10 ms·

The Cole-Bar Hammer, a 7-year old Kickstarter that is still going

68 points by victorbojica 6y ago

uncledave 6y ago
That’s because it is useful. Unlike a lot of stuff on there.
- margalabargala 6y ago
  Or at least, it would be useful, if it had been manufactured and shipped to its purchasers at any point in the last 8 years.
hiimtroymclure 6y ago
Back in 2011 I thought Kickstarter and crowdfunding in general was so cool. I funded a maybe 20+ projects. I think I received 4-5 items and the products i did receive were very underwhelming. Probably half of the projects I never even heard from after the funding closed. Needless to say I haven't been on KS in a long, long time.
- jcims 6y ago
  Might be a fun game to have each person pick a kickstarter, strip it down to the pitch, the goals and the backer options and have everyone guess if it was successful or not.
- nikkwong 6y ago
  Crowdfunding on Kickstarter changed my life. I was just a kid with an idea in college in 2014 and decided to try a project that became a business that I am still running today. I think there are gems to be found here and there, but it is definitely to find the signal in the noise.
  - mike_d 6y ago
    I think the comment you replied to was pointing out that Kickstarters are generally bad for consumers. No doubt you and a bunch of other people have made out well on the supply side.
- cbozeman 6y ago
  The only thing I backed on Kickstarter was a game called Trial by Trolley. I went whole hog and got the $65 edition. Took so long to make it that by the time I finally got it, no one ever wanted to play it. Most of my friends end up playing totally different party games when we get together. I also looked back a bunch of things I bookmarked to see what did and didn't get made - about 75% of the KSes I was interested in never got to funding status, or got funded, but eventually failed.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
jasongill 6y ago
I think the "still going after 7 years" means "still hasn't been released after 7 years". It was supposed to be for sale in 2014 and still hasn't shipped yet (from what I can find in Google). The creators have been stringing along their backers for the better part of a decade. As far as utility, it seems like more of a gimmick than something that would get regular use. I can't think of a time when I've been working on a project and wished I had a 1/2" drive ratchet, a short pry bar, and a hammer but only had space in the tool bag for one of them.
- anonAndOn 6y ago
  Maybe they'll make it out of titanium and go after the ultralight tool enthusiast market? It'll never get used, but damn it's light!
  - camillomiller 6y ago
    I was writing a comment asking what's the point of a lighter hammer, then I realized that a lighter hammer you can swing faster is actually exponentially more effective than a heavier hammer. KE = 1/2mv^2 babe! Physics, bi*ch! :)
    - GlennS 6y ago
      Do you definitely want to transfer kinetic energy more than momentum? I reckon a lighter hammer swung faster is more likely to end up with a bent nail. Also, exponential would be 2^v. v^2 is quadratic. (And you need to sub in the F=ma part as well to demonstrate your point, so your gain from the lighter hammer should be less than quadratic. Exercise left to the reader.)
      - thaumasiotes 6y ago
        > Do you definitely want to transfer kinetic energy more than momentum? Seems that way; if you're using a hammer, the goal is for all parts of the system to come to a stop. You're trying to deform the material you're hammering the nail into; isn't that measured in energy transfer?
noncoml 6y ago
So much shilling and gaslighting in their KS's comments page.
ohazi 6y ago
Consumer crowdfunding websites like kickstarter and indiegogo have largely failed to live up to their early hype. Campaigns now fall into two categories: designer vaporware from people you've never heard of, and established companies that don't need crowdfunding but are using it anyway for marketing purposes. On the other hand... niche crowdfunding websites like Crowd Supply seem to be doing better than ever. There are a few reasons for this: 1. A lot of campaigns are for open source hardware. These projects are developed in the open, and you can go to github and download schematics and look through prototype firmware to evaluate the project yourself, months before the campaign even starts. 2. Vetting seems to be better. There are almost always real prototypes floating around by the time a campaign goes live. 3. More modest goals. More often than not, the funding goals are right around some sensible volume buying / manufacturing threshold. The creators usually just want to be able to get a PCB with microvias, or buy parts by the reel rather than in single-unit quantities. You don't see as many creators trying to get rich quick or bootstrap a company. In my view, this is more in line with what crowdfunding was supposed to be: Getting volume buying commitments for an already working design rather than speculative "investing." A lot of kickstarter/indiegogo "creators" should probably be in jail for fraud.
