Kickstarter Taps Ex-Twitter Talent to Help Put Itself Back on Cultural Map

What do Issa Rae’s “Awkward Black Girl” series, Peloton and TLC’s self-titled fifth album have in common? They all got off the ground thanks to Kickstarter.

However, recently instated CEO Everette Taylor, told Adweek the crowdfunding platform hasn’t been shouting loud enough about these success stories. So, as part of his ongoing mission to put the legacy brand back on the cultural map, he’s hired two ex-Twitter execs to help spread the word.

Joining as VP of brand marketing is Twitter’s former head of global brand Courtney Brown Warren, who will oversee all marketing functions and initiatives across brand creative, content, social, partnerships, and communications and public relations to accelerate the growth of Kickstarter.

Prior to Twitter, Warren headed creative strategy for Amazon-owned Audible’s emerging business and international division. She has also held senior creative roles at the Madison Square Garden Company and Time.

Reporting to her is Nikki Kria, also coming to Kickstarter from Twitter as its new head of communications. In her most recent role, she was responsible for increasing awareness of Twitter’s advertising products—its top revenue lever. She has a history in public relations, with tenures at Red Havas and Wunderman Thompson.

Both Warren and Kria (who departed Twitter following Elon Musk’s takeover) will support Taylor’s strategy to breathe new life into the Kickstarter brand. They will also be tasked with helping the business cultivate a better relationship with the creators and communities who use it, from gamers to writers to entrepreneurs. Part of their remit will also be ensuring the platform is more inclusive and equitable for creators of color.

“Because they already know each other, it was like they came as a package deal,” explained Taylor. “It’s been beautiful to [bring on board] people that have worked together in the same room before.”

Dusting off a stale brand

One of the original crowdfunding platforms, Kickstarter has helped people, pilots and businesses raise $6.9 billion for over 228,000 projects since 2009.

Taylor made the unusual leap from CMO of art marketplace Artsy to Kickstarter CEO in September 2022. “I’m still a marketer at heart,” he asserted, saying his new seat at the top was all about “getting people excited” about the brand itself, which he is the first to admit had gone slightly “stale.”

“It felt like a legacy brand that wasn’t a legacy brand,” he said. “We were still one of the largest in our space, but we needed a boost.”

He was right. Before Taylor’s arrival, and just as the dust settled from the peak of the pandemic in 2022, the business had lost its way amid increasing competition from rivals like Crowdfunder, Patreon and Gofundme.

It’s PR had also been unfavorable; dogged by years of frustrations from white-collar employees who wanted to – and eventually did – unionize, in 2020, it laid off 40% of its workforce following a major drop in projects and, thereby, revenues in the early days of Covid-19. By 2022, then-CEO Aziz Hasan stepped down following months after criticism from creators over plans to transition the platform to blockchain technology, an idea that was ultimately halted after creators vowed to take their business elsewhere.

Bringing with him a fresh expertise, Taylor has spent the last six months looking at what makes the brand special to users; community, inclusivity and success. Now, Warren will spearhead a marketing strategy designed to refresh the brand, rooted in her experience engaging communities on Twitter. Discussing her plans just two days into the job, she was already forging a clear path.

“We need to re-engage those who have loved Kickstarter over the years, but we also need to attract a new community of diverse creators and backers that are hungry to support the products, categories and niches they care about,” she said, highlighting the company’s role as a platform where people could discover the next big thing.

She gave a hint that future creatives might be hinged on “celeb creators” themselves but said she was also keen to explore experiential work and a large-scale brand campaign. For now, it has no agency of record, but it will be considering which partners it needs to add to its arsenal.

“It will be exciting to find partners and agencies with the same passion as us who can help us tell our story in the best way possible,” she said.

Kria said the opportunity to plant Kickstarter’s flag in the ground when it came to culture is what attracted her to the role.

“We’ve seen Peloton fund its bike through Kickstarter, TLC funded their last album through Kickstarter, Issa Rae was here before “Insecure” was “Insecure.”… These creative ideas have gone on to have culture of their own and an impact on broader society,” she said.

She continued: “The opportunity to be connected to and tell the stories of a business that is doing this important work was something I could not pass on.”

Telling powerful stories

As well as steering the ship with his marketing hat on, Taylor has also added new business units, which he said are already “helping push up the metrics” and “drive revenues”.

These have included updates to its “pledge management” system, which helps businesses and individuals organize the collection of data necessary to fulfill backers’ rewards (ie, send out products promised in return for backing).

Kickstarter has also started tentatively offering in-house digital marketing services and products to people who are trying to raise money within its walls. “As a marketer, I understand the importance of that,” he explained, saying Kria’s experience at Twitter would be instrumental in helping grow this.

On the DE&I front, he is making sure his team is made up of the creme-de-la-creme of the industry to help him in the “uphill battle” of revitalizing the brand, while ensuring the people he works alongside are representative of the creators showing up on Kickstarter.

“That’s not always been reflected in our team here,” he said.

Other recent appointments include Danny Baez as head of arts, whose career in the arts began in 2008 after emigrating from the Dominican Republic to New York City.

Taylor pointed to the story of L.A.-born artist Lauren Halsey, who is known for celebrating Black life and aesthetics, as one he’d like to see more of. The artist launched a successful campaign on Kickstarter pre-Covid-19. Now, she is exhibiting as part of the annual Roof Garden commission at the Metropolitan Museum in NYC.

“Those stories are more powerful than me, Courtney or Nikki. That’s why I feel more bullish about it: they can take further and make them more widespread,” the CEO said.