On the other hand, if they needed $500k, this is well within the budget of popular crowd funding projects, and it seemed like they have succeeded. As far as I k

On the other hand, if they needed $500k, this is well within the budget of popular crowd funding projects, and it seemed like they have succeeded. As far as I know they raised the funds so I guess the strategy was sound. I don’t know the details but often crowd funding allows the creators to keep all IP rights, which would give them more freedom than going through institutional investors.