The Buzz: Kickstarter funds local inventor, artists

Kickstarter is a website that collects the pitches of garage-based inventors, artists and fledgeling designers who are trying to fund their creative ventures by asking the public for money.

Some local people have been successful with this money-generating way to get projects off the ground.

Brian Davis is an Appleton cyclist who invented Fix It Sticks, which are bicycle repair tools. His first two Kickstarter campaigns raised a total of $123,000. His current campaign is for BackBottle, a water bottle he designed for cyclists. As of today, he'd raised 75 percent of his $7,777 goal, and he still has 28 days to go.

"Two years ago, I quit my day job to focus on working in the industry and sport I love, which is cycling," he wrote in his latest kickstarter.com pitch. "I owe that to Kickstarter backers and for that I am extremely grateful. I would not be here without you."

Post-Crescent Media opinion editor Larry Gallup discussed Kickstarter as part of the Art of Conversation panel he hosted Saturday at the Trout Museum of Art in Appleton. His guests were two local artists — Lee Mothes and Taylor Winder — who used Kickstarter to raise money to get books of their artwork published. Both were successful. Mothes raised $6,452 on a goal of $4,000, and Winder raised $11,373 on a goal of $8,000.

"It was interesting to hear them talk about their strategies to raise money — who they contacted to market themselves and what kinds of reward levels they set up," Gallup said.

Kickstarters' small investors are typically rewarded with a sample of the product they invested in, like a water bottle, tool or book.

— Maureen Wallenfang: 920-993-1000, ext. 287, or mwallenfang@postcrescent.com; on Twitter @wallenfang