You're right, my analogy is too simplistic. You're acting as an investor only in the sense that you're taking a risk, and paying to help make the product a real

You're right, my analogy is too simplistic. You're acting as an investor only in the sense that you're taking a risk, and paying to help make the product a reality. I think people often feel burned or contribute to bad projects because they're thinking of it like a normal consumer product, where the risk of getting nothing is basically 0