[alanctgardner2]

Has anyone had an experience with KS where:

- the product shipped on time

- the product worked as advertised

- the founding team didn't go overboard

In all the Kickstarters I've seen, it seems like the founders lose interest in actually delivering a product after they get the money. They run up against the challenges of support and manufacturing, and they seem to just skip on to the next thing because that's what they enjoyed in the first place - having a cool idea and getting it funded. Sometimes the next cool idea is just scope creep for the current product ("Sorry we're 3 months behind on shipping, but now it can also mine Bitcoins and chop salads!").

My point being, I don't think KS will ever work for technology, because the funding comes at exactly the point where the project stops being fun. Besides the guilt of providing a product to backers, there's not a ton of incentive for a small team to keep building after they get funded, so they'll just delay and peter out, or punt on key objectives and move on.

[grundyoso]

I agree that it's a tough deal, one that's filled with unknowns. If you overestimate, you price things out of the range of what the market will bear and you get no backers. If you underestimate, you get pissed off customers. What motivates us is not the money we raised or the guilt of delivering, but the potential of what we're doing. KS has done a good job of giving us an audience to speak to. An audience to educate on what we can do. Without this connection it's likely R&D projects like ours would take much longer to surface, even though their impact on society is a good one.

[gnaffle]

The DigiSpark seemed to live up to expectations, and it shipped only a little bit late. That made me back the DigiX, even though it's a more complicated product.

I think the more ambitious the project is, and the less actual production experience the founders have, the more likely they are to run into problems. So that should be a big consideration when backing a project.

[mpclark]

Maybe every Kickstarter should have a 30% (?) margin put on top (ie ask for $10,000, your target becomes $13,000) and this is paid out as a second tranche on delivery of the project.

It's all added complication, though.

[j_s]

This guy is wrapping up his 3rd project:

http://www.richardhaberkern.com/?cat=47