- noncoml 6y ago
  > More modest goals More modest than building a hammer? As they say in their promotion page, we have been building hammers for tens of thousands of years now...
- scrollaway 6y ago
  Yeah. I'm wondering if there's somewhere that actively tracks this stuff, especially the popular ones. The park & diamond helmet for example (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/park-diamond-foldable-bike-helmet https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/park-diamond-foldable-bik...) raised over 2.5MM EUR and I lost track of how late it is but they've easily sent 10-15 updates saying "sorry, we didn't get it in time for [MONTH], but we'll be ready in [MONTH+2], promise!". They gave me a refund when I asked for one, at least, and since then I've only seen more of the same. Hard to tell if it's a scam or utter incompetence.
  - 6y ago
sharadov 6y ago
KS has become a scam. I crowdfunded this one product, they kept delaying the shipping date, then they said they shipped it, no details of shipment, then they informed me that it was delivered. I gave up, scammy douchebags!
mxxx 6y ago
So is the moral of the story that their Kickstarter is a scam, or that it takes a surprisingly long time to design and manufacture a high quality hammer? I'm not sure what background this crew has, but presumably there's a large delta between thinking "hey i reckon i could invent a better hammer" and actually designing it, mass producing it and getting it to market. On the face of it you might think if you back a project like this you'd get your hammer within a year or two, but maybe it's more involved than that. I honestly don't know.
- cbozeman 6y ago
  The moral of the story is that most people don't really know how difficult it is to: 1. Come up with an idea. 2. Plan and execute idea to achieve a finished product. 3. Get finished product shipped out to users. That's why this kind of shit has normally been relegated to people having to pitch ideas to people who not only have capital, but also have experience in bringing products to market. Kickstarter gives any person with a dream, an opportunity. Without also explaining to them that this is a long row to hoe.
  - throw_m239339 6y ago
    A kickstarter becomes a scam the moment the project creator realises their project isn't realistic and will never be fulfilled and fail to disclose it to the backers, while keeping giving them the run around for years. Projects don't have to start as a scam to become one eventually.
FullyFunctional 6y ago
Anecdata: of the 36 projects (not including projects that failed to get backing) I have backed in the past 8 years: - 4 were outright scams (only 1 was caught and cancelled by KS) - 32 delivered, practically all were very delayed, sometimes by years. - Of the 32, most were as promised, but some turned out useless - At least half I regretted buying One thing that was very apparent (here as IRL) is that software projects runs WAY over the schedule. I have since completely stopped supporting Kickstarter, unless I'm backing people who I already know of and who has a reputation at stake. There's way too much fraud and useless crap (but "World First Ultimate Crap"). Finally, it's not _all_ bad. The highlights: Klauf Light Bar (use them daily), Exploding Kittens (have played a few times), THIMBLEWEED PARK (love it), [Pocket]Chip, Nebia Shower, Kuroi Hana Knife Collection (use daily), Stingray Non-stick pan (use daily. Note, a 2nd campaign from the Kuroi Hana Knife people).
- elliekelly 6y ago
  I’m shocked you actually got 32 of 36 items regardless of the quality. I would have guessed a much lower number of deliveries.
- smcleod 6y ago
  I'm at: - Total: 13 - Scams: 3 - Not delivered: 4 - Delivered on time: 0 - Delivered with <3 month delay: 1 - Delivered with <1 year delay: 4 - Delivered with >1 year delay: 1
- thomas 6y ago
  My findings largely reflect this, but I have to admit that I stopped after about 10 projects. Now I will no longer do a KS, regardless of the product, or the founder, or the price. I'll just wait, pay full price later if it's worth it, and save myself the frustration and multiple "regrettable delay" notes.
  - FullyFunctional 6y ago
    Yes this. It took me too long to realize that the “discount” was rarely worth the risk and opportunity cost. KS is really bad, but there are many other crowd sourcing efforts that are worth backing which wouldn’t be available otherwise. I have backed ~ 4 different FPGA dev board campaigns (not on KS). EDIT: for example https://groupgets.com/campaigns/868-butterstick https://groupgets.com/campaigns/868-butterstick
renewiltord 6y ago
I go into Kickstarter and IGG and friends with the view that I want to contribute a small sum of money to see something realized. If you take a good crack at it and eat the money, that's okay. After all, I gave you like $200. It's not the end of the world.
