In the last few years, I’ve featured a handful of Kickstarter campaigns that I love and eagerly supported. Every so often, a great idea comes along that leaves me wondering, “how’d they even think of that”; or in more extreme cases, “did they actually spend the last two years developing that test product?” (I’m looking at you Golden Goose)

But right now, the most obvious Kickstarter worth noting is rallying support of people from around the country, this one being much closer to my home and my heart. I met Joe and Lisa DeLoss, founders of Hot Chicken Takeover, earlier this summer as they introduced their hot chicken restaurant concept to the city of Columbus. Taking over a serving window in Olde Town East, the DeLoss family quickly won the hearts of Central Ohio foodies with their delicious meals and grassroots efforts. If you meet anyone who has been to Hot Chicken, you’ll likely hear about their love of the DeLoss family; when you walk up to the line on any given Saturday or Sunday, you are guaranteed to be greeted with a smile and a conversation. Been before? Even as hundreds pass through each day, Joe somehow manages to remember if you’ve been around. And while some of the early adopters often joke about how they liked Hot Chicken back when there wasn’t a line and you never had to worry about finding a place to sit (guilty), it is so encouraging to see so many people recognizing the quality experience right there in OTE.

Food is more than food when you feel like family. Hot Chicken Takeover is the type of place that you go because you are known. Everyone wants to be a regular somewhere, and Hot Chicken Takeover is exactly where I want to be.

So fast forward to the end of summer and you’ve got this Kickstarter campaign. I connected with Bryant Miller, the Columbus Yelp Community Manager and dear friend of mine. Our backstory is simple. We love on Columbus, we love great food, and we’re both confident that when you create spaces for people to connect and interact at the table, something special happens. So when Bryant asked me if I wanted to team up with him on a crowd-sourcing campaign to raise $1,600, my verbatim answer was “uhh duhhh!”. We sat up an Eventbrite, worked on some copy to explain what we were doing, and in a matter of an hour we had a live crowdsourcing campaign.

I love collaborating with people that “do”; the people that rally the troops and fearlessly lead. In just one week, our combined networks supported through $16 event RSVPs to a private hot chicken event for 100 friends to raise $1,600. So, just moments ago, Bryant and I submitted our $1,600 donation to the Kickstarter campaign, and we can’t wait to get with Joe and Lisa to talk more about the private event.

Thanks to all of you that supported the event and for affirming me that Columbus is a community that takes care of its business owners. If you haven’t, be sure to support Hot Chicken on Kickstarter as they need just around $8,000 left to go to complete. There is a rad HOMAGE tee and a chicken pass for free meals available.  You can support them here.