Assertion Partly supported AI assessment confidence: 92% certainty 4/5 debate potential 1/5

Cohen: FinalStraw sold 60,000 units on Kickstarter, raising $1.89 million

Emma Cohen · Bobbi Brown Cosmetics: Bobbi Brown · Sep 17, 2018 · at 47:56

Emma Cohen was not on this episode. A recording of them was played into it, so these are their words but not an appearance on How I Built This. It still counts as said, and it is kept out of every score on their page.

Emma Cohen, co-founder of FinalStraw, describes the results of their initial crowdfunding campaign for a collapsible reusable metal straw.

0:00 / 0:12exact quote · 12.1s

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“And the big goal was 5000 straws, which would have been about 70,000 dollars. But we sold about 60,000 straws and closed a month later with 1.89 million dollars in the bank.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

The claim, plainly

FinalStraw set an initial Kickstarter goal of 5,000 straws ($70,000) but sold approximately 60,000 straws and closed its campaign a month later with $1.89 million.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

The claim bundles two core assertions. The second assertion is accurate: FinalStraw's Kickstarter campaign ran for 30 days (April 19, 2018 to May 19, 2018) and concluded raising $1,894,878 (matching the $1.89 million figure) from 38,443 backers, accounting for an estimated 60,000 to 75,000 straws. However, the first assertion regarding the initial Kickstarter funding goal is incorrect: official Kickstarter records and contemporary reporting confirm that the public funding goal was $12,500, not 5,000 straws or $70,000.

Public Kickstarter records for FinalStraw confirm the campaign closed after 30 days having raised $1,894,878 from 38,443 backers.
Official Kickstarter records and contemporary media coverage (including Beverage Daily and EcoWatch in April-May 2018) document an initial funding goal of $12,500, not $70,000 or 5,000 straws.

Checked against

[1] kickstarter.com [2] backerkit.com [3] beveragedaily.com [4] ecowatch.com [5] livekindly.com [6] worldsteel.org [7] sharktankblog.com

"FinalStraw" "12,500 goal" OR "$12,500" "FinalStraw" "Kickstarter" 1894878 OR 1890000 OR 70000 "FinalStraw" kickstarter "backers" "pledged"

assessed as of 2026-09-03

This assessment is an AI reading of a public statement, made against the cited references with the confidence shown. It can be wrong. The quote, the tape and the references are all on this page; if something is off, use report an error below. full disclaimer →

Mentioned

FinalStraw Kickstarter

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Assertion Supported

Final Straw raised $1.89M selling collapsible straws on Kickstarter in one month

“And the big goal was 5000 straws, which would have been about 70,000 dollars. But we sold about 60,000 straws and closed a month later with 1.89 million dollars in the bank.”

Emma Cohen Aug 12, 2019 ▶ 51:57 Serial Entrepreneur: Marcia Kilgore (2018)

Cohen: FinalStraw sold 60,000 units on Kickstarter, raising $1.89 million

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