- lilSebastian 6y ago
  > After all, I gave you like $200. It's not the end of the world. Where's my $200?
  - renewiltord 6y ago
    Oh we had some delays with a vendor. It'll be there next May ;) COVID trouble you understand.
    - lilSebastian 6y ago
      On point for a KS thread
tekstar 6y ago
Just to chime in, I bought a CNC and 2 3D printers from Kickstarter over the years. One was junk, one was a scam, and the other ran out of funds before they shipped a unit. The first CNC (MyDIYCNC) was 6 months late and the quality was horrible. The two MDF walls that held the metal Y axis in place were pre-drilled more than an inch apart. It was sold as a budget CNC printer but in reality was basically useless except as a learning exercise in what matters in CNC design. Of the two 3D printers I bought, neither arrived. The Peachy Printer was a cute, simple, and cheap design.. after many updates of adding complexity and delays one founder accused the other founder of running off with the funds and buying a house, but did so in such a weird way one has to wonder what the hell actually happened. The other 3d printer I don't even remember the name.. it was supposed to be high quality and cost around $300 CAD. Manufacturing delays and issues, they cancelled the whole thing and shipped nothing.
mayneack 6y ago
I've dabbled in kickstarters over the years, but my main exposure to them is through the podcast "Your Kickstarter Sucks". It's quite entertaining. http://yourkickstartersucks.com/ http://yourkickstartersucks.com/
pimlottc 6y ago
Kickstarter campaigns are basically the modern day infomercials. It’s all about having the perfect pitch video and impressive tram bios, getting shallow pro-forma coverage in all the tech blogs, and then name-dropping them all in order to bolster your image (along with the obligatory credulous pull quotes). Make sure your social media team keeps putting out updates, and don’t forget to add some ridiculous stretch goals for when you go viral. Never mind that your team has never actually shipped a working product at scale before, and never mind that fulfilling all your reward tier posters and T-shirts will take nearly as time as delivering your actual product. At least when you bought something off TV you’d actually get something. Sure, you’d have to wait 6-8 weeks for it to arrive, but that’s practically Amazon Prime compared to Kickstarter.
- throw_m239339 6y ago
  You mean "home shopping", like on TV where you call "right now" and you get useless stuff... Kickstarter is purely a marketing business, many backers still don't understand it. The client is the project creator, not the backers. Since Kickstarter makes money on successful marketing campaigns. Apparently, they are still doing well https://www.kickstarter.com/help/stats https://www.kickstarter.com/help/stats Good for them. I will never back anything on that platform because I find it exploitative. Kickstarter claims they can't do any due diligence and it's up to the backers. But how can a backer assess the viability of a project if Kickstarter themselves can't? How many bakers know anything about industrial production, supply chain, ... The project creator can lie to the face of backers for half a decade, of course most of them are completely ignorant of what producing goods entails, for instance: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stillalive/polygons-the-flat-4-in-1-measuring-spoon/comments https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stillalive/polygons-the... 4 years to produce a basic measuring spoon, and counting...
  - pimlottc 6y ago
    I was more going for those old late night informercials, Ron Popeil, etc. "But wait, there's more!"
latchkey 6y ago
This one is 5 years and never got delivered. I vowed to never do another KS type site ever again after this one. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1284726646/the-lampster-a-lamp-with-attitude https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1284726646/the-lampster... Funny story though, I bought them as gifts for the 4 founders of our company. CEO went nuts after a year and the 3 of us eventually left. Company is still in business, is much hated on the internet and I hope one day he will get a nice delivery of 4 lamps and wonder where they came from.
- throw_m239339 6y ago
  I mean there are completely stupid pitches, like this one where it's the backers who pay to make the game: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2000580152/neil-degrasse-tyson-presents-space-odyssey-the-vid/comments https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2000580152/neil-degrass... Of course, no game is going to get made, because that's not how you produce a videogame, but people still gave almost $400,000 for that.
prdonahue 6y ago
