Project Mushroom Kickstarter update! 🍄

Eric Holthaus

Nov 19, 2022 • 3 min read

Hi everyone! Things are moving fast at Project Mushroom! 🍄

Over the past 36 hours, we've:

• raised $17,497 and counting from 425+ backers our Kickstarter
• onboarded 214 people into our Creator Council — with a collective reach of more than 3.2 million direct followers on Twitter
• finished building our automated onboarding tools and have moved into testing phase for our Twitter migration software

Our progress so far has been incredible, and we still have a long way to go. More than 50% of our Creator Council is BIPOC and more than 70% are women — our intention is to continue to prioritize safety, active moderation, and intentionality in how we move forward with marginalized voices leading the way. We're still working on hiring full-time moderators and can't launch widely until that step is completed.

And just as a reminder, what we have planned is much much more than "just" a new social media platform — we're aiming to be a full-service home for creators working on justice around the world, with support for newsletters, podcasts, live events, and boosting calls for mutual aid and critical information that can urgently transform the world. We're doing this because this moment in history demands it.

We're still more than $180,000 short of our goal with 26 days left to reach it. That money has already been allocated to UX designers, DEI consultants, moderators, engineers, server costs, artists, and other folks whose services are absolutely critical to make this project happen.

The bottom half of this update is a full list of our Kickstarter tiers — we're thrilled to offer each of them to you.

Your support today of our Kickstarter at any level will help continue this early momentum to create the first social media network in the world that's community-driven, focused on justice, and explicitly anti-racist. 🍄🍄🍄

Contribute to our Kickstarter!

Project Mushroom's Kickstarter tiers are built with community in mind — all tiers are cumulative!

Pledge $8 or more

Spore Tier

• No blue check, but guaranteed early access to the Project Mushroom platform!

Folks who pledge $8 or more to the Kickstarter will be bumped into a separate tier of the Project Mushroom waitlist and will be onboarded as our first batch of members once our onboarding tools are tested and ready. This should happen in the next few days — our target is December 1, but our team is working more quickly than we expected, so it could be ready sooner.

Pledge $50 or more

Fairy Ring Tier

• An invitation to vote on artist designs for our very first merch

Many of our Creator Council members are artists. Together we'll commission BIPOC and women artists from around the world to create beautiful things that reflect our mission of a justice-centered organization.

Pledge $100 or more

Fungi Tier

• 12 months free access to live events & Q&As with your favorite creators, scientists, and justice leaders on the platform

Once we have our platform up and running, we'll start building out a full slate of live events for members to directly interact with creators on Project Mushroom, with 100% of proceeds going to creators. We'll cover membership fee costs for a year for everyone who pledges $100 or more.

Pledge $250 or more

Toadstool Tier

• Get your name listed on the Project Mushroom website as a founding supporter!

If you're creating a project that's aligned with Project Mushroom's goals, this is a great way to permanently share your name or your organization — we'll also include a hyperlink.

Pledge $500 or more

Mycelium Tier

• 1-1 meeting with the Project Mushroom team
• A golden mushroom trophy (trust us, it will be worth it!)

We'd love to meet supporters one-on-one and plot ways we can collaborate. As a token of our thanks, we'll also commission a tiny mushroom statue in your honor. 🍄

Pledge $1,000 or more

Chanterelle Tier

• An invitation to a private virtual dinner with guest speakers and a handcrafted menu — focusing on climate justice and abolition
• Includes a care package of foods, drink and art lovingly curated by Project Mushroom creators

We're planning a celebration dinner early in 2023 to join together and lift up the voices of Project Mushroom and the potential we have to create transformative change together. If you'd like to help plan this event — send me an email! eric@currentlyhq.com