May 27, 2026 · 47m · bigdeal
Mutli-Millionaire CEO: The Simple Steps to Self-Made Success | Everette Taylor
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Kickstarter CEO Everette Taylor joins Codie Sanchez to discuss practical strategies for crowdfunding success, the advantages of bootstrapping over institutional venture capital, and the leadership discipline required to turn around distressed companies.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Codie holds 32.7% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Codie as informed peer 5.1 Guest teaching 4.1 Guest disagreement 1.1 Codie pushing back 0.7
speaking balance: gold is Codie, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 7:08 Taylor rejects defeatist fundraising mindset
Taylor forcefully calls 'bullshit' on the premise that people without wealthy connections cannot crowdfund or launch businesses.
Hardest push from Codie ▶ 35:35 Codie challenges speculative and illiquid collectiblesCodie pushes back against treating trading cards and non-productive assets as reliable investments, citing fundamental utility and liquidity risks.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 36:18 Taylor breaks down institutional fine art investingTaylor educates Codie on how fine art functions as a sophisticated, loan-backed asset class using metrics from his former leadership at Artsy.
Codie holds their own ▶ 24:00 Codie demonstrates venture fund portfolio economicsCodie cites her own fund's return metrics and operator-aligned investment philosophy to counter traditional venture capital misalignment.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Codie as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Codie pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mastering Self-Promotion and Cultivating Entrepreneurial Resilience | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Codie contributes an extensive anecdote about coaching a writer on her team who undersold himself in a partnership pitch. Taylor outlines the necessity of mental toughness and emotional regulation in early fundraising. | |
| Kickstarter Ecosystem, Niche Categories, and Demolishing Excuses | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | Taylor pushes back forcefully against prospective founders making excuses about not having rich networks, branding it as defeatist. Codie prompts him to dispel crowdfunding myths and asks about platform boundaries. | |
| Leveraging Pre-Orders and Navigating Operational Logistics | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Codie demonstrates strong operational acumen by framing pre-order unit economics and synthesizing a 'pre-order pyramid'. Taylor explains Kickstarter's newer operational tools like Pledge Manager and dynamic shipping. | |
| The Power of Video in Crowdfunding Campaigns | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Taylor highlights video as the decisive factor in crowdfunding conversion. Codie reinforces this with her 'show, don't tell' rule and references an AI startup campaign video. | |
| Sponsor Segment: Main Street Millionaire Live Event | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | After an ad break, Taylor contrasts short-term reward pitching on Kickstarter against long-term equity pitching for VCs. Codie validates his thesis by recounting Daymond John's early retail promotion strategies. | |
| Evaluating VC Pitfalls Versus Bootstrapping Profitable Ventures | 7 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Codie demonstrates deep domain expertise regarding venture capital incentives, detailing her own fund's low default rate and critiquing VCs who block life-changing exits. Taylor concurs and recounts an investor blocking a quarter-billion dollar buyout. | |
| Managing Financial Buffers and Dominating Comic Publishing | 5 | 5 | 1 | 0 | Codie asks about capital buffers and demand validation. Taylor educates her on Kickstarter being the dominant global comic book and graphic novel publishing platform. | |
| Speculative Assets Versus Strategic Fine Art Investing | 6 | 6 | 2 | 2 | Codie challenges trading cards and illiquid speculative assets using Buffett-style fundamentals. Taylor details his background running Artsy, educating her on how fine art functions as a strategic, loan-backed asset class. | |
| CEO Accountability, Pragmatic Decisions, and Remote Team Management | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | Taylor outlines his pragmatic CEO philosophy, emphasizing ruthless performance management and ambitious targets for remote teams. Codie validates his stance on emotional detachment in corporate leadership. |
Statements from this episode (22)
Taylor: Early-stage founders must serve as their own CMO
“Like, I tell people all the time, founders, you may not be a marketer, but you better be a marketer for yourself, right? You should be your own CMO, right? And so, for people that are starting off and they don't have those connections, they need that first a h…”
Taylor: Mental toughness and emotional regulation are top entrepreneurial traits
“Well, I tell people all the time, one of the number one traits that you need to be an entrepreneur are two things, or two number one traits, is mental toughness and emotional regulation, right? Like, you have to be, have real mental fortitude, right? You have …”
Taylor: Design, technology, and gaming are Kickstarter's biggest categories
“Design and technology and gaming are our biggest categories.”
Taylor: Kickstarter bans guns, weapons, and 3D-printed firearm projects
“We're not gonna allow it. We've had people trying to three D print guns on the platform. So yeah, anything that's weapons or harmful.”
