Crowdfunding — The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

The Lounge General Discussion
#67

That Bloomberg article was a fun read. A couple of takes i have from it.

The article indicates consideration is being given by Kickstarter to the money going to blockchain organizations known as distributed autonomous organizations, or DAOs.

There is considerable irony, that one of those competing DAOs was created to buy ( a copy of ) the US Constitution, and that it failed ! :crazy_face:

The article also stated that “Kickstarter signaled to its venture capitalists that it wasn’t the sort of hyper-growth startup they thought it was.”

To me there is a considerable difference between the smaller projects that i think of when i think of crowdfunding, and these high rollers that are out to buy the US Constitution.

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#68

The difference is that the project is the product and thus it actively optimizes for grift, but there would be no chargebacks possible for the rubes/marks once they’ve had the onramp into crypto.

That Kickstarter is optimizing for fraud at this point reflects far worse on their traditional business.

Patreon seems to be doing much better at maintainable growth, as far as similar companies go.

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#69

Trouble seems to be brewing on Indiegogo around Folktek’s promised effects pedals. Had been tempted to dip in and buy, as they looked interesting, if a bit silly. But looking in a year after the project closed and all you can see is unhappy people shouting, I’m glad I decided not. Folktek claiming (perhaps understandably) issues around chip availability, etc. But does raise the question of the wisdom of launching something like this mid pandemic if they didn’t have the parts to hand, particularly as it looks like a product that was always going to be somewhat of a boutique/short run.

2 Likes
#70

If you’ve supported anything on Kickstarter 2014 or before, did you get a notification they had a major data breech? I didn’t, but still get spam from such projects…

https://haveibeenpwned.com

Kickstarter: In February 2014, the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter announced they’d suffered a data breach. The breach contained almost 5.2 million unique email addresses, usernames and salted SHA1 hashes of passwords.

#71

I’ve only backed one project and I’m very glad I did. Complete transparency throughout the process. There were delays but totally justified and they were upfront about it all. Yes it feels like I am a beta tester now - mostly because I literally am installing beta firmware and sending feedback - but I’m fine with that honestly. Even with the base firmware it was an excellent product and it’s just getting better. It’s exciting to keep up with little changes and see the product evolve.

Would I back something again? Yes. But I’d make sure I checked out what people on Elektronauts were saying about it before I parted with the cash.

#72

There are currently two products open on Kickstarter that may be of interest to people here. Here are links to their threads.

Midronome

Sonicware SmplTrek

ADDED : The Midronome funding was stopped because they decided it was better to take more time to make some improvements and get things right. Sounds like a prudent but difficult decision. Expect them to make another offering in a few months.

#73

Ooof. I was also very tempted to go in for one of these. In the end, I decided not to and I have no regrets. This only solidifies that my instinct was right.

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#74

Update to what is currently in the works with crowdfunded projects.

Overdue and still in process :

  • SB01 Space Bee from Superlative
  • Osmose from Expressive E
  • Alter Pedal from Folktek, now 3Dio through acquisition. ( Not to be confused with 8Dio, a different company. )

Funded and in development :

  • Profree-4 from PikoPiko Factory - Amazing level of update information, almost daily !
  • SmplTrek from SONCWARE

Being funded currently :

  • The Godfather from Enjoy Electronics

Soon to be offered ( or likely to be ) :

  • Midronome ( being restarted )
  • NINA from Melbourne Instruments
  • Manatee from Fred’s Lab

ADDED : Melbourne Instruments has decided to offer NINA as a direct pre-order.

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#75

Nope. And I was subscribed to their News & Events emails at the time, and got one in January 2014 and one in March 2014, but nothing about a breach.

Maybe that was before legislation requiring companies to inform users when their details are compromised.

#76

About the birdkids offGrid comment on Kickstarter.

Birdkids Kickstarter Announcement
Birdkids Kickstarter Announcement1425×1365 440 KB

And we wish that we could reward every backer for the trust put in us, but that won’t likely happen.
…
We can’t wait to share with you the full story; stay tuned …

an approximate link

No that’s alright, you can stuff it. Perhaps instead of excuses they should deliver some units to people that in good faith offered support. Or at least agree to pay them back their money.

They’re quick to cite the risk to Buyers side of the Kickstarter agreement. They’re skipping the sellers side of the commitment and Kickstarter is quite explicit about that. I’d say those involved on the selling side, should not be allowed to walk away because they’re tired, or tired of it. Even financial hardship does not abrogate their commitment.

Sellers have to understand the risks of offering products on Kickstarter. Poor preparation, will absolutely destroy you. And also understand that the Kickstarter agreement, even as it is, does not free a Seller from the risk of a contract violation lawsuit.

Crowdfunding is in many situations a valuable and efficient means to create new products. Certain of the crowdfunding facilitators need to clean up their act regarding the Seller’s commitment.

2 Likes
#77

I funded one guy’s kickstarter that made a bunch of excuses, never delivered and threatened supporters with lawsuits when they complained. He started multiple new kickstarters despite admitting he would never deliver. That’s all I need to know about how kickstarter is run.

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#78

This is just about the most crass thing I’ve ever read. What kind of sheltering from real life could possibly cause someone to be so glib?

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#79

This is definitely on any facilitator, should they approve an offering of anyone that has already had a failed crowdfunded project. Period.

There is a process involved with approving a sellers offering. It is not in the facilitator’s interest to destroy the trust of investors by having failed projects.

There are other facilitators that take a large degree of care, and even offer assistance and help to partner with developers, to help assure success.

I think of the Mouser CrowdSupply, who are proud to say they are …
the only crowdfunding platform where every funded product has successfully been made and delivered to backers.

CrowdSupply doesn’t generally do musical projects, but does give a good example for how this sort of program could be done right.

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#80

What does this even mean? Phrasing is not ideal.

Since I’m not financially entangled, I guess i can wait to hear the story…

I’m betting Kickstarter is going ahead with their plan to force people to back projects with worthless crypto tokens so they get less credit card chargebacks. It certainly doesn’t make ME trust Kickstarter any more when they’re not looking to vet projects any better only further distance themselves from liability for failed projects.

#81

comes off very
“…ehhh, shit happens, you know?”

¯\(ツ)/¯

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#82

And to make clear, that’s not quoting me, that’s a quote of the Birdkids spokesperson.

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#83

Yes, of course, I did try to abstract the question. Quoting can decontextualize for others though.

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#84

It does indeed come off exactly that way and with an added dash of, “but when it does, it happens to you”.

SO GROSS

#85

Kickstarter hired a new CEO today. Everette Taylor will replace Aziz Hasan, who left KS six months back. You can get some more detail in this report.

KS is a big company, and our interest in it, in this forum, is with only a small number of the products crowdfunded and promoted there. We will see what sort of changes this may make in the area of our concern.

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#86

Are they still planning on cramming cryptocurrency into their product so they can reduce chargebacks?

I’m still preordering stuff from small vendors but I do not want to deal with that platform anymore since those “plans”.

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