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My recent post about the Cole-Bar hammer multi-tool, which has failed to launch after a successful Kickstarter campaign, sparked a very polarized discussion about Kickstarter and other crowdfunding platforms.
In case you’re not familiar with Kickstarter and other sites like it, there are a few things that you need to know. Kickstarter is a place where project and campaign creators can seek funding to help make their products or ventures a reality. Everyone can be an investor, and there are various “rewards” that you are promised at different pledge levels.
At Kickstarter and other crowdfunding sites, you’re not a customer, you’re technically an investor. The official term is backer. As such, and as recent happenings have shown, you are not guaranteed to receive the promised product, even if the campaign is fully funded.
See More: Check out some of out Kickstarter tool and project posts
Kickstarter serves as middleman, and collects a percentage of a project’s funding for themselves, and only if the campaign successfully meets their funding goals.
There have been very many successful Kickstarter-funded products, such as the Fix It Sticks that Benjamen posted about. Fix It Sticks, which are T-handle screwdriver bit handles that combine for use and separate for easier storage, were born from a Kickstarter campaign.
There have been many other small success stories, many big success stories, small failures, and massive failures. And this is just talking about projects that have surpassed their funding goals.
With Kickstarter, but not necessarily true at other crowdfunding sites, investors/backers aren’t charged the pledge amount until the funding threshold is reached.
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Here’s another Kickstarter project I recently posed about – a titanium screwdriver bit and key ring that, with still 33 hours to go, has received over $84,000 in pledges. Their funding goal was $2,500.
Yea, I don’t quite get it either, how people go gaga over titanium. Then again, say tungsten carbide and I’ll sit straight up and bat an eyebrow or two. Carbon fiber is known to make people go gaga too.
Anyway, so that’s Kickstarter. A lot of people have had good experiences backing projects there, some people have had bad experiences, and many people haven’t pledged a single dollar.
Kickstarter has implemented guidelines, such as how hardware campaigns must have working prototypes, but there’s still a lot of risk. With the Cole-Bar project, there’s a chance that backers won’t receive a refund, or if they do get money back it might be a partial refund. And since so much time has passed, most card companies won’t allow a dispute or chargeback.
Not all crowdfunding campaigns are for tools, electronic devices, or other physical products. The Smithsonian Institution recently launched a Reboot the Suit: Bring Back Neil Armstrong’s Spacesuit campaign, where they are asking backers to help fund a new spacesuit preservation and display program.
I have yet to back a project on Kickstarter, but mainly because I don’t like waiting for tools. That new thingamabob that is due to be released 6-10 months from now? I’m okay paying the retail price once it’s out. Also, a lot of first-time and experienced manufacturers do better with a product’s second revision.
I find myself feeling neutral if not somewhat positive towards Kickstarter and other sites. What I don’t like is when well-established companies with facilities, capital, and marketing budgets use Kickstarter and other sites as pre-order platforms. To me those campaigns just feel wrong.
Some campaigns just boggle my mind. Take the Coolbox Tool Box Indiegogo campaign, for instance. I find it both interesting and ridiculous. Not to rehash things, but that’s a tool box designed by folks who show Milwaukee’s M12 cordless jigsaw as a tool that can be plugged into am AC power outlet. I’m not surprised that they earned over $370K in funding from backers.
Back to the point.
Kickstarter is Awesome!
Kickstarter Sucks!
Discuss!!
If you ask me (because I can’t really ask myself), Kickstarter is Awesome! It gives everyday folks a platform by which to fund their projects and inventions independently. Everyone that starts a campaign should of course seek expert guidance before setting their product “reward” pledge amounts and funding goals.
Do you know many people email in about their tool inventions? A LOT. I post about the better ones, for two reasons. First, because some are cool enough and I want to share what I learned with you. Second, because there are tool buyers, product managers, and other types of folks in the manufacturing and retail industry. Maybe a post about a cool tool concept will be enough to help take it from the invention stage, and to where there’s a tool the public can actually buy.
It also benefits creative ventures as well. 5.7M in backers’ pledges led to a Veronica Mars movie years after the TV show was cancelled, and last year Levar Burton and Reading Rainbow raised $5.4M to revitalized the children’s educational show as a web-based program. Other, smaller, campaigns have also seen successful.
Are things better with Kickstarter and other crowdfunding campaigns? Despite the occasional scam, negative experience, or problematic campaign, I think that we’re better off having these types of project fund-raising platforms than not.
As always, buyer/investor/backer beware.
Again, what’s your take of it? Is Kickstarter awesome, or do they suck?