We’re thrilled to announce that Kickstarter CEO Yancey Strickler will be joining us onstage at Disrupt NY 2014 when he will school us on crowdfunding and the state of the startup industry. Strickler co-founded Kickstarter in 2009 with Perry Chen and Charles Adler. Since then, the company has helped fund nearly $1 billion in successful projects from companies big and small, and plays a prominent role in bringing new startups to market.
In the five years the company has been public, Kickstarter has quickly become the biggest name in crowdfunding. The platform has served as the launching pad for several successful startups, including the Pebble smartwatch, OUYA Gaming Console, and the Oculus Rift virtual reality gaming goggles, to name just a few, and has funded 57,764 projects as of March 14th. In fact, Kickstarter plays such a prominent role in bringing new startups to market that the company recently won the 2013 Crunchie for Best Overall Startup.
Of course, as with any successful company, Kickstarter has faced some challenges from outside attackers. The company recently announced that a database containing customer information was potentially accessed by hackers, though no credit card information was compromised due to the way Kickstarter stores credit cards on its site. The exploit responsible for the breach was fixed in four days.
Strickler became Kickstarter’s CEO on January 1, 2014, after Perry Chen announced plans to move into the chairman role to focus on the big picture, keeping Kickstarter close to its core mission, and some other creative projects. Strickler played many roles within the company, including community, communications, and customer service, and has now taken on an even more active role in the day-to-day operations as chief executive.
Prior to Kickstarter, Strickler was a journalist and served as the Editor-in-Chief of eMusic, where he and other authors reviewed music albums. His work has also appeared in the likes of Pitchfork, Spin and Entertainment Weekly.
This will be Strickler’s second time on the Disrupt stage. We had him in 2011 when he talked about the state of the then-budding Kickstarter Economy. This time he joins other notable founders speaking at Disrupt NY, such as Fred Wilson, Ken Lerer and Secret co-founders, Chrys Bader-Wechseler and David Byttow. More speakers are set to be announced in the coming weeks as the event nears.
Disrupt NY will take over the Manhattan Center in New York City on May 5-7. Tickets can be purchased here, and if you’re interested in being a sponsor, please contact our sponsorship team here.