Is that long? I backed a spinoff of Sierra's old Space Quest almost 9 years ago: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spaceventure/two-guys-spaceventure-by-the-creators-of-space-que https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spaceventure/two-guys-s.... Still waiting patiently :)
- wccrawford 6y ago
  Oh lord, has that really been 9 years now? Wow.
- mouth 6y ago
  Same here. Was just thinking about it last week.
- rasz 6y ago
  in the mean time you can play excellent http://snailtrek.com http://snailtrek.com
simoneau 6y ago
I’ve always looked at crowdfunding as a bet. That is, here’s something I wish existed and maybe these people can do it. If you think of it as a way to preorder, you’re bound to be disappointed.
fy20 6y ago
I used to quite like browsing KS in the early 10s. I didn't fund that many projects as I got burned by a couple, and a couple more were pretty underwhelming, but I used to like browsing it to see what innovative ideas people had (often my favourite were too far out of the norm, so never got funded). Nowadays I see ads for Kickstarter and other crowd funding sites popup in my feeds quite a lot. The product is often interesting, but then when I look into it I realise it's an existing product, available now on AliExpress, that's just rebranded. The 'founders' of course give their 'story' about how they are tirelessly making this innovative product to change the world. One notable example was a set of silicon lids for pans and plates as a replacement for plastic wrap. I saw the product, and was actually quite tempted to fund it as it wasn't very expensive (<$20), but it still had quite a while left for the campaign to complete and the estimated delivery was a few months away. I then found exactly the same product on AliExpress, for less than half the price, and it arrived before the campaign had finished funding :D
- s0rce 6y ago
  I like those silicone lids, I think I picked up a set on Amazon, until the most used size tore.
- jobigoud 6y ago
  Are you sure it's not the other way around? There is a well known business strategy where Chinese entrepreneurs look at promising kickstarter projects and launch production in Shenzen and have something on the market even before the original campaign is over.
- williamscales 6y ago
  Those silicon lids are great! My mom had a set long before the existence of KS, validating your belief in this case at least.
lilSebastian 6y ago
Ah the gamble of crowd funding on a platform who refuse to get involved, even when there has been violations of their terms of use. Some great examples spring to mind. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tangibleinstruments/arpeggio-the-portable-arpeggiator-sequencer-and-sy https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tangibleinstruments/arp... 'Tangible instruments' have a product 'ready to ship. Turns out to be an empty case. Essentially spent all the investment money, but didn't get ownership of the hardware design from the ee they contracted so had to start again. Still no product, and years after it was due to ship it's been superseded in terms of functionality by products available in the marketplace.
dafoex 6y ago
I remember first seeing the Stanley FuBar what feels like 7 years ago. I wonder which came first, and whether they were invented independently of each other...
dusted 6y ago
I've used a lot of tools recently, including crowbars and hammers of various sizes. This is a stupid idea, as stupid as multi-tool pliers or the swiss army knife. It means that it WILL sell, and the buyers will be the category of hipsters sporting well-trimmed beards, thick rimmed glasses and forester's shirts. The customers will be very happy with their product, as happy as they are with their multi-tool pliars and GPS watches, and since they will never actually use it for anything remotely resembling actual work (as with their other posessions) they will remain happy with it. So.. Good on you, Cole-Bar. You can be as next-gen as you want, you'll never get picked up on an actual building site. You're too flimsy (and expensive) to use as a crowbar (they are TOOLS and they will be hit and bent in every imaginable angle, with any imaginable tool), and you are.. not a good hammer for anything, not as a light precise hammer, not as a heavy duty one. Congratulations, you're about as useless as your target audience, a match made in heaven.
- moistbar 6y ago
  While I agree this looks dumb, I don't understand your loathing for multi-tool pliers. The most useful tool is the one you have with you, so I'm going to carry as many as I can fit in my pocket at once.
donclark 6y ago
Is there an opportunity to create a business that kickstarts products/services and assures that the funders get the product they contribute to. The business would provide a framework of services to help kickstart the products listed, as well as help with any/all aspects of the delivery (incubation, local resources, grants, testing, etc)

