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Employee #1: Kickstarter – AMA and Interview
- cassiemarketos 10y agoHi! This is Cassie. If you have questions/thoughts/recipes/doodles, I'm here to field all. (Pro-tip on the recipe front: peanut butter cookies are my #1, always seeking innovations.)
- sumanthn 10y agoI guess i'll start. How did you end up getting hired by kickstarter?
- cassiemarketos 10y agoMet one of the co-founders through a friend. We had a lot in common and, that first night we met, had a great conversation. A couple years later, he proposed to me the idea of working for a company he was trying to launch. (Aka: Kickstarter.)
- Vera527 10y agoYou have no background in technical stuff, and you got hired at KickStarter. I wonder how? >that first night we met, had a great conversation. Is that code for "I sucked his dick." I didn't study literature, so I wouldn't know, and I'm just curious (for research purposes of course).
- sctb 10y agoWe've banned this account for a history of posting unsubstantive comments and then this egregious violation of the guidelines for civility.
- Vera527 10y agoYou know what,for a company like Kickstarter to hire someone with no useful background or experiences,that one person must have done something impressive to get hired, and that leaves me curious. >We've banned this account for a history of posting unsubstantive comments Talk about freedom of speech, only thing I see is censorship of speech. It seems like "freedom" has become a thing of the past. What kind of world do we live in? Seriously, you ban me for posting something I said that everyone was thinking in their head quietly??? Where do we live in?
- orsettopanda 10y agoDo you suggest to enter in a startup at the beginning or in a later stage?
- akarve 10y agoHi Cassie. Did you feel like you had extra leverage to negotiate equity as employee number one? If so, and if I may ask, did you?
- cassiemarketos 10y agoVery good question. Speaking honestly, I had no awareness of that at the time I started. I was super young and very naive about the idea of equity -- I accepted what they offered me without reading the fine print or exploring the implications at all. I am fortunate that the founders of Kickstarter are incredible upstanding men and really looked out for me, but (for the record) I do not recommend this tactic for any other first hires. :) It is incredibly important to do your research, dot your i's, cross your t's, etc.
- orsettopanda 10y agoDo you suggest to enter in a startup at the beginning or in a later stage?
- cassiemarketos 10y agoTotally depends on what type of person you are. Are you incredibly self-motivated and comfortable setting/pursuing your own goals? Do you have a wide skillset and/or if you don't know how to do something, are you willing and eager to figure it out? Then get in at the beginning, because that temperament will take you far. If you are more comfortable with structure, experienced management, and a clearly defined role -- enter at a later stage, when more administrative structure is likely to be in place. Just my two cents!
- sumanthn 10y agoDo you have any funny/remarkable stories of the things you guys had to do in the early days when you were still trying to get your first customers/users?
- cassiemarketos 10y agoI always wish I had better stories for this, haha. Kickstarted picked up traction so surprisingly quickly, that we really just ended up being in the position of fielding all the incoming vs having to go out and convince folks. There was plenty of lovely zaniness in the early days -- many fond memories -- but I can't recall any stunts we pulled to try and attract new projects. :)
- askmike 10y agoWhen did you realize kickstarter was getting huge?
- cassiemarketos 10y agoThe moment I didn't have to explain what we did anymore -- to anybody. Which happened remarkably fast. People would say "What do you do?" and I would say "Kickstarter!" and I would see their eyes just light up. It was very cool and exciting.
- askmike 10y agothanks for the answer, I can only imagine what that feels like :)
- sumanthn 10y agoHow long did it take from you joining Kickstarter to you realizing that you guys had picked up this kind of traction?
- cassiemarketos 10y agoIt was relatively fast! I remember it being a matter of months -- six maybe?
- orsettopanda 10y agoDo the "Company culture" changes from seed stage to growing stages? If Yes, how?
- cassiemarketos 10y agoOf course! Many things were much easier to manage in the early days, when there were just a few of us, and we functioned like a family: there was lots of time for conversations, Feelings, and talking things through. That naturally ebbs once a company begins to pick up steam. I will say, though, Kickstarter's core spirit was (and has been) remarkably consistent, and I think that's because of the consistency of vision from the top.
- lexirias 10y agoHi Cassie. How do you believe a Kickstarter campaign can be a precursor to an Equity Crowdfunding campaign on platforms like VENTURE.co?
