Kickstarter Potato Salad Creeps Up On 60 Grand With 24 Days Left To Go!

Fact: When a Kickstarter campaign wildly exceeds its stated financial goal, people have a lot of opinions about what the person who started the Kickstarter campaign should do with the extra money.

Fact: When a Kickstarter campaign wildly exceeds its stated financial goal, as long as the person who started the Kickstarter campaign fulfills his obligations to his backers, he can do whatever he wants with what’s left over.

Case in point: When Zack Danger Brown typed the now infamous goal on Kickstarter one week ago, “I’m Making Potato Salad,” he probably didn’t expect to see over $58 thousand dollars pledged in only seven days.

For those who aren’t familiar with the crowdsourcing website, Kickstarter exists, according to the site, “to help bring creative projects to life.” Someone states a goal on Kickstarter, either through a short essay or an appealing video, and asks for help in funding an original project, or to expand an existing project. Kickstarter backers are offered special items or services in exchange for different levels of contribution to the Kickstarter campaign.

A time limit is set on a Kickstarter campaign – usually 30 to 60 days – and if the stated goal for the campaign is not reached within that time limit, no money changes hands, and it’s as if the Kickstarter campaign never happened.

Common users of Kickstarter are filmmakers, artists, mucisians, writers, tech inventors, chefs…

I guess you could say that Zack Danger Brown falls under the chef category.

“Basically I’m just making potato salad. I haven’t decided what kind yet.”

That was what Brown wrote on his Kickstarter page a week ago. His initial Kickstarter goal was ten bucks.

It was clear that Brown was a humorist – what else would you expect from a man who’s middle name is “Danger.”

Pledges of one dollar or more would entitle a Kickstarter backer to a “thank you” printed on his website, and Zack promised to “say your name out loud” while making the potato salad. Pledging $50 or more entitles the Kickstarter backer to a Potato Salads of the World cook book with a recipe for potato salad inspired by every country from which he receives a Kickstarter backer.

Humor.

As reported earlier by the Inquisitr, Brown’s request for Kickstarter pledges quickly shot up in both numbers and dollars, so that at the time of this article, he has over 4,700 backers behind him.

The Kickstarter campaign received a lot of attention almost immediately. Brown was interviewed by ABC News, and it was clear he hadn’t lost his sense of humor.

When asked why he started the Kickstarter potato salad campaign in the first place, he quipped,

“I really wanted to make potato salad, but am not at a point in my life where I could assume that level of risk.”

It’s clear that Brown’s Kickstarter campaign is going to be a success, but how much of a success? He’s tens of thousands of dollars over his goal already, and with more press coverage, that overage will only increase.

So what happens to the extra money?

Kickstarter’s FAQs state:

“Sometimes when a project is overfunded it lets the creator put that money back into the project to create something better for the backers and themselves. More songs on an album, additional game elements, better materials, etc.?

The guidelines continue,

“In other cases, overfunding leads to better margins and the creator may even profit from the project. This often also means that the creator can continue the project beyond Kickstarter and backers are part of that story.”

So, basically, whatever Kickstarter monies are accrued above and beyond the originally stated goal are the creators to keep – as long as the Kickstarter backers are happy with their pledge rewards.

Those Kickstarter guidelines don’t sit well with a lot of people. Zack has pledged to use his extra money to throw a large potato salad party on Labor Day weekend, but let’s face it, 60 grand buys more potato salad than could probably be consumed at a single party. Some websites, like Slate.com, are saying that keeping the extra money is immoral, and that Brown should donate the money to charity.

But ultimately, it’s Zack Danger Brown’s money at the end of the day. After he fullfills his obligations to his Kickstarter backers and makes his potato salad he can do whatever he wants.

Who knows what will come next. Maybe Zack will fire up a Kickstarter campaign to try making tuna casserole.