“a sustainable marketplace where people exchange goods for services or some other benefit and receive some value.”

Kickstarter, a start-up based in Brooklyn that uses the Web to match aspiring da Vincis and Spielbergs with mini-Medicis who are willing to chip in a few dollars toward their projects. Unlike similar sites that simply solicit donations, patrons on Kickstarter get an insider’s access to the projects they finance, and in most cases, some tangible memento of their contribution. The artists and inventors, meanwhile, are able to gauge in real time the commercial appeal of their ideas before they invest a lot of effort — and cash.

This uses a model similar to the art/T-shirt start-up from Chicago. They call this “micropatronage.”

”

In the world of small-project finance, Kickstarter is pioneering its own niche. It is not a charity site like DonorsChoose.org, which solicits tax-deductible donations for classroom projects. Nor is it a peer-to-peer microlender like Prosper or Lending Club, in which people can post their borrowing needs and individuals finance pieces of it. And it is not an investment firm.

“I see Kickstarter as micropatronage,” said Lewis Winter, a 27-year-old graphic designer from Melbourne, Australia, who has pledged money to five projects. “If I was rich, I’d fund whole projects, but this allows me to fund as much or as little as I can afford.”