Ars Technica:
Sometimes the end of funding is the beginning of a slide into radio silence, which ultimately turns into few or no backer orders fulfilled, and no satisfactory explanation for why the project didn’t pan out according to the orderly delivery schedule the creators promised.
A project can go off the rails and fail even after its funding succeeds for a number of reasons. There can be unforeseen costs, or design problems, or a team member quits or fails to deliver their part of the project. Often, when a project skids to a halt, the final updates are obscured from the public and sent only to backers, which may be part of the reason failures are often not well-publicized. Occasionally, backers who receive them pass them on or post them publicly on forums, which is as good as it gets in terms of letting the outside world know a project did not ultimately pan out.
I’ve been burned by a few Kickstarter-type campaigns. Rule of thumb is to assume the money you are handing over is a donation – if you get something in return, great but don’t hold out a lot of hope. Granted, the majority of Kickstarters complete successfully but there are still plenty that don’t. Caveat Emptor.
That’s an excellent point of view: think of it as a donation to an idea you like. Don’t think of it as a sound investment. It may turn out to be, but it’s money chasing an idea, not a return.
The one I did participate in was the Elevation Dock. They are still going strong and I bought my 3rd unit from the for the lightning phone I now own.
I backed poppy, game of phones, and planetary annihilation
All returned product, so fairly good.
Poppy is this stereoscope for an iPhone. Planetary annihilation is an RTS now on steam, and I just got the game of phones card deck.
All good so far
Also, a local chap (bristol) just met the target for quick release bike wheels with. A lock.
That’s genius.
Last top fact: most board games are now funded by crowd funding.
Look at the returns of VC funded ventures. Pretty low. I would bet Kickstarter has a higher success rate.
We mostly fund artistic projects like books, music, or films by people with whom we’re familiar. Most of those on Kickstarter are either complete or still in production.
One exception is a gadget called Thingcharger, a multi-device charging station gizmo, which started almost a year ago, is way more than fully funded on Indiegogo, and now issues enthusiastic video updates about how they’re still undergoing product design revision and development. I don’t know what to make of them at this point, but if I get my promised device before I qualify for Medicare, I’ll be pleasantly surprised.
I funded the Almond+ wireless router. It did ship, a year after it was initially promised. They included some upgrades to the hardware and software while we were waiting, but honestly it took so long that I’m not sure I would have purchased it if my decision was made around the time it shipped. There are so many other solutions and it is not that well supported. I’m referring to the home automation features it offers in addition to being a wireless router.
Sometimes the disruptors are disrupted by other disruptions. Plus, oftentimes there’s a reason a product doesn’t exist and it’s not just that no one’s thought of it before. It’s like when people, usually with absolutely no product development experience, say “Apple [or Google, or Microsoft] should make…” And the fact is that some lab deep in the bowels of Cupertino, Mountain View, and/or Redmond is full of prototypes and spreadsheets that indicate that, in fact, they shouldn’t.
Luck for me, out of the four I have pledged to, only one failed, and it was from a lack of funding. So no money changed hands. One was kind of a poorer quality than they said it would be. But two have been outstanding values.
So far, I’m in the plus category. But after reading this article at ARS, I’m going to be much more skeptical.
Not to mention, it was fun to fund a Kenny Loggins album.