- cassiemarketos 10y agoI'm not sure if I believe it should be!
- lexirias 10y agoWhy so?
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- Kcockrell 10y agoWhat strategies did Kickstarter use to gather data on users (and on potential demographic segments) in the beginning when there was a limited R&D budget?
- mecredis 10y agoHi there! I was Kickstarter employee #2 and my unofficial (which briefly became my official title) was "R&D", so I think it was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time and for me, realizing that the most effective way I could be valuable for our small team was to dig into the data and do the research to answer all the questions popping up day to day. Sometimes that was writing queries for our Year in Review posts, other times it was figuring out the best ways to mitigate payments risk. At first we were just using Google Analytics and SQL. A couple years into it I deployed Mixpanel, and eventually we built our entire analytics infrastructure from scratch and used Looker to expose it to the rest of the company. Here's the 30,000 foot view of how that worked: https://www.kickstarter.com/backing-and-hacking/this-is-the-story-of-analytics-at-kickstarter https://www.kickstarter.com/backing-and-hacking/this-is-the-... I was at the company for over 6 years and by the time I left, my data team had people working on data science, machine learning, traditional BI, and of course infrastructure. I wrote about that experience here: https://medium.com/@fredbenenson/on-to-the-next-2-271-days-309d6ba672d7#.r5yju1xmx https://medium.com/@fredbenenson/on-to-the-next-2-271-days-3... Spoiler alert: I'm now at Y Combinator working on data science with their admissions team, so things have come pretty full circle :)
- Kcockrell 10y agoThank you! This is very insightful. I'll definitely check out the articles you mentioned. :)
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- dluan 10y agoThis interview was swell. * Alright I'll add a question - what do you think was the spark whenever users fell in love with the product/community?
- cassiemarketos 10y agoThank you I think this comment is rad!
- dluan 10y agoWe're a crowdfunding/community/love thing too. We have a person who is you for our community team, and reading the interview was like reading that person's last 2 years. I sent it to our you.
- cassiemarketos 10y agoThat's wonderful. Thank you. :)
- cassiemarketos 10y agoThe endlessly-recycling-itself-positive feedback loop of receiving both actual money and spiritual/emotional validation from your community in order to pursue your creative ambitions. If you want to make a movie, and you've wanted to make this movie for your whole life, can you imagine then receiving a flood of money, love, and support from the people around you? Even if you don't make ultimately make your goal, that experience can be transformative.
- 12silval 10y agoHey! :) What's the status on fondeadora?
- cassiemarketos 10y agoDon't even know what that is!
- spoinkaroo 10y agoHow is your relationship with Charles Adler? It seems like you left kickstarter at similar times with similar motivations.
- cassiemarketos 10y agoHe's wonderful! He left awhile after me, and perhaps our motivations were similar, but we still talk occasionally and I think very highly of him. Genuinely great person.
- earlyriser 10y agoThis is the book Cassie & Craig recommend in the interview: https://www.amazon.com/Seeing-Forgetting-Name-Thing-Sees/dp/0520256093 https://www.amazon.com/Seeing-Forgetting-Name-Thing-Sees/dp/... Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: Expanded Edition Do you know if there's a French version of this? For a gift. I couldn't find in my web search.
- cassiemarketos 10y agoNot to my knowledge, but I wish. Sounds like a great gift.
- wsmith 10y ago>Things still felt very new then, like Christmas. The excitement and freshness was like that. > I had hit a ceiling in terms of what I was learning and I got bored, to be totally honest. I wish more companies understood how common this is. I also liked how you didn't investigate the idea of Kickstarter that much. I've heard other people say this too about good work they've done, that they fell into things. It makes me wonder if we're paying attention to the right signs before making decisions. Which signs do you pay attention to now?
