In early December 2021, employees at the crowdfunding startup Kickstarter got news of a windfall: An investor group wanted to buy some of their shares. The news came as a surprise. While the workers had amassed equity in the firm for years, many had given up hope of ever selling it.
The Kickstarter they now worked for was a very different place than the red-hot startup of 2009 that had launched viral projects like Cards Against Humanity and Peloton. For a while, Kickstarter was the toast of entrepreneurs and the public alike, and even achieved the most coveted startup achievement: Its name became a noun as people used “Kickstarter” synonymously with internet crowdfunding campaigns.
