
Kickstarter Co-Founder: How Yancey Strickler Built a $7B Platform That Transformed Crowdfunding | E157
From Leap Academy with Ilana Golan by Ilana Golan
May 5, 2026 · 58 min
About this episode
Yancey Strickler shares his journey from freelancing to co-founding Kickstarter and discusses the evolution of crowdfunding and the artist economy.
When Yancey Strickler moved to New York, he was broke, freelancing for $50, and chasing a writing career. Little did he know, his gift for building on the internet would soon change the world of crowdfunding. A chance encounter with a friend and a half-baked idea about crowd-funded concert tickets led to the founding of Kickstarter, a platform that has raised over $7 billion for creative projects worldwide. In this episode, Yancey joins Ilana to discuss his journey from freelancing on a shoestring budget to building a billion-dollar platform and what it took to survive the hardest moments. He also explains his bold plan to help artists participate in capitalism. Yancey Strickler is the co-founder and former CEO of Kickstarter, the platform that raised over $7 billion for more than 200,000 creative projects. He now runs Metalabel, a studio building tools for creative cooperation. In this episode, Ilana and Yancey will discuss: (00:00) Introduction (03:11) From Music Households to Manhattan Bylines (06:28) The Side Project That Changed Everything (13:34) The Ladder Vouch System That Launched Kickstarter (18:57) Why Showing Up as an Open Box Wins Every Room (26:31) The Day Two…
People in this episode
Host: Ilana Golan
Guest: Yancey Strickler
Topics covered
- crowdfunding
- entrepreneurship
- creative projects
- capitalism
- AI impact
- artist economy
Keywords
- Kickstarter
- crowdfunding
- Yancey Strickler
- Ilana Golan
- artist economy
- entrepreneurship
- AI
- creative projects
- capitalism
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Kickstarter, Metalabel
Places: New York
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