Kickstarter's new CEO on reviving a crowdfunding icon through marketing and mission

Executive overview

Kickstarter had brand recognition but had become a stagnant, ephemeral destination — people visited once to back a friend's project and rarely returned. Everette Taylor, appointed CEO at 33, arrived with a mandate to rebuild engagement, expand inclusivity, and grow the business without abandoning its public-benefit mission.

His strategy rests on three levers: converting passive visitors into recurring users, launching two new business lines in his first four months, and using his own identity to signal that Kickstarter is open to everyone.

The core insight: marketing without the right product is wasted — fix the product first, then unleash the brand.

Diagnosing the platform's stagnation

• Kickstarter was an "ephemeral destination" — users arrived for one project, then disappeared
• Brand recognition was high but the experience felt flat; retention was the critical gap
• The most successful creators skewed heavily toward white men — a structural problem, not just a metric
• Growth had stalled not from lack of ideas but from comfort: market leadership bred complacency

Two new business lines launched in four months

• Digital marketing services: creators can now pay to reach new audiences, similar to Etsy's model — previously unavailable
• Pledge management: handles shipping, taxes, and backer fulfilment — things Kickstarter never touched before
• Both lines address inexperienced entrepreneurs who had no support after a campaign closed
• Taylor credits prior CEO Sean Lowe for the concepts, but says he "lit fire to the gasoline" to ship them

Retention and community as the growth engine

• Target: users who return weekly to discover what's new in music, film, tech, or fashion — not just to back a friend
• Framing shift: Kickstarter as a cultural tastemaker and discovery platform, not a one-time funding tool
• Many everyday products — Allbirds, Peloton, Issa Rae's early work — started on Kickstarter; most users don't know this
• Lifecycle marketing, search, and discovery improvements are planned once new business lines are stable

Inclusivity as competitive strategy

• Ford Funds program: direct capital injections into projects by underrepresented creators, in partnership with nonprofits
• Goal is to increase diversity on both the creator and backer sides — each side reinforces the other
• Kickstarter's public-benefit corporation status gives Taylor flexibility to prioritise impact over short-term profit
• Taylor's own visibility as a young Black CEO is intentional: demonstrating the platform is for everyone

On marketing, mission, and personal resilience

• Taylor discovered marketing instinctively at 14 in his first job — "a fish in water"
• Went from CMO at 25 to CEO at 33; sees marketing and product as the same discipline
• Survived homelessness and street poverty; frames no business challenge as "life or death"
• Holds back large-scale brand campaigns deliberately until product experience is ready to deliver on the promise
• Wants his success to "blow the door wide open" for other people of colour in executive roles