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Kickstarter Electronics

pettitda

Have you supported a Kickstarter campaign?  Would you do it again?  Was the quality of the reward what you expected? 

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  • I suppose one has to look at it as a way of finding capital for their project, and it's more-so a "donation" to their cause with the "possibility" of getting something back. Venture capitalists, flush with cash, will always choose and pick the projects which seem the most promising and profitable to back in the hopes of a return. Likewise, Kickstarter backers tend to choose and pay based on what they are "loosely" promised. As it all comes with no guarantee, it's a really risky proposition for the more substantial amounts you might be tempted to invest, so in principle, I have avoided most of them. The products which are really good will probably not need to go the Kickstarter route anyway, and those that do succeed will always be available after their launch (even if it is, a little more expensive, it will probably be a little more refined as well). So aside from missing out on day #1 "first generation" bleeding edge pains, and a small discount, you're really not missing out on much by not backing a campaign.

     

    In truth, I think I might have only two items that had come from after a crowdfunding campaign had been successful, but aside from those, I'd have to say that the crowdfunding system tends to lead to a very mixed bag when it comes to quality of delivered goods and value for money.

     

    Looking at some of the postings, as well as some projects that have been referred to me over time, it doesn't take much of a science background to see that some things just don't add up, be it thermodynamically, or from a practical electronics sense. In fact, I'm convinced the whole Kickstarter (and Indiegogo amongst others) business is often a game of marketing and viral advertising reach. Projects do as much as they can to grab exposure and pledges, by throwing a lot of money into visual design and "marketing", rather than "meat". This includes vague and misleading or selective truths in their campaign material to make things seem unrealistically good. The layperson is unlikely to be able to distinguish a well-dressed lie from truth, and will also get fleeced. This is highly attractive to the companies, as if they are successful, it is almost "risk free" money - it's not theirs, they are free to fail with the money, and if things get too bad they will just "forget it ever happened", change names and move on.

     

    There has been a little bit done to close down the truly impossible, but it seems that all of this crowdfunding continues to run rampant because the platforms which enable it always take a cut of all the pledged money, with no risk even if the project fails. The better projects might offer a partial refund, but when the money's spent ... the money's spent!

     

    - Gough

  • in reply to Gough Lui

    Gough Lui wrote:

     

    The products which are really good will probably not need to go the Kickstarter route anyway, and those that do succeed will always be available after their launch (even if it is, a little more expensive, it will probably be a little more refined as well). So aside from missing out on day #1 "first generation" bleeding edge pains, and a small discount, you're really not missing out on much by not backing a campaign.

    I don't agree with this.  Some products, like FPGA boards, are niche products and won't have mass appeal until the general public discovers the joys of logic design.  There are dozens of good FPGA dev boards out there, but most are too expensive for someone who's not serious about FPGAs so they don't sell in large quantities.  This makes them stay expensive.  Gadget Factory was smart to do a Kickstarter for the DUO: it was the best way to bring in enough cash to pay the NRE (non-recurring engineering costs) and buy the parts and boards for the first several hundred units.  Gadget Factory is a small operation and doesn't have piles of cash lying around to launch products in other ways.

     

    RasPi is an interesting alternative.  The founders mortgaged their houses to raise the cash to by the parts for the first 10,000 units.  If you don't have friends with houses willing to do this, Kickstarter is a good alternative.

     

    One could say that there's no point in doing FPGA boards since their appeal is so much less than media processor boards.  I would say that doesn't make media processor boards "really good products" and FPGA boards "not-good" products.  It just means that the former are "popular" products with mass appeal, whereas the latter are "esoteric" prooducts with limited appeal.  It's like a Hollywood blockbuster movie versus an "indie".  One appeals to the masses, the other to people with more esoteric tastes.

  • in reply to johnbeetem

    Yes, I would definitely recommend avoiding any dealings with Dimitri Albino or Harold Timmis.

     

    If you think of Kickstarter as a shop then I'd recommend not buying anything. I now see it as a way of supporting things I am interested in.

     

    Here's the films I backed https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/danofthedead/dan-of-the-dead-stop-motion-zombie-film and https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ramblingrosa/building-magic-a-documentary-about-mario-the-magic/description definitely in the indie category not Hollywood.

     

     

    I'm currently waiting on a book to be written

    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/525883510/japanese-metalwork-technique-by-ford-hallam

     

    Ford's running late but I don't believe he's a scammer, more of a case of he underestimate the work in writing a book. I also think he suffers a bit from being a perfectionist.

  • in reply to Workshopshed

    Andy Clark (Workshopshed) wrote:

     

    If you think of Kickstarter as a shop then I'd recommend not buying anything.

     

    Couldn't agree more with that statement. image

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