Meet the Newest Member of Kickstarter's Million-Dollar Club This startup has entered an elite and growing group that has raised seven figures on the popular crowdfunding site.
By Catherine Clifford •
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If you still have the idea that crowdfunding is reserved territory for artists to raise a few hundred dollars to fund their next project, then you need to think again. On Kickstarter, 80 campaigns have raised more than $1 million.
The newest product to enter Kickstarter's million-dollar club is a sleep and bedroom condition tracker called Sense. The campaign for Sense ended today and raised $2.4 million, blowing way past its goal to raise $100,000. The device measures the temperature in your bedroom, sound, your movement and when you are in your deepest sleep rhythms, among other metrics.
Related: With $9 Million and Counting, This Cooler Could Become the No. 1 Kickstarter Campaign Ever
Developed by James Proud, a former Thiel Fellow, Sense is a three-part system: a spherical modern-looking holder which sits on your bedside table, a small button-looking piece that clips to your pillow, and a smartphone application.
While keeping your crowdfunding campaign's minimum requirement to get funded is generally a good rule of thumb, Sense's Kickstarter campaign ended up being 2,411 percent funded -- an impressive accomplishment. Proud's not alone in achieving four-digit percent funding rate stats, though. Here are a few recent examples.
The 3Doodler, a 3-D printing pen you can hold in your hand, raised $2.3 million on a $30,000 pledge goal. In other words, the 3-D printing pen was 7,814 percent funded.
Related: A Device to Help You Sleep Better Raises Almost $500K in Two Days on Kickstarter
The Coolest, a pimped out cooler that includes a blender, speakers for your music and a phone charger, has raised more than $9 million on a $50,000 pledge goal. That means The Coolest has already raised 18,362 percent of its goal. And The Coolest campaign still has a week to go.
Or check out the campaign for the 10-year Hoodie: When the men's underwear company Flint and Tinder launched a campaign to test its concept for a sweatshirt guaranteed to last a decade, the campaign pulled in 2,108 percent of its ask. Flint and Tinder founder Jake Bronstein raised more than a million dollars on his $50,000 goal.
Related: Kickstarter Wrote a Computer Program For Its 'Lunch Roulette.' And Now It's Sharing the Code.
