Can I Start a Kickstarter Out of the US?

You finally decided to launch your first innovative project and start crowdfunding on Kickstarter, many questions run through your head, but the first one is ''can I launch a campaign on Kickstarter from my country?''

You should be totally sure that your country is listed on Kickstarter allowed country section before thinking about launching your project, let's see in this article who can use Kickstarter!

Before reading the article...

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1. WHICH COUNTRIES ARE ALLOWED TO LAUNCH ON KICKSTARTER?

Most of the countries are actually featured on Kickstarter which is a US platform, so let's see if you could launch your project if you're not US resident. Let's see the official list from Kickstarter's website:

 US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Singapore, Mexico, Japan, Poland, Greece, and Slovenia.

As you can see a lot of countries are included in this list, which means that you have good chances to start your crowdfunding without any problems.

So the answer to ''can I launch a campaign on Kickstarter from my country?'' is of course: it depends, but do not despair, there are other solutions to finally start a crowdfunding if you're country is not on the list.

2. WHAT IF YOUR COUNTRY IS NOT LISTED?

It could be that you're in the countries not included in the list, that doesn't mean that you cannot start your crowdfunding on Kickstarter, but you can proceed following these two steps, let's see them:

1. Consider finding a partner from an approved country, be sure to feel comfortable with this person as you're sharing a business, it could also be a friend, a temporary arrangement, or a long-term business partner. I would highly recommend talking with the partner about the possible negative implications of helping out your company, for example, the possible tax consequences, possible legal challenges that could arise etc.
Being clear about the good part and the bad part with a temporary team member, preferably in written form, will help avoid misunderstanding later, other than that you should also be totally transparent regarding roles, responsibilities, and rights ownership.

2. Create a company and bank account based on the approved countries listed by Kickstarter. After selecting your partner you should now create your own US legal entity such as LLC or C Corporation, which should be separate from your US partner. This will allow you and your partner legal protection in the eventuality of a backer decides to sue you due to delivery issues or others. Also, it will help you keep your personal and business taxes well separate.

Another important thing is that you create a separate business bank account for your company, with its own credit card, thanks to that you could establish your separate entity and make income, expense, and tax records easier. The thing is that you cannot create a legal entity without a partner on Kickstarter, instead you could do it freely on Indiegogo.

N.B Although you may find these informations useful, always make sure to contact a tax consultant or attorney before proceeding with these steps.

Now you know what can you do if you're listed or not in Kickstarter country's list. However, there are other rules to apply in order to launch a project, that are mandatory:

- You are 18 years of age or older (People under the age of 18 can launch projects only in collaboration with an adult or guardian that meets these listed requirements.)

- You are a permanent resident of one of the above listed eligible countries

- You are creating a project in your own name, or on behalf of a registered legal entity with which you are affiliated

- You have an address, bank account, and government-issued ID based in the country that you're creating a project in (Citizens of the E.U. are welcome to use a government-issued ID from any E.U. country (such as an E.U. passport, etc.)

- If running your project as an individual, the linked bank account must belong to the person who verified their identity for your project

- You have a major credit or debit card (Citizens of Canada must have a major credit card)

- You must have the authority to represent the organization to Kickstarter's payments partner, Stripe.

WRAPPING IT UP

This is it for today, creators, as you can see there are a lot of possibilities, and starting the path of crowdfunding is now up to you, consider analyzing both Kickstarter and Indiegogo possibilities because a lot can be different, starting from allowed countries, legal entities permissions and more.

Crowdfunding launch requires a lot of hard work and sacrifices, but I'm sure that it will be worth it in order to start making your dream project come true.

Always remember that before launching your project you will need to analyze and prepare your pre-launch phase to launch your first product, I’ve got you covered with my crowdfunding pre-launch free e-book called ''3 steps to success on Kickstarter and Indiegogo''. 

As always make sure to subscribe to my channel to stay updated on fresh new content that I’m gonna drop there.

Ciao ciao! 

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