- cassiemarketos 10y agoI've said this before and I will say it again. A long time ago, a friend gave me a piece of advice, re: making career choices: "Don't think about what you want to do, think about how you want to feel." So much about making the "right choice" is about understanding and being responsive to your emotional intuition -- not a category of feeling that you often hear celebrated in (speaking frankly) bro-heavy tech spaces. I still pay attention to how an opportunity makes me feel: excited? afraid? leery? Then I work backwards to: Why? (Sometimes, being a little afraid can be a good sign, haha -- it means something will challenge you.) And I pay close attention to the people I would be working for: how do they communicate? who do they respect? how do they picture the future? I also think about my own end goals. What am I looking for? Do I just need a paycheck? (That happens sometimes.) Is there a specific skill I'm trying to master? Will a role be a stepping stone toward a bigger picture, long term goal? It's a confluence of factors, and there's no science on how to balance them against each other. Again: that emotional intuition will guide you. (Keep it well honed.) Oof, long answer. Does that help at all? Feel like I might have gone off deep into left field with this one. :)
- captain_crabs 10y agoA friend linked just this comment to me, and as somebody amidst an existential crisis, this is such a great answer. That emotional intuition - have you noticed or observed any ways in yourself, or in others, to really keep this sharp?
- 10y ago
- wsmith 10y agoIt helps a lot, yes! I loved your essay too: https://byrslf.co/take-time-off-da7e5421f99e#.zh8e4w81u https://byrslf.co/take-time-off-da7e5421f99e#.zh8e4w81u Women seem better at making decisions like these. Men may as well begin to admit it.
- sean_patel 10y ago> Men may as well begin to admit it Way to generalize half the male population and emasculate us in the process, Wendy Smith.
- andy_ppp 10y agoThis is the most touchy I've ever seen anyone be on here. It's Donald Trump thin skinned and for what it's worth on average I'd say women are more aware of their feelings than men are. Just because it's cliche doesn't mean it's not true. Maybe you feel emasculated by a hacker news comment but I doubt many others did!
- dang 10y agoIf you want to comment here, have the fortitude not to be thrown off by trollish comments. Otherwise you make the site even worse than it already was. For example, your comment breaks the site guidelines worse than the GP did, because you went into personal attack. That will get your account banned here, so please don't do it again. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html
- sean_patel 10y agoMy apologies if I offended anyone. I won't do it again. But why would it get me banned? I decided to call her out cos it would have a completely different tone to it if a male / man made that statement about other men.
- dang 10y ago
- moeamaya 10y agoKickstarter was especially lucky to have you from the beginning. Because of the humble person you are you would never state this but I would attribute a decent amount of their success to your empathetic nature. Sustaining (note not growing) a community of creative makers is not about code and product, but of communication. Congrats on all your accomplishments and contributions. We need more people like you in tech!
- cassiemarketos 10y agoThank you so much! An exceedingly kind insight -- although, without any humility whatsoever, I have to insist that the success of Kickstarter was due to many factors and the work of many wonderful people (including the founders). :) I enjoy the distinction you make between "sustaining" -- I like to say "nurturing" -- a community and growing one. It is important to think about that. Thank you for reading!
- spoinkaroo 10y agoWhere do you see the future of crowdfunding, especially as crowdfunding spreads to outside of the western world?
- cassiemarketos 10y agoHonestly, I think less about the future of crowdfunding, and more about the future of companies like Kickstarter (in context of their recent choice to become a public benefit corporation and other community-and-civic-minded choices they've made as a business). Setting that precedent, holding themselves accountable to their community, and enabling other communities to follow in their footsteps is VERY important, I think. That's what I'm thinking about lately.
- adim86 10y agoI am particularly impressed with this interview. The level of self-awareness of cassie of her earlier self really helps the reader understand what it was like truly as a first employee of Kickstarter. I also really love how she managed explaining that although the founders are awesome, they were not perfect in a very balanced way. A lot of interviews I have read like this always tries to make the founders seem like people who have all the answers, but how she explains it, makes it feel like they were just any other company with a vision trying to figure shit out. Which is inspiring/encouraging. Question: I get the feeling, Kickstarter feels like a different life for you now. Out of curiosity did your equity at Kickstarter completely vest before you left?
- cassiemarketos 10y agoThank you so much for the kind words! That's a very generous response and I appreciate you sharing. Kickstarter does feel like a completely different life, but that's only because of how much I was able to grow while I was there. That's a good thing, I think! My equity did not completely vest, no. Close, but no!
- fuqted 10y agoDancing on chairs is fun and all, but I'd love to see the video of this interview..
- cassiemarketos 10y agoI'm afraid there isn't one!