is true for cities. This is the big battle of our age. So what can you do about it? I do not have a solution, but I have three places where I think it starts.

The first is, don’t sell out.

Now I am 37 years old. I grew up with the Kurt Cobain, “corporate rock sucks,” “selling out is the worst thing you could ever do” school of thought, and “selling out” means you have a great idea, and then you use it to personally enrich yourself, and who cares about what happens to it afterward?

The idea of selling out being bad— that has gone out of style. Now, selling out is cool—that is to be celebrated. “Oh, they exited for how much money? Wow, they’re super-awesome.” It is very shortsighted. It creates a very bottom-line thinking that is not in the broader interest of society, that is just in the self-interest of those entrepreneurs, of those people who hold all that equity.

“Don’t sell out” also means you don’t sell out your values or your culture to hit a short-term gain; you have a clear set of values that you are operating with.

Taking a big VC (venture capital) funding round is another type of selling out because once you take a big check, you are not able to guide your mission on your own terms; you have to follow somebody else’s. To not sell out, it is important that you are sustainable as a business, so you have a source of revenue that allows you to continue to operate and grow. This is an incred-

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