4 ms·

> They don't get proper investment for a reason. That's not always true. Ergodox-ez.com has an awesome product (a keyboard) they funded through indiegogo. Not

> They don't get proper investment for a reason. That's not always true. Ergodox-ez.com has an awesome product (a keyboard) they funded through indiegogo. Not to mention basically every 3d printer company, even the VC funded ones. Crowdfunding (and pre-ordering in general) helps hardware startups raise the cash they need to manufacture a batch of product. Without it, they'd have to raise the full cost of the batch in advance, (which is probably a lot,) on the hope that customers will buy it up. I can't think of many startups that have that much goodwill from investors. It makes sense to be extremely skeptical when giving your money to an early-stage company, whether as an investor or a pre-order customer. But writing off crowdfunding in general means you're writing off almost every hardware startup, including some of the great ones.

yellowapple 10y ago
Speaking of the keyboard world, there's also the extreme of the crowdfunding concept: sites like Massdrop that emphasize crowdfunding individual batches of a product (almost always one-off) rather than aiming for eventual mass-production and general availability. It apparently seems to be working for some people, but as someone who doesn't follow every last Massdrop deal, it just seems more annoying than useful as a business practice.
- Gracana 10y ago
  It's definitely better for customers if you have a constant supply of products to sell, but for niche hobbyist groups (like mechanical keyboard enthusiasts), it's the only way to get some stuff made. I like it. I was able to get a keyboard PCB fairly inexpensively, which is a big deal because getting one-offs of PCBs that size costs $$$.
yunolisten 10y ago
Ergodox-ez.com sure make a big deal about being 'open source', yet I can't find a schematic, PCB design or anything related to this on their site. Perhaps I'm missing something? What I do see is they use an open source firmware, used on several other keyboards.

yellowapple 10y ago

Speaking of the keyboard world, there's also the extreme of the crowdfunding concept: sites like Massdrop that emphasize crowdfunding individual batches of a product (almost always one-off) rather than aiming for eventual mass-production and general availability. It apparently seems to be working for some people, but as someone who doesn't follow every last Massdrop deal, it just seems more annoying than useful as a business practice.

Gracana 10y ago
It's definitely better for customers if you have a constant supply of products to sell, but for niche hobbyist groups (like mechanical keyboard enthusiasts), it's the only way to get some stuff made. I like it. I was able to get a keyboard PCB fairly inexpensively, which is a big deal because getting one-offs of PCBs that size costs $$$.

yunolisten 10y ago

Ergodox-ez.com sure make a big deal about being 'open source', yet I can't find a schematic, PCB design or anything related to this on their site. Perhaps I'm missing something? What I do see is they use an open source firmware, used on several other keyboards.