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Is Kickstarter a platform for funding cool projects or a store?

bambax 15y ago
It should develop the "store" part. It's very frustrating to stumble upon a project that's already funded and for which you don't know where to get the product anymore. It would be a natural extension to let late comers buy products after they were launched.
- xal 15y ago
  Almost all the funded hardware projects end up on Shopify afterwards. Including pebble. The "store" part is actually a tremendously complex software to do well, hardly a feature you add to an existing system.
  - joshuacc 15y ago
    I'm curious. Is this due to Shopify's reputation, or do you specifically seek out successful Kickstarter campaigns as potential customers?
    - xal 15y ago
      It just happened. We started contacting them now but it was all word of mouth.
unavoidable 15y ago
Why can't it be both? It acts a bridge between an unmet demand and an unmet supply: there are consumers thinking, "I wonder if X has been invented? I would pay money for that." And there are designers thinking, "I wonder if anyone would buy X if I made it?" It's conceptually a great match. The hard part was making it credible enough to gain trust. That's Kickstarter's biggest strength.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- furyofantares 15y ago
  I think it can be and sort of is both right now, yeah. And I'm loving it, but it also makes sense for people to have different expectations from a store than from a project they are backing. When I give a store money, they owe me a product. When I back a project, they owe me their effort. So it's a bit weird to me when the language being used is mostly store language rather than funding language. I don't think anybody has purchased a Pebble yet.
- paulrosenzweig 15y ago
  I love that their brand's credibility enables projects to launch that wouldn't have been able to otherwise. But, once a project far exceeds its launch goal Kickstarter becomes a store that charges 5%.
baddox 15y ago
Is there a difference in this case? I doubt they could have afforded to produce 4 million dollars worth of the watches without a good, semi-guaranteed estimation of consumer interest.

It should develop the "store" part. It's very frustrating to stumble upon a project that's already funded and for which you don't know where to get the product anymore. It would be a natural extension to let late comers buy products after they were launched.

xal 15y ago
Almost all the funded hardware projects end up on Shopify afterwards. Including pebble. The "store" part is actually a tremendously complex software to do well, hardly a feature you add to an existing system.
- joshuacc 15y ago
  I'm curious. Is this due to Shopify's reputation, or do you specifically seek out successful Kickstarter campaigns as potential customers?
  - xal 15y ago
    It just happened. We started contacting them now but it was all word of mouth.

unavoidable 15y ago

Why can't it be both? It acts a bridge between an unmet demand and an unmet supply: there are consumers thinking, "I wonder if X has been invented? I would pay money for that." And there are designers thinking, "I wonder if anyone would buy X if I made it?" It's conceptually a great match. The hard part was making it credible enough to gain trust. That's Kickstarter's biggest strength.

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
furyofantares 15y ago
I think it can be and sort of is both right now, yeah. And I'm loving it, but it also makes sense for people to have different expectations from a store than from a project they are backing. When I give a store money, they owe me a product. When I back a project, they owe me their effort. So it's a bit weird to me when the language being used is mostly store language rather than funding language. I don't think anybody has purchased a Pebble yet.
paulrosenzweig 15y ago
I love that their brand's credibility enables projects to launch that wouldn't have been able to otherwise. But, once a project far exceeds its launch goal Kickstarter becomes a store that charges 5%.

baddox 15y ago

Is there a difference in this case? I doubt they could have afforded to produce 4 million dollars worth of the watches without a good, semi-guaranteed estimation of consumer interest.