A friend of mine started a Kickstarter project, raised $94,000 in a week

Z

zxvff

New member
Jan 9, 2011
131
3
0
Las Vegas, NV
A friend I went to college with started a Kickstarter to fund a project of his - I was completely skeptical of the fact that he wanted strangers on the Internet to give him $100,000. Turns out it wasn't such a bad idea - he's only $6,000 away from his goal, in less than a week.

This thread is 50% a plug for him, as I think he deserves some recognition for putting in the hours and effort to build something like this from the ground up. The other 50% is the shock at seeing someone raise money like that, it's insane. I've seen Kickstarters that make a lot of money before, but it's different seeing it happen to someone you know. For me, it's very inspirational. Hopefully this takes off, and he never has to work another day for someone else in his life.

Here's a link to my friend's Kickstarter project if anyone is interested in checking it out: bladeRF - USB 3.0 Software Defined Radio by Nuand — Kickstarter

From a marketing perspective it's pretty cool too. I think that getting on the front page of Slashdot was good for around 50k in contributions, and being tweeted by Tim O'Reilly (which I believe was picked up from Slashdot) saw another 20k or so come in.

Do any of you have experience working with Kickstarter or crowd sourcing types of applications? If so, did anything good come of it?

I also have some mixed opinions on this type of approach in general. I'm wondering if it's just a fad, or if this is something that is going to stick around for a while. One of the biggest concerns I feel people have with Kickstarter for instance is accountability. I'd be interested in seeing what percentage of companies actually follow through with their goals or intentions, what percentage fails, and how many people (if any) just take the money and run with it.
 


There are some people who think of Kickstarter as a shop, and upon failures of deliveries as said, many project owners get dragged to courts and face wide-spread criticism. It's better to find 1 or two investors who are willing to pool this much money rather than being accountable to the whole world. Concept to Commercial is a long race and is more than a good idea.
 
Fuck you OP. I'm tempted to buy it even though it's going to end up like my arduino, in a box somewhere.

As for kickstarter being a fad, I don't think it is one. I've funded like 2 things, already received one and awaiting delivery on the other one. Most people who pledge know of the risks involved.
 
zxvff said:
A friend I went to college with started a Kickstarter to fund a project of his - I was completely skeptical of the fact that he wanted strangers on the Internet to give him $100,000. Turns out it wasn't such a bad idea - he's only $6,000 away from his goal, in less than a week.

This thread is 50% a plug for him, as I think he deserves some recognition for putting in the hours and effort to build something like this from the ground up. The other 50% is the shock at seeing someone raise money like that, it's insane. I've seen Kickstarters that make a lot of money before, but it's different seeing it happen to someone you know. For me, it's very inspirational. Hopefully this takes off, and he never has to work another day for someone else in his life.

Here's a link to my friend's Kickstarter project if anyone is interested in checking it out: bladeRF - USB 3.0 Software Defined Radio by Nuand — Kickstarter

From a marketing perspective it's pretty cool too. I think that getting on the front page of Slashdot was good for around 50k in contributions, and being tweeted by Tim O'Reilly (which I believe was picked up from Slashdot) saw another 20k or so come in.

Do any of you have experience working with Kickstarter or crowd sourcing types of applications? If so, did anything good come of it?

I also have some mixed opinions on this type of approach in general. I'm wondering if it's just a fad, or if this is something that is going to stick around for a while. One of the biggest concerns I feel people have with Kickstarter for instance is accountability. I'd be interested in seeing what percentage of companies actually follow through with their goals or intentions, what percentage fails, and how many people (if any) just take the money and run with it.
Click to expand...
That is awesome!

I am a partial owner of this indiegogo project Yellow Jacket iPhone stun gun case | Indiegogo

My thread about it was here - http://www.wickedfire.com/shooting-shit/159753-iphone-case-stun-gun-need-mo-money.html

We had initially told people we should have the units for shipment in September which was the worst projection ever. They actually just all shipped out yesterday and will be arriving to our customers the end of this week and next week.

The 5-6 month delay led to less than 5% refunds and a few heated conversations with upset customers but once you explain to people your issues they are cool.

We have sent about 5 emails since the campaign ended explaining everything and updating people on the delays which we received mostly positive feedback from.

Since our campaign we closed on a large round of funding and have PO's lined up from some major distributors. The fun is about to begin


Zsaleem said:
There are some people who think of Kickstarter as a shop, and upon failures of deliveries as said, many project owners get dragged to courts and face wide-spread criticism.
Click to expand...
Very true. Most of our upset customers didn't understand what indiegogo even was.
Zsaleem said:
It's better to find 1 or two investors who are willing to pool this much money rather than being accountable to the whole world. Concept to Commercial is a long race and is more than a good idea.
Click to expand...
Obviously this is the "better" option but in many cases it's not an option.

