On December 19, Charles Adler, Kickstarter co-founder, spoke as the first speaker of the Tsinghua PBCSF Forum-Internet+ Series with the theme “Crowdfunding: Finding Our Place in Time”.

Kickstarter, launched in 2009 by Charles and two other co-founders, is a global crowdfunding platform to fund creative projects, big or small, and bring them to life. They’re a home for everything from films, games, and music to art, design, and technology. Charles shared the story of how Kickstarter was initiated and 9 successful cases that most impressed him. Since their launch, $2 billion has been pledged to 95,000 creative projects, backing people from artists to high school students.

As Charles stated, the nature of crowdfunding is to remove obstacles and the purpose of mobile internet is to provide convenience for contact. Project initiators, through empowerment, could interact with supporters and pay more attention to the sense of participation. He also encouraged the audience to break away from convention and pursue their own dreams.

Tsinghua PBCSF Forum-Internet+ Series is designed to build a platform for cross-industry communication and push forward the cultivation of Chinese innovative talent. Elites from the field of internet and finance are invited to lecture at PBCSF, sharing their insights and experience.