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At the very least, I would be wary of any project which offers so many rewards for so little money. It's poor planning and poor allocation of money. And thus it

At the very least, I would be wary of any project which offers so many rewards for so little money. It's poor planning and poor allocation of money. And thus it reflects poorly upon the project creators. For this project you have 1217 backers at the $42 level who get a digital download, a usb drive boxed up and signed by the whole team, and a t shirt. Obviously for such little money and so much in return, this is going to be incredibly popular. So now you have to sit your entire team down to sign their name 1200 times, purchase 1200 USBs and produce 1200 tshirts. That's too much time and money wasted. And yet money is exactly what you're asking for.

bunderbunder 14y ago
And this, perhaps, calls to attention one of the pitfalls of the Kickstarter model. Right now there are scads and scads of project creators competing for the supply of microdonations. Their main avenue for competition is prizes for donating, so they're under a whole lot of pressure to make the prizes as generous as possible. Meanwhile, there are also scads and scads of people looking to fund projects, and they've got a natural interest to kickstart projects that have the most attractive prizes, for the price. These pressures are naturally going to encourage the difference between the amount of money being sought and the cost of the prizes to be as small as possible. And there's really not a whole lot counteracting that pressure. The business acumen of the project creator might help, only people who use Kickstarter to fund projects are almost by definition not terribly experienced in running a business. And the backers have no material interest in that regard. Since they have zero equity in the venture, they really have no intrinsic reason to care whether the project succeeds or fails, just as long as they get their prizes. All that's left as force to encourage folks to make sure there's enough money to ensure the project's success (or even give it a fighting chance) is everyone's interest in the cause for its own sake. While that's certainly worth something, the wet blanket in me can't help but muse that Polyanna isn't exactly the archetype of a successful business builder. </WildSpeculation>
- ricardobeat 14y ago
  Prizes like t-shirts and USB sticks are not the reason people fund projects (okay, sometimes a t-shirt with the project's logo is very special). I think the excessive rewards happens mostly due to anxiousness by creators, not 'market demand'.
cpeterso 14y ago
How much would it cost to buy and ship 1217 USB drives and t-shirts? That's probably $5-10 for each $42 backer.
- driverdan 14y ago
  Single color silk screened on Chinese shirts would be $5-7. For the sake of argument let's say $7 per USB drive, although I suspect that's quite high. Then add in money for packaging and package design, let's call that $6 each for ease of math. That's $20. That leaves $22 for the download and time spent prepping, signing, and shipping everything.
- veemjeem 14y ago
  You think just like every first timer on kickstarter. A friend of mine says she's never going to offer t-shirt rewards on her kickstarter projects anymore. In the end, it cost a lot more than what she thought, and involved significant physical labor which detracts from the purposes of the actual project at hand.
  - cpeterso 14y ago
    I think you misunderstand. I was suggesting that the rewards would consume a nontrival amount of the funding. I thought my estimate of $5-10 per backer was a generous underestimate. <:)

bunderbunder 14y ago

And this, perhaps, calls to attention one of the pitfalls of the Kickstarter model. Right now there are scads and scads of project creators competing for the supply of microdonations. Their main avenue for competition is prizes for donating, so they're under a whole lot of pressure to make the prizes as generous as possible. Meanwhile, there are also scads and scads of people looking to fund projects, and they've got a natural interest to kickstart projects that have the most attractive prizes, for the price. These pressures are naturally going to encourage the difference between the amount of money being sought and the cost of the prizes to be as small as possible. And there's really not a whole lot counteracting that pressure. The business acumen of the project creator might help, only people who use Kickstarter to fund projects are almost by definition not terribly experienced in running a business. And the backers have no material interest in that regard. Since they have zero equity in the venture, they really have no intrinsic reason to care whether the project succeeds or fails, just as long as they get their prizes. All that's left as force to encourage folks to make sure there's enough money to ensure the project's success (or even give it a fighting chance) is everyone's interest in the cause for its own sake. While that's certainly worth something, the wet blanket in me can't help but muse that Polyanna isn't exactly the archetype of a successful business builder. </WildSpeculation>

ricardobeat 14y ago
Prizes like t-shirts and USB sticks are not the reason people fund projects (okay, sometimes a t-shirt with the project's logo is very special). I think the excessive rewards happens mostly due to anxiousness by creators, not 'market demand'.

cpeterso 14y ago

How much would it cost to buy and ship 1217 USB drives and t-shirts? That's probably $5-10 for each $42 backer.

driverdan 14y ago
Single color silk screened on Chinese shirts would be $5-7. For the sake of argument let's say $7 per USB drive, although I suspect that's quite high. Then add in money for packaging and package design, let's call that $6 each for ease of math. That's $20. That leaves $22 for the download and time spent prepping, signing, and shipping everything.
veemjeem 14y ago
You think just like every first timer on kickstarter. A friend of mine says she's never going to offer t-shirt rewards on her kickstarter projects anymore. In the end, it cost a lot more than what she thought, and involved significant physical labor which detracts from the purposes of the actual project at hand.
- cpeterso 14y ago
  I think you misunderstand. I was suggesting that the rewards would consume a nontrival amount of the funding. I thought my estimate of $5-10 per backer was a generous underestimate. <:)