From Gentleman Scientist to Crowdfunding Pioneer

Funding Passion Projects in Modern Times

Last week, I shared my journey as a 21st-century gentleman scientist, proving that living such a life is entirely possible. It’s not easy, but on the other hand, what kind of life is? While I mentioned that this lifestyle doesn’t require much money, it does require some funding. Of course there’s more ways to get that money. Winning the lottery or inheriting a fortune from a long lost uncle doesn't happen to everyone (or at least, not to me), and selling organs doesn’t sound like a good idea. So there must be other ways…

The most obvious route is finding a job—a job that pays well enough to fund your research. The downside is that you can’t spend all of your time on your own projects. I’ve done this for years, but the experimenter in me is eager to explore alternative ways to fund research. 

Intrigued by the subject, I dove in. I started to think. The 19th century gentleman scientists were rich men mostly, so that doesn’t help me. I started looking for an equivalent in current times. ‘Normal’ scientists. Working at universities. You might think they get paid by the university (they do), but they are required to find funding for their research projects. Usually they are applying for grants given out by governments and companies. 

So, they look for others to fund their research.

Interesting! 

What if there was a way I can have others pay for my research projects?

I found out there is: crowdfunding. 

There are websites where you can post your project, and people can pledge their support by paying a small amount of money (mostly in exchange for something that comes out of the project, a book for instance). 

You might have heard success stories: the Pebble watch raised $20 million, the Cosmere game brought in $15 million, and Brandon Sanderson’s ‘Four Secret Novels’ project shattered records with $42 million! Wow! This sounds like a great idea, right? If these projects can reach such heights, why not aim to fund my own research dreams this way?

This fascinated me so much that a new project idea immediately started to form itself in my head. So now I’m researching what I need to do to make that happen (which is my first research project 😄). I’ll keep you posted on this in future articles.

Curious about what my project will be? Stay tuned—I’ll share the details in an upcoming article!