A look back at the original Peloton Kickstarter campaign

During 2020, Peloton saw its stock rise from $17 to more than $110 during a worldwide pandemic, but its future wasn’t always so bright.

In hindsight, Peloton’s product makes perfect sense for our connected world, but when the first Kickstarter launched in 2012, very few people could have predicted the success the company would have just eight years later.

Over at Business Insider, they take a look at that original campaign:

Many successful Kickstarter campaigns offer multiple investment options, ranging from high-priced to lower-budget pledges. Peloton followed a similar model: a $10,000 pledge would get an investor the bike, accessories, a trip to New York City to meet the team and teach or take a class in the studio. Meanwhile, for $10, an investor could reserve a username that would appear on-screen to Peloton riders.

Peloton’s campaign clearly outlined that it would use the $250,000 to build the machine manufacturing process needed to make the bikes. It would also allocate some funding for pre-purchasing steel, aluminum, plastic, and microchips for future bikes.

As you look through the original Kickstarter page, you see how close Peloton’s vision was to what they’d eventually ship hardware-wise, but as you can see, the software has evolved quite a bit since the original release. During the Kickstarter, 297 backers pledged $307,332 to bring the original Peloton to life.

It’s really interesting to look at the rewards to see what Peloton was offering for backers at the time. Most people backed the “early bird” special to receive a Bike for $1,500 plus shipping.