KickstarterForum.org

[lamode]

My project is a day away from being ready to launch and I need to decide whether to launch it under my own UK profile or a partner's US profile. I have heard that UK profiles tend to be shunned more by US audience, and that the pledge is made more ciomplicated. What are your thoughts on that? I would prefer to launch under my own profile but not if it means risking not making my target.

[MichaelTumey]

If you have the option to go through a US partner, that you trust, I'd personally recommending funding with dollars instead of pounds. I don't know if the average American pledger is shunning UK KS's, so much as intimidated by not knowing the exchange rates for dollars vs. pounds - it's simple to look up, I know, but when making a buying decision trust is a little harder to achieve. I'm sure eventually it won't be a problem, but for the time being, since you do want to fund, going with a US profile is better, IMO.

Michael

[drlouisechughes]

I have seen projects get around this by posting an image of the current exchange rate amounts for each of their rewards. It will give US backers an idea about what they are playing. I had direct feedback from people I knew in the US who did not back simply because it was only displayed in pounds on my project. that said, they were only a couple, I had quite a few US backers in the end.

The other thing to consider is that projects in your home region are displayed when you log in on Kickstarter. KS is much less widely known in the UK compared to the US (most of my fund raising involved introducing people to the idea of crowdfunding) and I am guessing UK projects have lower traffic from the local region as a result.

[lamode]

Thanks, that's what I thought.

[sbriggman]

I would recommend going with the US partner. From my experience, there is definitely a bit of a bias towards lower pledges because of the exchange rate. Also, it seems that the UK audience (from creators I have talked with) are less involved with crowdfunding that the US audience.