[paulgerhardt]

It's so we know how many to make. We won't charge anyone's card until they are ready to ship.

[rdl]

I'd seriously consider doing kickstarter too -- once you've got 250-500 preorders outside kickstarter, and popularity on HN, you should be in a great position to have an "overfunded" kickstarter. Yes, they take a cut, but the exposure from kickstarter is probably worth it -- just bump prices 10% if you must.

I know I buy a lot of gadgets I might not otherwise know about due to seeing them in my activity feed on kickstarter.

Seemed to work well for Pebble...