Short answers, pulled from the story.
Kickstarter was founded on the 28th of April 2009 by Perry Chen, Yancey Strickler, and Charles Adler. The three friends launched the website from a small office at 155 Rivington Street in Manhattan to help bring creative projects to life.
Kickstarter experienced a data breach in February 2014 that affected almost 5.2 million users' data. The company also faced unionization efforts that led to a strike by Kickstarter United on the 2nd of October 2025, which ended on the 1st of November 2025 after 42 days.
Kickstarter opened its doors to the United Kingdom on the 31st of October 2012 and Canada on the 9th of September 2013. The platform subsequently added Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, Spain, Singapore, Hong Kong, Mexico, and Japan by the 12th of September 2017.
On the 18th of February 2020, 46 employees voted in favor of joining the Office and Professional Employees International Union while 37 voted against. As of the 2nd of May 2020, 60% of the workforce was part of the union following the vote.
On the 8th of December 2021, Kickstarter announced a plan to develop a decentralized protocol on blockchain platform Celo to build an open source and blockchain-based crowdfunding infrastructure. The company intended to move its own website to that system, which prompted backlash from creators and backers.