68 points by victorbojica 6y ago

uncledave 6y ago

That’s because it is useful. Unlike a lot of stuff on there.

margalabargala 6y ago
Or at least, it would be useful, if it had been manufactured and shipped to its purchasers at any point in the last 8 years.

hiimtroymclure 6y ago

Back in 2011 I thought Kickstarter and crowdfunding in general was so cool. I funded a maybe 20+ projects. I think I received 4-5 items and the products i did receive were very underwhelming. Probably half of the projects I never even heard from after the funding closed. Needless to say I haven't been on KS in a long, long time.

jcims 6y ago
Might be a fun game to have each person pick a kickstarter, strip it down to the pitch, the goals and the backer options and have everyone guess if it was successful or not.
nikkwong 6y ago
Crowdfunding on Kickstarter changed my life. I was just a kid with an idea in college in 2014 and decided to try a project that became a business that I am still running today. I think there are gems to be found here and there, but it is definitely to find the signal in the noise.
- mike_d 6y ago
  I think the comment you replied to was pointing out that Kickstarters are generally bad for consumers. No doubt you and a bunch of other people have made out well on the supply side.
cbozeman 6y ago
The only thing I backed on Kickstarter was a game called Trial by Trolley. I went whole hog and got the $65 edition. Took so long to make it that by the time I finally got it, no one ever wanted to play it. Most of my friends end up playing totally different party games when we get together. I also looked back a bunch of things I bookmarked to see what did and didn't get made - about 75% of the KSes I was interested in never got to funding status, or got funded, but eventually failed.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

jasongill 6y ago

I think the "still going after 7 years" means "still hasn't been released after 7 years". It was supposed to be for sale in 2014 and still hasn't shipped yet (from what I can find in Google). The creators have been stringing along their backers for the better part of a decade. As far as utility, it seems like more of a gimmick than something that would get regular use. I can't think of a time when I've been working on a project and wished I had a 1/2" drive ratchet, a short pry bar, and a hammer but only had space in the tool bag for one of them.

anonAndOn 6y ago
Maybe they'll make it out of titanium and go after the ultralight tool enthusiast market? It'll never get used, but damn it's light!
- camillomiller 6y ago
  I was writing a comment asking what's the point of a lighter hammer, then I realized that a lighter hammer you can swing faster is actually exponentially more effective than a heavier hammer. KE = 1/2mv^2 babe! Physics, bi*ch! :)
  - GlennS 6y ago
    Do you definitely want to transfer kinetic energy more than momentum? I reckon a lighter hammer swung faster is more likely to end up with a bent nail. Also, exponential would be 2^v. v^2 is quadratic. (And you need to sub in the F=ma part as well to demonstrate your point, so your gain from the lighter hammer should be less than quadratic. Exercise left to the reader.)
    - thaumasiotes 6y ago
      > Do you definitely want to transfer kinetic energy more than momentum? Seems that way; if you're using a hammer, the goal is for all parts of the system to come to a stop. You're trying to deform the material you're hammering the nail into; isn't that measured in energy transfer?

noncoml 6y ago

So much shilling and gaslighting in their KS's comments page.

ohazi 6y ago

Consumer crowdfunding websites like kickstarter and indiegogo have largely failed to live up to their early hype. Campaigns now fall into two categories: designer vaporware from people you've never heard of, and established companies that don't need crowdfunding but are using it anyway for marketing purposes. On the other hand... niche crowdfunding websites like Crowd Supply seem to be doing better than ever. There are a few reasons for this: 1. A lot of campaigns are for open source hardware. These projects are developed in the open, and you can go to github and download schematics and look through prototype firmware to evaluate the project yourself, months before the campaign even starts. 2. Vetting seems to be better. There are almost always real prototypes floating around by the time a campaign goes live. 3. More modest goals. More often than not, the funding goals are right around some sensible volume buying / manufacturing threshold. The creators usually just want to be able to get a PCB with microvias, or buy parts by the reel rather than in single-unit quantities. You don't see as many creators trying to get rich quick or bootstrap a company. In my view, this is more in line with what crowdfunding was supposed to be: Getting volume buying commitments for an already working design rather than speculative "investing." A lot of kickstarter/indiegogo "creators" should probably be in jail for fraud.

