I think they knew going in from the survey's they did there was going to be huge support. The excellent and slick video they shot lends a perceived value to the product. When you need to capture the viewer's attention for a few minutes, it pays to hire some pros.

> it pays to hire some pros.

It certainly does. Arguably the best money our company has ever spent. (Okay, salaries. Because we have a ridiculously amazing team.)

It depends how much you are trying to raise. We just did a survey of 100 campaigns, and the majority of successful small campaigns (that raised <$25k) spent under <3k on the video. Mind you this was for Hardware campaigns. It's only for campaigns that raise >$100k that you see average video spends above $10k

It part of the "lie" that kickstarter has become.

The "goal" is raising $30k, yet they're willing to spend half that on a video.

There's no incentive to have a high goal, in fact the lower the goal the better, you get to look better "We raised 50x our goal!" and it secures the kickstarter is a "success".

Eh, I mean this is a similar idea to a non-profit using fund to advertise itself to gain a larger war chest. On the surface it sounds wrong, when you donate to a charity you want the money to contribute to the cause. However If you care about the cause, and greater funds can improve it better... then doesn't it actually make sense? In for-profit business, people don't blink an eye at spending money to grow it...

I don't have a problem with them spending it.

I have a problem with the 'cost of entry' for a Kickstarter campaign.

Honestly, you can get by with $2k if you're frugal and can write it yourself. There are always younger folks who are up and coming (like Knox Avenue but earlier) who will take a shot. But it's a good bit of work sorting through the noise.

I think we had a leg up since we made a Kickstarter video ourselves a couple of years ago. We knew what we were looking for.