8 ms·

If they take the $5mil and are unable to deliver, that might be the beginning of the end of crowdfunding.

by naner 14y ago

SteveJS 14y ago
Will anybody even agree on what successful delivery looks like?
- objclxt 14y ago
  What is a successful delivery? I guess that depends. I would say a successful delivery is releasing the product. Given they've got a very aggresive schedule and are promising delivery for September 2012, I'd say a successful delivery would be getting the product out to backers before the end of the year (ie, the holidays). I do think they are setting themselves up for some serious pain - it's very difficult to turn down money. I think originally Ouya had a 5,000 limit on the $99 reward. Now they are offering 80,000, and the estimated delivery date hasn't changed. If their delivery was to slip (not all that surprising) the number of vocal angry customers who maybe don't fully understand the nature of Kickstarter funding is going to be much greater. Good luck to them - but it's important to go into this sort of thing with some sense of proportion. Even the best intended and funded projects can and do go a bit awry on the way to delivery. Just look at the team behind Ouya - their designer, Yves Behar, is a talented man, but two of his most well known projects (OLPC and the Jawbone Up) had significant delivery issues.
  - jsnell 14y ago
    The hardware isn't targeted at September 2012 but March 2013.
nimblegorilla 14y ago
If they don't deliver hopefully it will just open up new ways of vetting projects that raise six-figures or more. If they do deliver will that finally be enough to silence the crowdfunding naysayers?
- potatolicious 14y ago
  How do we vet them, beyond "is a scam"? There are plenty of well-meaning people who want to do a lot, but are incredibly poorly positioned to do it. Or do we want to limit crowdfunding to near slam-dunk ideas? I think it's a problem that Kickstarter has brought out a lot of very, very green entrepreneurs with little experience actually shipping product. But what can we do about it without throwing the baby out also?
unimpressive 14y ago
Imagine how they must feel. If this falls through their reputations will never recover. They'll go down in the tech history books as one of the biggest failures ever.
- redslazer 14y ago
  Not to be unfair but it could be sort of like with Diaspora. The inability to deliver on the kickstarted campaign caused one of the founders to take their own life. It would be very sad if something like that were to happen again only because a group massively over promised and was unable to meet their own goals.
  - FreakLegion 14y ago
    > The inability to deliver on the kickstarted campaign caused one of the founders to take their own life. You don't know why he chose to end his life -- nobody does -- and making up stories about it is irresponsible. Even those closest to him have competing explanations, e.g. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-10/on-diasporas-social-network-you-own-your-data#p3 http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-10/on-diasporas....
    - redslazer 14y ago
      I read a CNN Money article which said suspect suicide (with confirmation from coronar coming later). If I am incorrect I will edit my post and apologise. Articles: http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/14/technology/diaspora_cofounder_died/index.htm http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/14/technology/diaspora_cofounde... http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/249210/20111114/ilya-zhitomirskiy-diaspora-founder-committed-suicide.htm http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/249210/20111114/ilya-zhitomi... Edit: "The San Francisco Office of the Medical Examiner formally ruled the death a suicide last month." - http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-10/on-diasporas-social-network-you-own-your-data#p3 http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-10/on-diasporas...
      - FreakLegion 14y ago
lukifer 14y ago
Because if there's one thing humans hate, it's gambling.
polshaw 14y ago
The level of funding popular KS projects are getting almost leads me to be concerned that someone is going to game the system and promise the earth, and then just run off with all the money. Which, AFAICT, would be perfectly legal.

If they take the $5mil and are unable to deliver, that might be the beginning of the end of crowdfunding.

by naner 14y ago

If they take the $5mil and are unable to deliver, that might be the beginning of the end of crowdfunding.

SteveJS 14y ago

Will anybody even agree on what successful delivery looks like?

objclxt 14y ago
What is a successful delivery? I guess that depends. I would say a successful delivery is releasing the product. Given they've got a very aggresive schedule and are promising delivery for September 2012, I'd say a successful delivery would be getting the product out to backers before the end of the year (ie, the holidays). I do think they are setting themselves up for some serious pain - it's very difficult to turn down money. I think originally Ouya had a 5,000 limit on the $99 reward. Now they are offering 80,000, and the estimated delivery date hasn't changed. If their delivery was to slip (not all that surprising) the number of vocal angry customers who maybe don't fully understand the nature of Kickstarter funding is going to be much greater. Good luck to them - but it's important to go into this sort of thing with some sense of proportion. Even the best intended and funded projects can and do go a bit awry on the way to delivery. Just look at the team behind Ouya - their designer, Yves Behar, is a talented man, but two of his most well known projects (OLPC and the Jawbone Up) had significant delivery issues.
- jsnell 14y ago
  The hardware isn't targeted at September 2012 but March 2013.

nimblegorilla 14y ago

If they don't deliver hopefully it will just open up new ways of vetting projects that raise six-figures or more. If they do deliver will that finally be enough to silence the crowdfunding naysayers?

potatolicious 14y ago
How do we vet them, beyond "is a scam"? There are plenty of well-meaning people who want to do a lot, but are incredibly poorly positioned to do it. Or do we want to limit crowdfunding to near slam-dunk ideas? I think it's a problem that Kickstarter has brought out a lot of very, very green entrepreneurs with little experience actually shipping product. But what can we do about it without throwing the baby out also?

unimpressive 14y ago

Imagine how they must feel. If this falls through their reputations will never recover. They'll go down in the tech history books as one of the biggest failures ever.

redslazer 14y ago
Not to be unfair but it could be sort of like with Diaspora. The inability to deliver on the kickstarted campaign caused one of the founders to take their own life. It would be very sad if something like that were to happen again only because a group massively over promised and was unable to meet their own goals.
- FreakLegion 14y ago
  > The inability to deliver on the kickstarted campaign caused one of the founders to take their own life. You don't know why he chose to end his life -- nobody does -- and making up stories about it is irresponsible. Even those closest to him have competing explanations, e.g. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-10/on-diasporas-social-network-you-own-your-data#p3 http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-10/on-diasporas....
  - redslazer 14y ago
    I read a CNN Money article which said suspect suicide (with confirmation from coronar coming later). If I am incorrect I will edit my post and apologise. Articles: http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/14/technology/diaspora_cofounder_died/index.htm http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/14/technology/diaspora_cofounde... http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/249210/20111114/ilya-zhitomirskiy-diaspora-founder-committed-suicide.htm http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/249210/20111114/ilya-zhitomi... Edit: "The San Francisco Office of the Medical Examiner formally ruled the death a suicide last month." - http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-10/on-diasporas-social-network-you-own-your-data#p3 http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-10/on-diasporas...
    - FreakLegion 14y ago

lukifer 14y ago

Because if there's one thing humans hate, it's gambling.

polshaw 14y ago

The level of funding popular KS projects are getting almost leads me to be concerned that someone is going to game the system and promise the earth, and then just run off with all the money. Which, AFAICT, would be perfectly legal.