noncoml 6y ago
> More modest goals More modest than building a hammer? As they say in their promotion page, we have been building hammers for tens of thousands of years now...
scrollaway 6y ago
Yeah. I'm wondering if there's somewhere that actively tracks this stuff, especially the popular ones. The park & diamond helmet for example (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/park-diamond-foldable-bike-helmet https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/park-diamond-foldable-bik...) raised over 2.5MM EUR and I lost track of how late it is but they've easily sent 10-15 updates saying "sorry, we didn't get it in time for [MONTH], but we'll be ready in [MONTH+2], promise!". They gave me a refund when I asked for one, at least, and since then I've only seen more of the same. Hard to tell if it's a scam or utter incompetence.
- 6y ago

sharadov 6y ago

KS has become a scam. I crowdfunded this one product, they kept delaying the shipping date, then they said they shipped it, no details of shipment, then they informed me that it was delivered. I gave up, scammy douchebags!

mxxx 6y ago

So is the moral of the story that their Kickstarter is a scam, or that it takes a surprisingly long time to design and manufacture a high quality hammer? I'm not sure what background this crew has, but presumably there's a large delta between thinking "hey i reckon i could invent a better hammer" and actually designing it, mass producing it and getting it to market. On the face of it you might think if you back a project like this you'd get your hammer within a year or two, but maybe it's more involved than that. I honestly don't know.

cbozeman 6y ago
The moral of the story is that most people don't really know how difficult it is to: 1. Come up with an idea. 2. Plan and execute idea to achieve a finished product. 3. Get finished product shipped out to users. That's why this kind of shit has normally been relegated to people having to pitch ideas to people who not only have capital, but also have experience in bringing products to market. Kickstarter gives any person with a dream, an opportunity. Without also explaining to them that this is a long row to hoe.
- throw_m239339 6y ago
  A kickstarter becomes a scam the moment the project creator realises their project isn't realistic and will never be fulfilled and fail to disclose it to the backers, while keeping giving them the run around for years. Projects don't have to start as a scam to become one eventually.

FullyFunctional 6y ago

Anecdata: of the 36 projects (not including projects that failed to get backing) I have backed in the past 8 years: - 4 were outright scams (only 1 was caught and cancelled by KS) - 32 delivered, practically all were very delayed, sometimes by years. - Of the 32, most were as promised, but some turned out useless - At least half I regretted buying One thing that was very apparent (here as IRL) is that software projects runs WAY over the schedule. I have since completely stopped supporting Kickstarter, unless I'm backing people who I already know of and who has a reputation at stake. There's way too much fraud and useless crap (but "World First Ultimate Crap"). Finally, it's not _all_ bad. The highlights: Klauf Light Bar (use them daily), Exploding Kittens (have played a few times), THIMBLEWEED PARK (love it), [Pocket]Chip, Nebia Shower, Kuroi Hana Knife Collection (use daily), Stingray Non-stick pan (use daily. Note, a 2nd campaign from the Kuroi Hana Knife people).

elliekelly 6y ago
I’m shocked you actually got 32 of 36 items regardless of the quality. I would have guessed a much lower number of deliveries.
smcleod 6y ago
I'm at: - Total: 13 - Scams: 3 - Not delivered: 4 - Delivered on time: 0 - Delivered with <3 month delay: 1 - Delivered with <1 year delay: 4 - Delivered with >1 year delay: 1
thomas 6y ago
My findings largely reflect this, but I have to admit that I stopped after about 10 projects. Now I will no longer do a KS, regardless of the product, or the founder, or the price. I'll just wait, pay full price later if it's worth it, and save myself the frustration and multiple "regrettable delay" notes.
- FullyFunctional 6y ago
  Yes this. It took me too long to realize that the “discount” was rarely worth the risk and opportunity cost. KS is really bad, but there are many other crowd sourcing efforts that are worth backing which wouldn’t be available otherwise. I have backed ~ 4 different FPGA dev board campaigns (not on KS). EDIT: for example https://groupgets.com/campaigns/868-butterstick https://groupgets.com/campaigns/868-butterstick

renewiltord 6y ago

I go into Kickstarter and IGG and friends with the view that I want to contribute a small sum of money to see something realized. If you take a good crack at it and eat the money, that's okay. After all, I gave you like $200. It's not the end of the world.