Taylor: Most successful Kickstarter creators use the platform for pre-orders and marketing
“A lot of the most successful people on Kickstarter use it as a pre-order, right? They have the resources and the means to actually create the product. They want to use it. To scale marketing, we have an audience of millions of people that are using the app and…”
Taylor: Over 90% of Kickstarter project creators fulfill their rewards
“Now, ninety-something percent of people on Kickstarter fulfill, but there's still a small percentage of people that don't, and so you really have to drive that level of trust to make people feel comfortable, That you're actually going to deliver on time, and y…”
Taylor: Video is the top driver of Kickstarter campaign success
“Launching a video is like the number one thing I see for people that are successful on the platform. I lied to you not. Like, most of the time when I see a Kickstarter failed, they didn't even care to do a video.”
Taylor: Kickstarter to become mobile-first and video-first this year
“One of the things that we're doing at Kickstarter this year, give you a little bit of exclusive, is that we're gonna become a lot more mobile first and video first on our platform”
Taylor: Pitchers Fail Most Often by Not Hooking Audiences Within 45 Seconds
“I think pitching in general, the biggest mistake that I see is people that are just not concise, and they don't get to the point. I'm just like, you'll lose me. Like, if you don't catch my attention within the first 30, 45 seconds, like, It gets rough, and lik…”
Taylor: Pitching Kickstarter Backers Requires Proving Delivery, Not Long-Term Equity Upside
“Like, when you're pitching VCs, you're pitching for the long term. You're pitching for, like, the big picture. Like, you're really saying, like, hey, this company can be worth fifty billion dollars one day. On Kickstarter, you're trying to deliver immediate de…”
Taylor: Raising venture capital strips founders of company ownership and control
“When you go out and you raise billions of dollars, like, one, or some people raise billions of dollars, but millions of dollars, one, like, that company isn't yours anymore. Like, you have to deal with, like, you know this, having a board of directors, that's …”
Sanchez: VC fund has sub-10% default rate and several 100x exits
“I think we've had less than a 10% default rate and we've had a couple hundred Xs, but we've had a lot of four to five to seven Xs.”
Sanchez: Many VC investors lack skin in the game and operating experience
“A lot of these investors are salaried investors. They got no skin in the game, and they've never actually run anything.”
Taylor: Mega VCs like a16z need 100x to 200x returns, dismiss 4x
“For them, like, a Forex return, they're like, why are you wasting our time? Like, they need that 102 hundred X return.”
Taylor: Hardware crowdfunding requires 25-30% buffer versus 10-15% for lightweight products
“So, like, maybe you only need to, like, have a 10 to 15% buffer. But if you're talking about, like, heavy hardware that you're shipping from China and, like, all these things, you might want to have a bigger buffer of, like, 25, 30%.”
Taylor: Kickstarter likely sells more comic books annually than anyone worldwide
“We don't, we can't say this for sure, but we're like almost confident that we sell more comic books on Kickstarter year than anywhere else in the world.”
Taylor: A Cyberpunk tabletop card game raised $28 million on Kickstarter
“I mean, we just had a board game raise twenty eight million dollars. It was a trading card game, but Cyberpunk just raised twenty eight million dollars, so it always astounds me, like, you know, we think about, like, we have a lot of video games on the platfor…”
Codie Sanchez: Trading Cards Are a Terrible Investment for Everyday People
“I think this is a terrible investment strategy, and I think anybody who buys, you know, it's okay for the super rich people to buy like a seven million dollar card or whatever. They don't fucking care. It's like one millionth of their, you know, net worth. But…”
Taylor: Evaluating Fine Art Requires Tracking Pedigree, Representation, and Auction Data
“And so I'm tracking everything from, like, where they went to grad school, what galleries represent them, what museum acquisitions they have, what other collectors are buying them, like, what are they trading, how are they trading privately, how are they tradi…”
Taylor: CEO's Job Is Driving Shareholder Value Without Personal Emotion
“My job as a CEO, and people may not like this answer, but my job as a CEO is to make sure that this company goes on for the next 1015, 20, a hundred years, and to drive shareholder value. Take the emotions out of it. Right? That's gonna hurt some feelings, but…”
Taylor: Remote Workers Slack Off Unless Given Aggressive Goals
“You got to be even more aggressive about your goals. You have to be more on top of people's performance, like performance management, setting aggressive goals, making sure that people are actually locked in, like is really, really important because I've learne…”