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

Kickstarter is now accepting Canadian projects

kickstarter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–15 of 15 posts

Re: Kickstarter is now accepting Canadian projects

#11

Post by lgeek »

Ecio78 wrote: post #9
YanceyKSR wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're not "so restrictive." Our guidelines ask projects to be on-topic exactly like Hacker News' guidelines for comments do. We're a funding platform for creative projects. We built Kickstarter because we believed that there should be a space for creative ideas to be shared and find support. Every single guideline is there to support and strengthen that mission.

Hi YanceyKSR, a question for you: Kickstarter's FAQ clearly states that you need to be a US, UK (or now Canadian) citizen/business and you should prove it (SSN/government-issued IDs, address etc..) in order to launch a project. So, can I ask you how this project has been published (and funded) http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1054394377/idae-the-book... given the fact that the company is Italian, the team members…

> Kickstarter's FAQ clearly states that you need to be a US, UK (or now Canadian) citizen

I thought the citizen part sounded strange so I did a quick check. According to [0] you only need to be a permanent resident.

[0] http://www.kickstarter.com/help/guidelines

Re: Kickstarter is now accepting Canadian projects

#12

Post by shinratdr »

xkiwi wrote: post #6

Kickstarter is so restrictive is because they wanted to maximized profit & also result of their taste. Put restriction on hackers who really innovate and create real products? well good luck with that, I am with freedom.

Crowdfunding with no restrictions, rules or protections is just an anonymous PayPal account or a shoebox with a hole cut in the top.

Nobody is stopping you from doing that if your desire is absolute freedom in how you collect donations and what you do with them. The point of Kickstarter is to find a balance between allowing creators to do whatever they want and helping them end up successfully funded.

You sarcastically say good luck with that as if this isn't a proven method that leads to far more success, but it is. While it's always been possible to solicit donations for a project, it's really only been successful and widespread since the the existence of projects like Kickstarter that put pressure on the creator to actually deliver.

The pretty website and the name aren't what makes Kickstarter successful. The rules are. Nobody was waiting all this time with a project they wanted crowdfunded just hoping for someone to launch a website to make putting that up easier. They were waiting for a platform that users trust and are interested in. They wanted a chance to actually be funded if they chose to put themselves out there. If they thought they could get that "with freedom" they would have done so already.

So good luck finding people that want to throw money at your ideas with no rules, restrictions or protections in place. I think you'll find it's a pretty shallow pool. Keep in mind that absolute freedom from the perspective of a creator equals absolutely no accountability from the perspective of backers and crowdfunding requires both to be successful.

Re: Kickstarter is now accepting Canadian projects

#13

Post by donw »

xkiwi wrote: post #6

Kickstarter is so restrictive is because they wanted to maximized profit & also result of their taste. Put restriction on hackers who really innovate and create real products? well good luck with that, I am with freedom.

Indiegogo was a client of mine, and I know a decent amount about the crowdfunding space. The way Kickstarter and Indiegogo do things has fuck-all to do with limiting innovation or stopping people from creating real products.

Without violating my NDA, I can share the following:

Both companies have the same set of goals: to provide a marketplace for innovative ideas. They have different ways of achieving this.

Kickstarter does this by allowing select projects to be associated with its brand, which due to their selective nature, confers a perception of trustworthiness to potential funders. You know that there's very little chance of a Kickstarter project being a scam, and moreover, that the project you fund will probably make good on their promises.

This is why they've stopped allowing product mockups -- to lower risk for funders.

Indiegogo is more liberal, allowing your project to succeed or fail based on the strength of your network, rather than the additional trust conferred by the brand itself. While the guys over at 'gogo are really focused on preventing fraud, the very nature of 'every project can be funded' means that more projects will fail to ship.

In my experience, Indiegogo is really great for projects where the goal is not some type of new product, but rather some sort of well-understood goal. Like saving a clinic for pregnant woman in San Francisco, or raising money for a child to get a lung transplant. Kickstarter is more about innovation -- Cards Against Humanity, the Pebble watch, etc.

Same goal, different ways of getting there. Basically, Kickstarter is Apple, Indiegogo is Facebook.

Re: Kickstarter is now accepting Canadian projects

#14

Post by Ecio78 »

lgeek wrote: post #11
Ecio78 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi YanceyKSR, a question for you: Kickstarter's FAQ clearly states that you need to be a US, UK (or now Canadian) citizen/business and you should prove it (SSN/government-issued IDs, address etc..) in order to launch a project. So, can I ask you how this project has been published (and funded) http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1054394377/idae-the-book... given the fact that the company is Italian, the team members…

> Kickstarter's FAQ clearly states that you need to be a US, UK (or now Canadian) citizen I thought the citizen part sounded strange so I did a quick check. According to [0] you only need to be a permanent resident. [0] http://www.kickstarter.com/help/guidelines

Sorry for my poor/wrong usage of the word "citizen", I meant resident with SSN, US address, bank account, ID card, US credit/debit card etc.. as stated in the FAQ [1]. So definitely you shouldn't be able to launch a project by residing in another country and just "faking" a US address using something like those shipping forwarding services used to buy stuff in the USA

[1] http://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq/creator+questions

Post reply on HN