We raised A LOT of money recently but that would not have been possible if we didn't run our indiegogo campaign first and prove viability.

Crowdfunding is essential for certain types of businesses especially ours because investors are generally risk averse and our product has a long list of risks that we couldn't reasonably combat without 100k in pre-sales under our belt.
 
I don't know. In my mind, having one investor would be hell enough, let alone having 500 of them.
 
Zsaleem said:
There are some people who think of Kickstarter as a shop, and upon failures of deliveries as said, many project owners get dragged to courts and face wide-spread criticism. It's better to find 1 or two investors who are willing to pool this much money rather than being accountable to the whole world. Concept to Commercial is a long race and is more than a good idea.
Click to expand...

I don't agree with this at all. If you have 1 or 2 investors, that means they will likely also be shareholders and have some control over your business.

The kickstarter idea is more desirable if you can sell your idea successfully because:

1. People who pledge on kickstarters aren't investors and do not control your business.

2. The risk of litigation is low if your idea fails to materialize because the amount of money pledged by each individual is not high enough. So you're not accountable to the whole world. Obviously it would be ideal if you could actually deliver on the idea though since that's a win-win.

Personally I love the fact that tons of great indie games are now being developed thanks to kickstarter.
 
I'm so confused, wtf does that thing do, or more importantly, why would anyone want one?
 
bluechinagroup said:
I don't agree with this at all. If you have 1 or 2 investors, that means they will likely also be shareholders and have some control over your business.

The kickstarter idea is more desirable if you can sell your idea successfully because:

1. People who pledge on kickstarters aren't investors and do not control your business.

2. The risk of litigation is low if your idea fails to materialize because the amount of money pledged by each individual is not high enough. So you're not accountable to the whole world. Obviously it would be ideal if you could actually deliver on the idea though since that's a win-win.

Personally I love the fact that tons of great indie games are now being developed thanks to kickstarter.
Click to expand...

This. Kickstarter is a tool optimal for business owners and non-optimal for buyers. So as a business owner it's def better than raising money from investors.

I honestly don't understand why would anyone as a customer want to "invest" (lol) in a non developed/prototype product on kickstarter.
 
SkyFire said:
It's not an investment, backers aren't investors.
Click to expand...

You're still somewhat answerable to them though. Alot of these kickstarter projects are in concept phase, and I'm not sure if I'd want a few dozen people constantly knocking at my door during the development phase, asking when things are going to be done. Could force you to cut corners, not do proper research / testing, etc.
 
Kiopa_Matt said:
You're still somewhat answerable to them though. Alot of these kickstarter projects are in concept phase, and I'm not sure if I'd want a few dozen people constantly knocking at my door during the development phase, asking when things are going to be done. Could force you to cut corners, not do proper research / testing, etc.
Click to expand...

Fair enough, that's probably true for most. I can't imagine letting a bunch of punters influence my dev/creative process.

Probably why going indie has me dead broke, lol. Once I have enough pull to actually attract people to buy my shit, I'll probably leverage that into a small, $50k-ish kickstarter.

r3p1v said:
I'm so confused, wtf does that thing do, or more importantly, why would anyone want one?
Click to expand...
One device, many frequencies.
 
They need kickstarter for lawsuits where you can invest in someone's court case for a share of the winnings. Empower individuals who have been wronged while turning a good ROI.
 
shindig said:
They need kickstarter for lawsuits where you can invest in someone's court case for a share of the winnings. Empower individuals who have been wronged while turning a good ROI.
Click to expand...

Ya, that's what we need, more lawsuits and more government bullying.
 
Kickstarter is great.

You can get a ton of money without having to give up any equity. Plus all of those backers will tell their friends that they backed the product, because despite not getting any equity they feel like they have a vested interest in the product.

Even if cashflow wasn't an issue I'd still considering doing a Kickstarter in the future for a cool project. What's not to like about market validation, free money, and free marketing all in one?
 
Kiopa_Matt said:
You're still somewhat answerable to them though. Alot of these kickstarter projects are in concept phase, and I'm not sure if I'd want a few dozen people constantly knocking at my door during the development phase, asking when things are going to be done. Could force you to cut corners, not do proper research / testing, etc.
Click to expand...
This depends on your communication channels and your communication up front.

We had quite a few people pushing us to get product out sooner but we waited until everything was right before shipping them out. Def pissed some people off but overall was well worth it.

There are definitely ideas I would not recommend for crowdfunding but I think it's a great resource.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom