How we work
What Working With Launchloft Looks Like
Here’s exactly what happens from “I applied” to “my campaign shipped,” so there are no surprises about who does what, or when. We’re a fixed-price service that works with you — we don’t take a cut of your pledges, and we don’t run the campaign for you while you sit back. Each step below tells you what we do, what you do, and how to tell whether your project is actually ready for it.
Step 1 — Apply
You fill out a 5-minute application. We reply within 24 hours — and we say no to projects we genuinely can’t help. No sales call required; we read every application by hand.
Why it matters: the “no” is the point. A launch service that accepts everyone is selling hope, not results. Saying no early protects you from spending three weeks and a deposit on a project that the math was never going to support.
Self-test: can you describe your product, who it’s for, and why now in three plain sentences — without using the word “innovative”? If you can’t, your application (and later, your campaign page) will be fuzzy. Good: “A pocket notebook with a built-in pen loop and lay-flat binding, for people who sketch on the train.” Bad: “A revolutionary new productivity ecosystem for creatives.” The first one a backer can picture and pay for; the second one is a slogan.
How to fix it: strip every adjective and rewrite around the concrete object and the concrete person using it. If you’re stuck deciding whether the idea even fits the platform, read is your product right for Kickstarter before you apply.
Step 2 — Diagnose & Plan
You complete a written brief (async — no live call needed). We send a free benchmark report against historical projects, plus a playbook with our specific recommendations on goal, pricing, title, and video.
Why it matters: Kickstarter is all-or-nothing — if you don’t hit your goal, you collect nothing. Roughly 40% of projects succeed overall, and the single most common reason for the other 60% is a goal that was set by wishful thinking instead of by real costs and real audience size. The plan exists to keep you out of that bucket.
Self-test: write your funding goal on paper, then list what it actually has to cover — unit cost at your real quantity, shipping, the ~5% Kickstarter fee plus ~3–5% payment processing, and a buffer for the backers who never pay. Does the number still make sense? Good: a $12,000 goal you could plausibly clear on day one or two from your own email list and network. Bad: a $60,000 goal because that’s “what the project is worth,” with no idea where the first $10k comes from.
How to fix it: set the lowest goal that still lets you deliver, and treat everything above it as upside. We walk through the full method in how to set your funding goal. If your benchmark report comes back rough, this is the cheapest possible moment to find out — before a single dollar of build work.
Step 3 — Build
We design and build your pre-launch landing page, wire up email capture, and produce the email sequence and social assets. You start collecting emails before launch.
Why it matters: campaigns aren’t won during the campaign — they’re won before it. Kickstarter’s algorithm and its “Popular” placement reward early momentum, so the projects that fund are almost always the ones that walked in on day one with a warm list ready to pledge in the first 48 hours.
Self-test: how many people could you email today who would genuinely consider backing you? Good: a few hundred signups on a pre-launch page who opted in specifically for this product. Bad: “I’ll post it in a few group chats when it goes live.” A cold launch to no one is the most common way a strong product still fails.
How to fix it: start the landing page and email capture as early as possible and give people a real reason to sign up — an early-bird price, a behind-the-scenes look, a launch-day reminder. Your job in this step is to feed the list; ours is to build the machine that captures it.
Step 4 — Launch
Your page and campaign go live. You run the launch; we provide asynchronous support and daily pace reviews through the first week.
Why it matters: “done with you” is literal here. You press go, message your list, and reply to your backers — because the relationship is yours to keep. We watch the numbers daily so you’re reacting to your actual pace, not to launch-day nerves.
Self-test: by the end of day one, are you tracking toward your goal, or did the graph go flat after the first few hours? Good: a clear opening spike from your warm list that gets you a meaningful share of the goal in 48 hours. Bad: a trickle that never builds — usually a sign the pre-launch list was too thin or the page isn’t converting visitors.
How to fix it: in the moment, the daily pace review tells you where the leak is — traffic, conversion, or pledge mix — so you spend your energy on the one lever that matters that day instead of randomly “posting more.”
Step 5 — Wrap-up
A post-mortem with the data, and all source files transferred to you. You own everything.
Why it matters: a launch is data you can reuse. The post-mortem turns one campaign into a repeatable playbook — which channel actually drove pledges, which reward tier carried the funding, what to change next time. And because every file is handed to you, you’re never locked into us for round two.
Self-test: after wrap-up, could you re-run this launch yourself? Good: you have the page, the assets, the email list, and a clear read on what worked. Bad: the campaign “just happened” and you couldn’t explain why it did or didn’t hit goal.
How to fix it: use the handover. Keep the email list warm for fulfillment updates and your next product — that audience is the most valuable thing you walk away with, worth more than any single campaign.
If you’re based in mainland China
There’s a step zero: eligibility. Before Step 2, you’ll need a US LLC and a bank account — handled by our sister service ApplyRight. (More in launching from China (Chinese guide).)
Why it matters: Kickstarter only pays out to creators in supported countries with a local bank account, so for mainland creators this isn’t optional admin — it’s the gate that lets you collect funds at all. Self-test: do you already have a US LLC and a matching bank account in place? If yes, you can start at Step 1. If no, start the entity step in parallel with your planning so it isn’t the thing that delays your launch.
Timeline
Roughly three weeks of prep before launch, then the campaign itself. We screen for fit precisely because we want real results, not refund requests.
The whole thing in one glance
- Apply — 5 minutes; we reply in 24 hours and will say no if we can’t help.
- Diagnose & plan — written brief, free benchmark, a playbook on goal, pricing, title, and video.
- Build — pre-launch page, email capture, sequence and social assets; you start collecting emails.
- Launch — you run it, we do daily pace reviews through week one.
- Wrap-up — data post-mortem and every source file handed to you.
Quick self-check before you apply: Can you describe your product in three plain sentences? Is your goal built from real costs, not wishful thinking? Do you have any warm audience to launch to? Three yeses and you’re in great shape. A “no” on any of them is exactly the kind of thing the plan in Step 2 is designed to fix.
Exact scope and timeline depend on your package and project. Deposit and terms are on the site.