Font AwesomeThis is a hard one to write.
Earlier this week, we launched a campaign for Build Awesome. We hit our funding goal in a day, and it felt amazing! But then things got quiet. Not a disaster. Just… quieter than we’d hoped. And quieter than our past Kickstarter experiences had trained us to expect.
After digging in, we figured out why. Most of our announcements never landed. We won’t get into details, but let’s just say Gmail had other ideas. Our launch emails reached maybe 5-10% of the people they were supposed to.
Kickstarter campaigns live and die by momentum in the first 48 hours, and ours ran out of steam before most of our audience even knew it existed. Yes. We hit our initial goal, but if we can’t email folks for the rest of the month, we’re dead in the water. So we’ve made the tough decision to pause the campaign.
What this means for backers
If you already pledged, thank you. Genuinely. You won’t be charged. Kickstarter doesn’t collect anything on a canceled campaign. We’ve reached out privately to each of you with some specifics. (Check your Kickstarter messages!)
What we’re building
One thing we want to be clearer about in the relaunch: Build Awesome (née Eleventy) will always be free and open source. Always. Part of what this Kickstarter funds is the long-term health and sustainability of that open source project.
Build Awesome Pro is a website builder built on top of that open source foundation. That’s what you’re supporting when you back the Kickstarter. Two things, not one. The engine stays free and can grow. Pro adds tools for folks who need more, and also gives folks a way to support open source.
What happens next
We’re not going anywhere. Build Awesome and Build Awesome Pro are still coming. Zach and the team are still building. The mission hasn’t changed.
We’re going to spend a little bit of time cleaning up our email infrastructure, making sure things are healthy, and will relaunch when our systems are humming. If you want to help in the meantime: tell someone. Share the project. Here’s our new prelaunch page.
Build Awesome is a genuinely great product, and word of mouth is the one channel Gmail can’t touch.
We’ll see you at the relaunch.
P.S. If you suspect you might’ve missed some emails from us, mind doing a quick favor? In your email client, search for from:hello@m.fontawesome.com in:spam and click the little “Report Not Spam” button. You’re awesome.
