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The iBackPack, a failed crowdfund with an FTC investigation

• everybodyknows 7y ago
  > ... most of these things could be bought on their own and crammed into any old backpack ... Similar gimmick employed by the "Coolest", on Kickstarter, though with more success in production.
  • Terretta 7y ago
    From the article: The second explanation for iBackpack’s existence, Monahan says, was realizing that crowdfunding could offer him lots of money to fund an idea. In fact, he took hints from one of Kickstarter’s most notorious feature-stuffed gadgets: a cooler with a Bluetooth speaker, USB chargers, and a built-in blender. It raised over $13 million on Kickstarter. “I saw the Coolest Cooler, and I’m thinking, ‘Jesus, if people are going to give $14 million to a cooler for crying out loud that they only use every weekend, maybe, then what do they need?’” he asks. ... What Monahan perhaps didn’t see coming was that Coolest Cooler wouldn’t ship to all its backers and would officially shut down its operation five years after its Kickstarter campaign went live. Its backers are also angry, as evidenced by comments on its Kickstarter page. They, too, operate a Facebook group, and the Oregon Department of Justice investigated the company.