Zack “Danger” Brown really wanted some potato salad. When faced with this dilemma, Brown took his desires to the one place that is known to make dreams come true: Kickstarter. There he would try to raise the ten dollars needed in order to make the potato salad.
The fundraiser started on July 3rd and immediately took the Internet by storm. Brown blew past his first benchmark, leading to the creation of numerous stretch goals to make his potato salad better. From Kickstarter:
UPDATE: WE DID IT
Stretch Goals:
$35 – I will make 4x as much Potato Salad. I know $40 isn’t 4x $10, but you guys have earned it.
$75 – Pizza Party!
$100 – I will try two different Potato Salad recipes.
Modest goals. The kind of goals that garner the attention of the media, namely the folks over at CNET. They grabbed hold of the story when Brown had only reached $100. From CNET:
Brown explains the inspiration for the project, telling Crave, “I realized that I really liked potato salad, but had never made it. Then I wanted to make potato salad.” The project is therefore an experiment, an odyssey into the heart of potato salad, the moving story of a boy and his bowl.
More money would come flowing in and with it more goals. It seems people just couldn’t get enough of this guy and his dream of the perfect potato salad. Hats were pitched, better mayonnaise was pledged. $300 would garner the influence of a real chef and $350 would push Brown into using a third recipe for even more potato salad.
As it would turn out, these goals would be met handily and small dreams would soon turn into an Internet sensation. Instead of thinking in hundreds of dollars, Brown had to start planning for thousands. More and more backers would show up, forcing Brown into a guessing game:
NEW STRETCH GOALS:
$1000: I’ll do a live stream of the potato salad making
$1200: I’ll pay someone to film a thank-you video for all of my backers!
A BIG STRETCH GOAL:
We’re really tearing through these stretch goals. I honestly don’t know what is realistic anymore. So, I thought maybe we try to double the current number?
$3000: My kitchen is too small! I will rent out a party hall and invite the whole internet to the potato salad party (only $10 and above will be allowed in the kitchen)! The internet loves potato salad! Let’s show them that potato salad loves the internet!! (via)
That brings us to today and the total you see at the top of this article. Well over the “party hall” goal that was last posted with his third stretch update. 688 backers as I’m typing this and nearly $4,000, all for some great potato salad. Safe to say that Brown was a bit overwhelmed:
Guys, I am in disbelief. We have hit the $3000 level, so I’m getting us a party hall and inviting the WHOLE INTERNET to party with us. We’re going to need a lot of potato salad!(via)
As of now, there are more stretch goals on the way and Brown was in the middle of a Reddit AMA while posting that final update. I want to say that this proves that people will stand up to back you when you truly believe in what you want, but that would be foolish. Instead I will just say that the Internet does what it wants and if the idea is silly enough, you might just get rewarded.
The one thing I know for sure is that I really want some potato salad now. I just wish I knew where to get some.
(Via Kickstarter)