[Confusion]

  People like this ruin crowdfunding for everyone else [..]

People like this will cause crowdfunding to mature. It would be good if we got to the point where you will only get funded if you first demonstrate you have a reasonable chance of succeeding. There's currently a lot of money going to doomed projects, initiated by people with only an idea. That money would be better spent on similar projects by people with a concrete plan and relevant skills and experience in addition to ideas.

It's not that people are malicious: they are just unprepared. Which is why many startups fail: people have no idea what they are getting themselves into. At least burning through your own money teaches a harsh lesson. Burning through free money hurts a lot less.

[Touche]

The problem is that you can't reasonably estimate what it costs/takes to achieve some very-lofty goal.

The goals are simply too pie-in-the-sky. Set some very simple goal like getting an app with xmpp working first. Then do another campaign to add some security features. And so on.

[mhomde]

Couldn't you have a kickstarter where you only get part of a lump sum in the beginning for investments, and then minimum-wage for each employee each month? Keep the start-up lean and hungry and perhaps intrinsically motivated. I guess there's many problems and ideas that couldn't be funded this way but for those that can maybe they'd stand a higher chance of succeeding.

Even better was if you had a startup mentor that approved expenses.

[derefr]

I presume that the kind of people needed to do most of these things won't work for minimum wage. And, make no mistake, Kickstarter is mostly about hiring people to do the things promised using the money, not about the people pitching the idea doing it themselves.

[joshstrange]

> Which is why many startups fail: people have no idea what they are getting themselves into. At least burning through your own money teaches a harsh lesson. Burning through free money hurts a lot less.

Couldn't agree more. I agree crowdfunding should require a little more upfront from the project managers (or rather we as a community should refuse to fund projects that don't) which will no doubt turn some people away from seeking crowdfunded money but that's probably for the best.