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Pebble has recaptured the top spot for most-funded project on Kickstarter

cnet.com

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Re: Pebble has recaptured the top spot for most-funded project on Kickstarter

#3
post #2

There was some talk that they did this for publicity and would have no problem getting that kind of money and more from traditional sources.

Of course they did. This is a two-birds-with-one-stone situation, I imagine: "free" money (don't have to give up any equity) and free marketing at the same time. It's win-win for them.

Re: Pebble has recaptured the top spot for most-funded project on Kickstarter

#6

Is that really a fair comparison? The Pebble Time kickstarter campaign was just a pre-order portal in disguise --- it wasn't really a "true" crowdfunding campaign.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_scotsman

What facet of being "true" crowdfunding did they not satisfy?

Re: Pebble has recaptured the top spot for most-funded project on Kickstarter

#7
post #4

I honestly wonder how many of the Pebble Time backers are people who initially got hyped up over the Apple Watch, then decided they didn't want to deal with a watch with only 18 hours battery life.

I actually went the other direction. I have no problem charging my phone every night, and charging a watch at the same time would be a non-issue. Upon hearing that the apple watch will hit a battery life closer to 18 hours rather than the rumored12, I actually cancelled my backing for pebble time in favor of planning to buy the apple watch.

Re: Pebble has recaptured the top spot for most-funded project on Kickstarter

#8
They didn't need to release through Kickstarter, but this was a nice gesture from Pebble to offer their products to Kickstarter backers at a discount and priority (backers get their Pebble Time watches before it goes to retail).

It is also a huge marketing success in getting their brand out there. They properly framed themselves as the underdog with a superior product vs Apple.

Re: Pebble has recaptured the top spot for most-funded project on Kickstarter

#9
post #6

Is that really a fair comparison? The Pebble Time kickstarter campaign was just a pre-order portal in disguise --- it wasn't really a "true" crowdfunding campaign.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_scotsman What facet of being "true" crowdfunding did they not satisfy?

It's in blatant violation of kickstarters rules, and was probably set up as the result of a partnership with kickstarter. Kickstarter knew that the return of pebble would be lucrative for them, and pebble knew that by using kickstarter they'd continue to wear the facade of a small fledgeling grassroots company (and while they're the underdog relative to their competition from LG, Samsung, Motorola and Apple, they're a lot bigger than they were for their first kickstarter campaign.

Re: Pebble has recaptured the top spot for most-funded project on Kickstarter

#10
post #6

Is that really a fair comparison? The Pebble Time kickstarter campaign was just a pre-order portal in disguise --- it wasn't really a "true" crowdfunding campaign.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_scotsman What facet of being "true" crowdfunding did they not satisfy?

1) They easily could have raised all the capital they needed

2) They're already a successful company

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