lilSebastian 6y ago
> After all, I gave you like $200. It's not the end of the world. Where's my $200?
- renewiltord 6y ago
  Oh we had some delays with a vendor. It'll be there next May ;) COVID trouble you understand.
  - lilSebastian 6y ago
    On point for a KS thread

tekstar 6y ago

Just to chime in, I bought a CNC and 2 3D printers from Kickstarter over the years. One was junk, one was a scam, and the other ran out of funds before they shipped a unit. The first CNC (MyDIYCNC) was 6 months late and the quality was horrible. The two MDF walls that held the metal Y axis in place were pre-drilled more than an inch apart. It was sold as a budget CNC printer but in reality was basically useless except as a learning exercise in what matters in CNC design. Of the two 3D printers I bought, neither arrived. The Peachy Printer was a cute, simple, and cheap design.. after many updates of adding complexity and delays one founder accused the other founder of running off with the funds and buying a house, but did so in such a weird way one has to wonder what the hell actually happened. The other 3d printer I don't even remember the name.. it was supposed to be high quality and cost around $300 CAD. Manufacturing delays and issues, they cancelled the whole thing and shipped nothing.

mayneack 6y ago

I've dabbled in kickstarters over the years, but my main exposure to them is through the podcast "Your Kickstarter Sucks". It's quite entertaining. http://yourkickstartersucks.com/ http://yourkickstartersucks.com/

pimlottc 6y ago

Kickstarter campaigns are basically the modern day infomercials. It’s all about having the perfect pitch video and impressive tram bios, getting shallow pro-forma coverage in all the tech blogs, and then name-dropping them all in order to bolster your image (along with the obligatory credulous pull quotes). Make sure your social media team keeps putting out updates, and don’t forget to add some ridiculous stretch goals for when you go viral. Never mind that your team has never actually shipped a working product at scale before, and never mind that fulfilling all your reward tier posters and T-shirts will take nearly as time as delivering your actual product. At least when you bought something off TV you’d actually get something. Sure, you’d have to wait 6-8 weeks for it to arrive, but that’s practically Amazon Prime compared to Kickstarter.

throw_m239339 6y ago
You mean "home shopping", like on TV where you call "right now" and you get useless stuff... Kickstarter is purely a marketing business, many backers still don't understand it. The client is the project creator, not the backers. Since Kickstarter makes money on successful marketing campaigns. Apparently, they are still doing well https://www.kickstarter.com/help/stats https://www.kickstarter.com/help/stats Good for them. I will never back anything on that platform because I find it exploitative. Kickstarter claims they can't do any due diligence and it's up to the backers. But how can a backer assess the viability of a project if Kickstarter themselves can't? How many bakers know anything about industrial production, supply chain, ... The project creator can lie to the face of backers for half a decade, of course most of them are completely ignorant of what producing goods entails, for instance: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stillalive/polygons-the-flat-4-in-1-measuring-spoon/comments https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stillalive/polygons-the... 4 years to produce a basic measuring spoon, and counting...
- pimlottc 6y ago
  I was more going for those old late night informercials, Ron Popeil, etc. "But wait, there's more!"

latchkey 6y ago

This one is 5 years and never got delivered. I vowed to never do another KS type site ever again after this one. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1284726646/the-lampster-a-lamp-with-attitude https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1284726646/the-lampster... Funny story though, I bought them as gifts for the 4 founders of our company. CEO went nuts after a year and the 3 of us eventually left. Company is still in business, is much hated on the internet and I hope one day he will get a nice delivery of 4 lamps and wonder where they came from.

throw_m239339 6y ago
I mean there are completely stupid pitches, like this one where it's the backers who pay to make the game: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2000580152/neil-degrasse-tyson-presents-space-odyssey-the-vid/comments https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2000580152/neil-degrass... Of course, no game is going to get made, because that's not how you produce a videogame, but people still gave almost $400,000 for that.

