< via >

I’ve never seen an episode of Veronica Mars. In fact, I have no idea when it aired or what it’s about. I admit my own ignorance on that front.

But yesterday I contributed to the Veronica Mars Kickstarter campain when it reached the $1 million mark. Why? I’ll tell ya.

It has little to do with Veronica Mars, and a lot to do with my crowd funding obsession. For years I’ve been following online crowd funding to better understand exactly what it takes to run a successful campaign. I’ve been obsessively listening, reading, and contributing so that I can understand it.

I’m still fascinated.

This reminds me of the early-early days of social media, when it wasn’t totally mainstream. It was new, cool, and seemed like it had the potential to change the world in some way. It was an exciting time.

I felt like we were figuring out social media together. I was fascinated by case studies. I fell in love with success stories. Tried not to roll my eyes when people didn’t get it. And I went to conferences just to be surrounded by people that did get it. It was an exciting time.

I remember walking through my living room and hearing the word Twitter mentioned on TV for the first time. I ran for the remote control and pushed the rewind button to make sure I wasn’t just hearing things. It was, in fact, mentioned on TV. I was so excited.

Now Twitter is mentioned non-stop, right? It’s common place. It’s on most commercials, business cards, promotional print materials, and websites. TV shows include hashtags at the bottom of the screen so you can talk about it online in real time, like Workaholics on Comedy Central. (Great job with that, you guys, btw).

So, it’s basically understood that you can interact with your audience, have conversations, share cool stuff, and potentially create a movement using social media. Even if most companies are still figuring out how to do that really well, they at least know that it’s important. That part, at least, is understood.

Yesterday, when a friend posted the link to the Veronica Mars Kickstarter campain, I got really excited — just like I did when I heard the word Twitter on TV for the first time. I found myself obsessing over their campaign. What were their rewards? How did they shot the fundraising trailer? What kind of media coverage are they getting?

That’s when I decided. I have to donate. They are half way to their goal. Even though I know nothing about Veronica Mars. I wanted to help them. I was so excited that I donated to the campaign with little hesitation, just so I could be a part of it.

What is happening in the film industry is absolutely fascinating, and I feel like this may be one of those key moments in the industry’s history. I want it to happen. I want to cheer them on. I want the industry to continue to evolve.

I feel like we’re still in the early stages of crowd funding. It’s like the early days of social media. It’s exciting. It’s a little bit frightening. We’re all figuring it out together. We get excited when someone tries something big. We want to read about success stories. We support, encourage, and educate one another about it. There’s this feeling that we’re all in this together. We can change the world with this new technology.

It’s an exciting time to live in this chaotic space. At the very least, I hope that one day I’ll have the courage to try something big, too. And when that day comes, I desperately hope folks will support me and my team. It’s scary to take that first step just on faith, you know?

That’s why I jumped on this campaign. It’s exciting. The Veronica Mars Kickstarter campain met it’s goal of $2 million in ONE DAY. They now have more than $2.5 million and 42,000 backers. How exciting is that?! I love it!

I’m not writing to persuade you to contribute, but if you feel so inclined visit the Veronica Mars Kickstarter campain and check it out. They have 29 days left to keep raising money. I’m pretty stoked about it.