I've spent a considerable amount of time over the last few months thinking about what tactica. should become, but considerably less time thinking about what it might mean to somebody who wants to support it before that future exists.
Most of my attention has naturally gone into the product. The original tactica. developed into a Closed Beta, people started using it, and the experience exposed problems that have shaped almost every important decision about tactica. 2.0. We're now rebuilding the system using those lessons, with a much clearer understanding of what the football intelligence needs to know, how recommendations should be made and how the product should account for its decisions.
That work is continuing, but building a product and building an audience for it are different challenges. tactica. needs both.
The Founding 100 came from thinking about how we might bring those two things together, and whether there was a way for people who genuinely want to see tactica. succeed to support its development while receiving something that would remain meaningful beyond the campaign itself.
That idea has now become a Kickstarter campaign.
Why crowdfunding?
tactica. has largely been built around my full-time job, using my own time and resources. That arrangement has allowed me to develop the product without needing to raise money simply to keep it alive.
It also has obvious limitations. Development takes time, running a reliable football-data product has costs, and reaching people who might find tactica. useful requires attention and resources of its own.
I've written previously about exploring external investment and what the right investor might contribute to tactica. That work continues, but crowdfunding serves a different purpose.
Rather than offering ownership of the company, Kickstarter gives people an opportunity to support a defined project in return for specific rewards. It also gives us another opportunity to test whether the idea resonates with people outside the small audience that already follows tactica.'s development.
We're targeting £20,000 through the campaign. That is a funding goal, not money we've already received, and reaching it would not mean that tactica. has suddenly become a sustainable business.
It would provide additional resources for the next stage while creating obligations to the people who backed us. Those obligations matter, particularly when the rewards include future access to a product that is still being built.
I don't want to treat crowdfunding as free money or mistake a successful campaign for proof that we've solved acquisition, retention or monetisation. Those questions will still need answering.
Why the Founding 100?
The central idea is a group of 100 people who choose to support tactica. at this early stage.
We could have created a conventional supporter package with a digital badge and access to the product. There is value in that, and digital rewards form part of the wider campaign. But I wanted the Founding 100 itself to have something physical attached to it.
That is where the football shirt came from.
I've always liked the idea of tactica. having its own football kit. Football is the reason the project exists, and designing a shirt gave us an opportunity to take something that has so far lived almost entirely on screens and turn it into an object somebody could actually own.
The design uses tactica.'s black, white and green identity, with Football Intelligence across the front and the line Football Intelligence Lives Here on the back.
We developed the concept over several iterations, paying attention to the kind of details that make the difference between a graphic placed on a shirt and something that feels like a considered football garment.
For the Founding Edition, each production shirt will have its own number, from 001/100 through to 100/100. Those numbers are reserved for the Founding 100 supporters and won't be used for prototypes, promotional garments or founder samples.
That distinction is important to me. If we're promising an edition of 100, it should genuinely be an edition of 100.
What does a Founding 100 supporter receive?
The Founding 100 reward is planned at £300.
It includes six months of access to tactica. 2.0, permanent numbered Founding 100 status and one individually numbered Founding Edition tactica. Pro football shirt, with short-sleeve or long-sleeve and size choices.
There are other reward options within the wider Kickstarter campaign, including digital support, for people who want to participate without choosing the physical Founding Edition package.
The physical shirt is a particularly important part of the Founding 100 idea, but it also creates responsibilities that a digital reward doesn't.
The garment needs to be manufactured to an acceptable standard. Sizing and sleeve choices need to be managed. Individual edition numbers need to be applied correctly, and the finished shirts need to reach their supporters.
We're working through those details rather than assuming that a convincing design image means the manufacturing process is complete.
The numbering itself requires a separate embroidery process, because the primary shirt supplier doesn't provide the individual edition numbering we need. We're also using a dedicated pre-production sample to assess the garment and its finishing before committing to the production run.
The images show what we're working towards. They shouldn't be mistaken for evidence that all 100 finished shirts already exist.
What are supporters actually backing?
This is the part I want to be particularly clear about.
tactica. 2.0 is still being built.
The Closed Beta gave us valuable evidence about the original product, but we're not presenting 2.0 as finished software waiting for a marketing campaign. We're rebuilding the underlying systems because we believe the next version needs stronger foundations.
That includes the way football data is collected and validated, how Match Intelligence reasons over that evidence, how Betting Intelligence turns football opinions into potential recommendations, and how Performance Intelligence eventually holds the system accountable for what it said and what happened.
There is a substantial amount of work involved, and not all of it will be visible to users immediately.
Backing the Kickstarter therefore involves supporting a project with development and delivery work still ahead of it. We'll need to be clear about milestones, communicate changes and distinguish completed work from what remains planned.
The Founding 100 isn't an investment in TACTICA FOOTBALL LTD. Backers won't receive company shares or an entitlement to future profits. It is a reward-based crowdfunding programme with the benefits described in the campaign.
I think that distinction is essential, particularly because we're separately exploring what equity investment might eventually mean for the company.
Why make the places permanent?
One of the decisions I feel strongly about is that Founding 100 status should remain associated with those original supporters.
The shirt is a physical reminder, but the numbered status has a different purpose. It records that somebody supported tactica. at a particular point in its development.
If tactica. grows, those original places shouldn't simply become another membership tier we can sell indefinitely.
There are only 100 Founding Edition numbers. Once they're allocated, that edition is complete.
That doesn't mean the people holding them should receive influence over football recommendations or special treatment that compromises the product. The intelligence has to operate according to the same evidence and decision standards regardless of who uses it.
The recognition is about supporting the company's beginning, not changing how tactica. works.
What happens next?
The Kickstarter Coming Soon page is live, and we're building interest before choosing the campaign launch date.
That gives us time to continue developing tactica. 2.0, work through the remaining shirt-production questions and make sure the campaign accurately represents what we're committing to deliver.
It also gives people time to decide whether the project is something they want to support.
I don't know whether we'll reach the £20,000 goal. Crowdfunding comes with the possibility that the audience simply isn't large enough yet, or that people like the idea but aren't willing to back it financially.
If that happens, it will tell us something useful.
If the campaign succeeds, it will create a different set of responsibilities. We'll have to deliver what we've promised while continuing to build the product that made people interested in tactica. in the first place.
Either way, I want the campaign to be judged by what actually happens rather than by how attractive the concept looks.
The Founding 100 began with the idea of making a football shirt for the earliest people willing to support something I was still building. It's become a way of thinking more carefully about what early support should mean, what we can reasonably promise in return and how we make that commitment tangible.
For now, the shirt remains a design we're working towards, tactica. 2.0 remains under development, and the Founding 100 places haven't been allocated.
The next step is finding out whether 100 people want to become part of that beginning.
Explore the tactica. Founding 100 Kickstarter
Feature image: Founding Edition concept artwork, not a photograph of a manufactured garment. The intended production numbering is 001/100 through 100/100.