Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The worst project I ever funded on Kickstarter

a.wholelottanothing.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 72 posts

Re: The worst project I ever funded on Kickstarter

#11

Post by sp332 »

citricsquid wrote: post #8

The one thing that Kickstarter has taught me is something I don't really want to accept, but it's the sad truth: most project creators don't see Kickstarter as a real commitment to business, it's a way to get money for their "neat project" that they want to complete but without the hassle of raising money properly or selling pre-orders. It's a complete non-commitment and it seems a substantial number (enough for me t…

most project creators don't see Kickstarter as a real commitment to business, it's a way to get money for their "neat project" that they want to complete but without the hassle of raising money properly or selling pre-orders.

But that's true, of course. Kickstarter isn't a marketplace like e.g. Etsy where customers buy items. Kickstarter lets people fund cool projects they like. Often (but not always) the item istelf is offered as a "perk" for backers. But that's not really the point of Kickstarer, it's just about funding a project.

Re: The worst project I ever funded on Kickstarter

#12

Post by steve8918 »

citricsquid wrote: post #8

The one thing that Kickstarter has taught me is something I don't really want to accept, but it's the sad truth: most project creators don't see Kickstarter as a real commitment to business, it's a way to get money for their "neat project" that they want to complete but without the hassle of raising money properly or selling pre-orders. It's a complete non-commitment and it seems a substantial number (enough for me t…

Maybe one way to solve this problem is to define several milestones, and a percentage of the funds get released once milestones are reached. At each milestone, each funder can decide whether or not the person has achieved their stated goal for the milestone.

If the person who puts money into the project gets cold feet, they can back out at any time, but any money they have committed up to the current milestone goes to the founders and the rest gets returned.

Re: The worst project I ever funded on Kickstarter

#13

Post by mquinlan »

I'm not familiar with the outcome of any other "failed" projects, but has Kickstarter ever forcibly refunded money or intervened in any way? If not... they're obviously growing (nearly 4x as much pledged in 2011) and I don't know if more strict guidelines would really help.

Re: The worst project I ever funded on Kickstarter

#14

Post by veyron »

steve8918 wrote: post #12
citricsquid wrote: post #8

The one thing that Kickstarter has taught me is something I don't really want to accept, but it's the sad truth: most project creators don't see Kickstarter as a real commitment to business, it's a way to get money for their "neat project" that they want to complete but without the hassle of raising money properly or selling pre-orders. It's a complete non-commitment and it seems a substantial number (enough for me t…

Maybe one way to solve this problem is to define several milestones, and a percentage of the funds get released once milestones are reached. At each milestone, each funder can decide whether or not the person has achieved their stated goal for the milestone. If the person who puts money into the project gets cold feet, they can back out at any time, but any money they have committed up to the current milestone goes t…

Problem is that oftentimes most of the money is needed before a first prototype. And many concerns wont emerge until the prototype comes out. So effectively what will happen is that the milestone system will be gamed so that most of them are "paper" or "cad" which dont take much effort.

Re: The worst project I ever funded on Kickstarter

#15

Post by citricsquid »

sp332 wrote: post #11
citricsquid wrote: post #8

The one thing that Kickstarter has taught me is something I don't really want to accept, but it's the sad truth: most project creators don't see Kickstarter as a real commitment to business, it's a way to get money for their "neat project" that they want to complete but without the hassle of raising money properly or selling pre-orders. It's a complete non-commitment and it seems a substantial number (enough for me t…

most project creators don't see Kickstarter as a real commitment to business, it's a way to get money for their "neat project" that they want to complete but without the hassle of raising money properly or selling pre-orders. But that's true, of course. Kickstarter isn't a marketplace like e.g. Etsy where customers buy items. Kickstarter lets people fund cool projects they like. Often (but not always) the item istelf…

This is what I'm talking about, if I choose to fund a project and the reward I choose is that project, isn't that the point of funding? For example, http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/petertreadway/spnkix-wea... is a project being funded at the moment and will reach it's goal, I've backed with $500 so I can get a pair, if they don't deliver on that isn't that an issue? Kickstarter does not present it as a chance to maybe see a project and if not, well great free money for the project creator, it's presented as a way to fund a project to creation, to delivery.

Re: The worst project I ever funded on Kickstarter

#16

Post by steakbomb »

marquis wrote: post #5
matdwyer wrote: post #2

Disclaimer: I've never used Kickstarter This being said, I was under the impression that funding a project is still a bit of a risk - I'd expect that some projects (like businesses) simply don't work out how they planned - this seems like that type of problem. Of course they should have mentioned the signal problems (and even reached out to see if they could crowd source a solution) but buying in as an early "funder"…

I've funded a few projects of friends. One never materialized but it was worth the shot and the others are in production. If you spread your investments out, some are bound to take off no? I'm in line to receive some great products that wouldn't see the light of day otherwise and I'm excited. You don't get this excited over many things you can buy. I must say though, reading the content of this Kickstarter they don't…

You're not investing when you give money away on KickStarter. That would be in violation of SEC regulations.

Re: The worst project I ever funded on Kickstarter

#17

Post by hop »

I bought an aluminum Element Vapor Pro and it has no problems. I actually got it to see how it fits in my current Kickstarter project, the Elevation Dock, b/c a lot of people asked and they love them.

It has plastic around the top left corner and small foam pads so the aluminum never touches the steel antenna. If I were these guys, I would machine out the corner and make a polycarbonate piece to fit.

If anyone here has one, I'd machine the modifications for you just to show it.

Re: The worst project I ever funded on Kickstarter

#18

Post by davyjones »

This is a fairly known issue in elec. design. What is happening here is that the case is acting as a Faraday cage (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage) that blocks out signals.

It is not just enough to wear the designer hat. An engineer hat is absolutely essential as well.

Re: The worst project I ever funded on Kickstarter

#19

Post by sp332 »

citricsquid wrote: post #15
sp332 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

most project creators don't see Kickstarter as a real commitment to business, it's a way to get money for their "neat project" that they want to complete but without the hassle of raising money properly or selling pre-orders. But that's true, of course. Kickstarter isn't a marketplace like e.g. Etsy where customers buy items. Kickstarter lets people fund cool projects they like. Often (but not always) the item istelf…

This is what I'm talking about, if I choose to fund a project and the reward I choose is that project, isn't that the point of funding? For example, http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/petertreadway/spnkix-wea... is a project being funded at the moment and will reach it's goal, I've backed with $500 so I can get a pair, if they don't deliver on that isn't that an issue? Kickstarter does not present it as a chance to…

Here's one I funded. It's a documentary: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/textfiles/the-jason-scot...

They haven't even been shot yet. Heck when I pledged, the guy hadn't even bought the cameras to do the shooting yet. There's no gurantee about the content of the films. Sure, I'll get a copy, eventually, but that's not really why I pledged. I pledged to fund the making of these films.

Re: The worst project I ever funded on Kickstarter

#20

Post by kmak »

blakestein wrote: post #4
rickyc091 wrote: post #3

I was backing this project until the day they decided to raise shipping costs. It wasn't the raised shipping costs that made me withdraw my backing, but the fact that they had no respect for the backers. Just pulling a few quotes from the project starter... That is why I backed out of it. --- @Jeffrey Sorry you feel that way. But I owe you nothing. No one does. @PAIK Jackass, it's right here >> http://screencast.com/…

Just more lessons on what not to do when raising funds. It's not even so much what he said, but his "tone."

Seems like kickstarters are mostly okay with the risks.. it is inherent in the site, after all, but man, it doesn't seem necessary to be mean about things..
Post reply on HN