Creators: Replicate Successful Experience of Others

Initial findings suggest that people participate in crowdfunding because they want to replicate the success of others [37]. An informant describes how her project success helped encourage another creator to pursue crowdfunding:

“There’s a fellow archeologist that I’ve never met, but she just started a new Rockethub project, and so she’s in the process of funding, and she claimed to be inspired by me.”

Another informant spreads out his successful Kickstarter experience to people he knows after he launched a project, and several people got motivated and started to follow along and participate in crowdfunding as a creator:

"After I did this Kickstarter fundraising, and it was successful…a number of people I know started their own Kickstarter projects. I think, I kind of, you know motivate some people to try it themselves."

Successful experiences can be replicated among people through social proof. Beyond establishing general relationships within the online community, creators not only generate more interest among people but also show them how to become a creator recognized by the larger online community through doing. Seeing other creators succeed in launching a project online provides social proof for anyone who wants to get started and become a creator on crowdfunding platforms.