Kickstarter campaign lessons from small-business owner Emily Byrne

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Emily Byrne, the founder of Rise Centered, a company that makes sunrise alarm clocks from natural materials. It has been edited for length and clarity. I launched a sunrise alarm clock made from natural materials on Kickstarter in 2023, raising nearly $200,000 from roughly 1,500 backers in one month. The Kickstarter was useful beyond raising funds to manufacture our first batch of alarm clocks. It helped me learn the value of…