prdonahue 6y ago

Is that long? I backed a spinoff of Sierra's old Space Quest almost 9 years ago: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spaceventure/two-guys-spaceventure-by-the-creators-of-space-que https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spaceventure/two-guys-s.... Still waiting patiently :)

wccrawford 6y ago
Oh lord, has that really been 9 years now? Wow.
mouth 6y ago
Same here. Was just thinking about it last week.
rasz 6y ago
in the mean time you can play excellent http://snailtrek.com http://snailtrek.com

simoneau 6y ago

I’ve always looked at crowdfunding as a bet. That is, here’s something I wish existed and maybe these people can do it. If you think of it as a way to preorder, you’re bound to be disappointed.

fy20 6y ago

I used to quite like browsing KS in the early 10s. I didn't fund that many projects as I got burned by a couple, and a couple more were pretty underwhelming, but I used to like browsing it to see what innovative ideas people had (often my favourite were too far out of the norm, so never got funded). Nowadays I see ads for Kickstarter and other crowd funding sites popup in my feeds quite a lot. The product is often interesting, but then when I look into it I realise it's an existing product, available now on AliExpress, that's just rebranded. The 'founders' of course give their 'story' about how they are tirelessly making this innovative product to change the world. One notable example was a set of silicon lids for pans and plates as a replacement for plastic wrap. I saw the product, and was actually quite tempted to fund it as it wasn't very expensive (<$20), but it still had quite a while left for the campaign to complete and the estimated delivery was a few months away. I then found exactly the same product on AliExpress, for less than half the price, and it arrived before the campaign had finished funding :D

s0rce 6y ago
I like those silicone lids, I think I picked up a set on Amazon, until the most used size tore.
jobigoud 6y ago
Are you sure it's not the other way around? There is a well known business strategy where Chinese entrepreneurs look at promising kickstarter projects and launch production in Shenzen and have something on the market even before the original campaign is over.
williamscales 6y ago
Those silicon lids are great! My mom had a set long before the existence of KS, validating your belief in this case at least.

lilSebastian 6y ago

Ah the gamble of crowd funding on a platform who refuse to get involved, even when there has been violations of their terms of use. Some great examples spring to mind. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tangibleinstruments/arpeggio-the-portable-arpeggiator-sequencer-and-sy https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tangibleinstruments/arp... 'Tangible instruments' have a product 'ready to ship. Turns out to be an empty case. Essentially spent all the investment money, but didn't get ownership of the hardware design from the ee they contracted so had to start again. Still no product, and years after it was due to ship it's been superseded in terms of functionality by products available in the marketplace.

dafoex 6y ago

I remember first seeing the Stanley FuBar what feels like 7 years ago. I wonder which came first, and whether they were invented independently of each other...

dusted 6y ago

I've used a lot of tools recently, including crowbars and hammers of various sizes. This is a stupid idea, as stupid as multi-tool pliers or the swiss army knife. It means that it WILL sell, and the buyers will be the category of hipsters sporting well-trimmed beards, thick rimmed glasses and forester's shirts. The customers will be very happy with their product, as happy as they are with their multi-tool pliars and GPS watches, and since they will never actually use it for anything remotely resembling actual work (as with their other posessions) they will remain happy with it. So.. Good on you, Cole-Bar. You can be as next-gen as you want, you'll never get picked up on an actual building site. You're too flimsy (and expensive) to use as a crowbar (they are TOOLS and they will be hit and bent in every imaginable angle, with any imaginable tool), and you are.. not a good hammer for anything, not as a light precise hammer, not as a heavy duty one. Congratulations, you're about as useless as your target audience, a match made in heaven.

moistbar 6y ago
While I agree this looks dumb, I don't understand your loathing for multi-tool pliers. The most useful tool is the one you have with you, so I'm going to carry as many as I can fit in my pocket at once.

donclark 6y ago

Is there an opportunity to create a business that kickstarts products/services and assures that the funders get the product they contribute to. The business would provide a framework of services to help kickstart the products listed, as well as help with any/all aspects of the delivery (incubation, local resources, grants, testing, etc)