Charles Adler

A Kickstarter

Charles Adler, social entrepreneur and a creative innovation thought-leader, is a Co-founder and former Head of Design at Kickstarter, the groundbreaking crowdfunding website.

In 2009, alongside Perry Chen and Yancey Stricker, Charles Adler launched Kickstarter, an online platform for individuals to fund creative projects, including films, technology, fashion, music and art. Since then, 5.2 million people have pledged 866 million dollars, funding over 52,000 projects, and making it the world’s largest crowdfunding marketplace.

In 2013, just before he left the company, Charles was named as one of Forbes Magazine’s Top 12 Most Disruptive Figures in Business.

Before Kickstarter, Charles co-founded the online art publication Subsystence, a platform dedicated to leveraging the web to provide global exposure to the work of independent artists, and Source-ID, where he operated as Principal Creative Director for five years.

Charles Adlers experience of building a product, a company and a team, and his involvement in the early days of designing for the web, at the time unexplored territory, which he paved with ideas, innovation and courageous exploration, whilst he grew up through the internet evolution, combine to make Charles, with his passion for architecture and design, one of the world’s leading experts on the marrying of the internet with the real, physical world.

He is continually fascinated by enabling makers with tools to create, and expounds his wisdom and strategies in fascinating keynote speeches and workshops all over the world.