Kickstarter initially acquired Drip back in March of 2016, though it was launched six years ago by Sam Valenti IV and partner Miguel Senquiz. The crowdfunding giant hasn’t done much with Drip since it was acquired, but that’s about to change. Drip is a crowdfunding tool that allows people to subscribe to a creator and give them monthly payments. This is in contrast to the Kickstarter model, which is to pledge money to one single project. Drip now functions much like Patreon does, with a couple of features that sets it apart.
Currently, Drip is in a limited beta period, and is invite-only for creators. It will open up for more artists early next year. At the moment, a total of 61 artists have subscription pages.
“We’re at the very beginning stages,” Kickstarter co-founder Perry Chen told TechCrunch. “I think there are a lot of people that haven’t seen the tools that currently exist as fitting for their practice. There’s been a good amount of ground gained with serial content creators, and I think the question is can a broader group of content creators find this kind of model as something that can work for them. We’re trying to see if we can have an impact in this space, and honestly, the more the merrier.”
Kickstarter requires creators to get fully funded within in a certain amount of time. Drip doesn’t operate this way, however. Instead, the user account will remain active no matter how much money has been pledged. The platform encourages more people to join and subscribe by allowing creators to choose from anywhere between seven and 30 days for funders to become founding members. They will be rewarded with special perks if they are able to pledge within that time window.
With Drip, you’re also able to move funders and projects over to a completely different crowdfunding platform with ease. This helps to sell the idea that Drip is absolutely all-in as far as supporting creators and artists. “We’re not basing our success or failure primarily on growth,” Kickstarter’s new chief product officer, Jamie Wilkinson, told The Verge. “It’s about, are we succeeding in our mission? Are we helping creator projects come to life?”
