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Drop your Kickstarter project link — pre-launch, live, or just-launched. We accept any project page on kickstarter.com.
Pre-launch diagnosis · backed by 372,096 projects
Paste your Kickstarter project URL. We hand-review it against 17 years of data and email you a personalized report in 48 hours. Free during beta.
Compared against 32,604 historical Tech projects · 2009–2026
How it works
BackerBench is a small data team. We do the analysis by hand right now, because the data set is the moat — not the workflow software.
Drop your Kickstarter project link — pre-launch, live, or just-launched. We accept any project page on kickstarter.com.
Goal, pricing, timing, title, blurb, video, creator history, country — eight dimensions, all compared against 372,096 historical projects in your category.
Within 48 hours, you get an emailed report with your score per dimension, the comparable historical projects we matched against, and the highest-leverage things to change before launch.
Why we get the call
Three findings from inside the dataset, picked because each contradicts a common piece of crowdfunding folklore.
$1K–$10K Tech goals close at 45%; $100K+ collapses to 9.3%. The instinct to set a stretch goal punishes you twice — backers worry it won't fund, and the algorithm favors campaigns hitting 100% early.
HK Tech creators close at 77.4% — more than double the US (34.8%) and UK (35.2%). The driver is supply-chain proximity: working prototypes ship faster, and prototype quality is the single largest predictor of success.
44% of Tech projects use the 30-day default and close at 35.2%. Projects that pick 31–38 days (only 9% of the field) close at 52.4%. Default-action selection compresses outcomes; deliberate choice predicts care.
Inside your report
Every diagnosis covers the same eight measurable dimensions, each compared against the goal-, country-, and time-cohort distribution of historical projects in your category.
Mock-up to the right shows fictional data. Your report uses your project.
Compared against 32,604 historical Tech projects · 2009–2026
Free category reports
Before you submit a diagnosis, browse the category report for your field. Each is 16 pages with eight findings, all reproducible from public Kickstarter data.
Hardware, gadgets, wearables, robotics. The largest goals — and the steepest failure curve.
Tabletop, video games, playing cards. The only category where 100%+ funding is the norm.
Product design, EDC, home goods. Hardware-lite — strong demand, lower failure than Tech.
Books, zines, comics, journalism. Small budgets, loyal communities, the highest Staff Pick rate.
Documentaries, narrative film, web series. Long deadlines, sentimental backers, modest goals.
Albums, tours, music videos. Most launches per day across the whole platform.
Why BackerBench
Top-tier launch consultants charge $20K–$50K per campaign. They earn it — but only the top 5% of creators can afford them. Everyone else is left guessing.
BackerBench is a small data team. We ingested 17 years of public Kickstarter history and turned it into actionable benchmarks for the rest of us. We do not run paid ads for clients, do not take a percentage of pledged amounts, and are not affiliated with Kickstarter, Inc.
Our reports describe what the data says — what it doesn’t say is what you should do. Use them as priors, not prescriptions. Your prototype, your audience, your story matter more than any single statistic on the page.
Pricing
Everything we publish today is free. As we calibrate, two paid tiers will open in waves through Q3 2026.
Everything we publish is free while we calibrate the methodology.
Live campaign monitoring for the 30 days that matter most.
1:1 review and a written launch playbook tailored to your project.
No. BackerBench is independent research. We are not affiliated with Kickstarter, Inc. Our data is sourced from publicly available project pages, and we do not republish project descriptions, images, or backer data.
Kicktraq is a real-time tracker — best for watching live campaigns mid-flight. LaunchBoom is a $20–50K full-service launch agency. BackerBench sits in between: data-grounded benchmarks that are free during beta, with a paid tier for live monitoring coming, and 1:1 review available on the Concierge waitlist.
Right now: by hand. We open your Kickstarter page, parse every dimension we measure (goal, title, blurb, video, pricing tiers, creator profile, country, planned duration), and compare each against the corresponding distribution in our 372,096-project dataset. The output is a hand-written PDF, not a template. We're capping at 50 diagnoses per week so each gets real attention.
Submit it. We'll benchmark current pace against historical comparables in your category and flag what's helping or hurting. Live diagnoses get the same 48-hour turnaround.
Every finding in our reports is reproducible from public Kickstarter data. We publish the methodology and sample size in every report — see any of the category PDFs. If a number in your diagnosis surprises you, ask us; we'll show the underlying query.
Pro and Concierge open in waves through Q3 2026. We'll email the waitlist when slots open. We do not share or sell email addresses to third parties — your email is used only to deliver your report and our monthly newsletter (which you can unsubscribe from at any time).
Free pre-launch diagnosis
Drop your Kickstarter project URL below. Within 48 hours, we email you a personalized report — your goal, price, timing, creator profile, and pledge structure compared against 372K historical projects in your category.
Limited to 50 diagnoses per week — we hand-review every submission. No upsell. No sales call.