A question that has come up more and more lately with similar Kickstarter projects: Is crowd funding a good way to go about this project? And specifically, is

A question that has come up more and more lately with similar Kickstarter projects: Is crowd funding a good way to go about this project? And specifically, is crowd funding through Kickstarter a good way to go about this project? Basically, the project creator has an idea for a product for which he thinks there is a market, but he lacks the capital to get the business off the ground. By using Kickstarter, he's able to acquire the capital, and the backers -- the vast majority of whom, I'm assuming, are either friends who just want to help him out or strangers who just want a bed-desk -- know that they'll get their money back if the goal isn't reached. But once the goal is reached ... that investment becomes a risky investment. The obligation to actually deliver a product to those investors to whom it was promised is, at best, a moral obligation, rather than a legal one. Kickstarter has been very insistent on this point lately: If you donate to a project, consider it a donation, not a purchase (http://www.kickstarter.com/blog/kickstarter-is-not-a-store http://www.kickstarter.com/blog/kickstarter-is-not-a-store). With more artistic projects -- say, a musician raising money to record an album -- I think it's a little bit easier to see those pledges as donations rather than purchases, even if a copy of the album is promised to donors. Why? For one, donors are likely to already be fans of the artist and feel a sort of kinship with them. But probably more importantly, the final cost of the album is likely to be in the $10-$20 range, which is a lot easier to write off, if the artist doesn't deliver, than an expensive piece of furniture. In contrast, with a project like this, I'm assuming that if you're going to "donate" $650 or more, you're going to want a bed-desk at the end of it. And at least on Kickstarter's current terms, the arrangement is not favorable to somebody who just wants a bed-desk at the end of it. There may be other crowd-funding options out there that are more favorable to the would-be owners of a bed-desk (for instance, if the project creator were contractually obligated to deliver the product). Or perhaps the project creator could simply raise $65,000 with micro-loans, then sell the completed product to interested buyers, then use the proceeds to pay back the micro-loans. At least in that case, it's the aspiring businessman who's on the hook if something goes wrong, not the aspiring bed owners -- which is as it should be, because when an aspiring businessman is willing to take on financial risks, that demonstrates his commitment to the business. Or, if the project creator is not willing to take on all of that financial risk, perhaps he might be willing to offer equity in the business to potential crowd funders. That way, you're distributing the risk, but you're also distributing the potential upside, which is only fair, right? As things stand, I just don't see a Kickstarter project for this type of product as being a good deal for anyone but the guy building the bed-desks ... unless you are willing to consider the $650 (or more) you donate to be just that: a donation.