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Show HN: We open sourced Lockitron's crowdfunding app

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Re: Show HN: We open sourced Lockitron's crowdfunding app

#23

Post by ryanlchan »

I'm curious to see what happens to Amazon FPS if these product based crowd-funding apps take off. We may be in for a bit of a Paypal style crackdown debacle.

I actually spoke with the Kickstarter guys back in 2009 when I was considering branching off their idea specifically for product based ideas, thinking that it could be "Amazon for stuff that doesn't exist yet".

We all agreed that the idea should happen, but Kickstarter didn't want to do it for two reasons:

1. Their goal is to help artists succeed. They're artists themselves, and the guy who started the site's been working on this for years. It means a lot to them to help the little one-man filmmakers.

2. The risk in having products that aren't delivered on time, in the same form as envisioned, or aren't even completed was just too high. They were terrified of having a backlash of backers who thought they were purchasing a product when in fact the transaction is structured as a donation.

The second one is what makes me worried. What happens if, worst case scenario, Pebble goes bankrupt without producing any items? Who takes the hit there? Is it Amazon, Pebble, Kickstarter, or the backers? It isn't clear yet because we haven't had a high-profile failure yet. But it's only a matter of time.

Re: Show HN: We open sourced Lockitron's crowdfunding app

#25

Post by ccamrobertson »

noonespecial wrote: post #21

Outstanding. I was going to try to contact you privately and beg for advice on how to run something similar. My hats so far off to you guys, it's on the floor in front of me. Can't wait for my Lockitron to arrive.

Thank you! We are no PR experts, this took on a life of its own.

Re: Show HN: We open sourced Lockitron's crowdfunding app

#26

Post by alexpenny »

staunch wrote: post #18

Looks like Kickstarter is going to end up being known as the company that (kick)started a phenomenon but didn't own it. They should have become a marketplace for projects, not an arbiter of what gets a shot and what doesn't.

I think they thought this through. They probably realized they couldn't own all of crowd funding. Wouldn't it be weird seeing a "Fund my new convenience store" on kickstarter. Instead they do own creative projects, which is brilliant because that's where innovation happens.

Re: Show HN: We open sourced Lockitron's crowdfunding app

#28

Post by rkaplan »

This could start a trend towards moving away from Kickstarter. So far, the more famous projects that have pursued funding from a similar model without using Kickstarter itself (e.g. Lockitron, App.net) have done so out of necessity – they weren't allowed to use the Kickstarter platform.

But if people keep succeeding without being hosted on Kickstarter itself, that 5% fee might look more and more unattractive to people starting large projects. How much value does being on Kickstarter really add to your project, and how much is simply due to the brilliant fundraising model?

Re: Show HN: We open sourced Lockitron's crowdfunding app

#29

Post by mey »

rkaplan wrote: post #28

This could start a trend towards moving away from Kickstarter. So far, the more famous projects that have pursued funding from a similar model without using Kickstarter itself (e.g. Lockitron, App.net) have done so out of necessity – they weren't allowed to use the Kickstarter platform. But if people keep succeeding without being hosted on Kickstarter itself, that 5% fee might look more and more unattractive to peopl…

Considering all of the kickstarter things I have backed have come from my social graph, rather then kickstarter's discovery tools, I'm not sure it's discovery for the larger scale projects.

Re: Show HN: We open sourced Lockitron's crowdfunding app

#30

Post by treelovinhippie »

rkaplan wrote: post #28

This could start a trend towards moving away from Kickstarter. So far, the more famous projects that have pursued funding from a similar model without using Kickstarter itself (e.g. Lockitron, App.net) have done so out of necessity – they weren't allowed to use the Kickstarter platform. But if people keep succeeding without being hosted on Kickstarter itself, that 5% fee might look more and more unattractive to peopl…

I guess it depends on how viral and interesting your product offering is and how well you market it. Kickstarter has the benefit of a large user base with lots of traffic. Though as more projects are listed on KS it becomes harder to be found.
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