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The real question is what this will do to other Kickstarter campaigns. It highlights that you are not buying a share in a company. The savvy early adopters sh

The real question is what this will do to other Kickstarter campaigns. It highlights that you are not buying a share in a company. The savvy early adopters should realize as soon as outside money comes in, the company is headed to the highest value exit no matter what.

maxerickson 13y ago
The message that you should be (at least somewhat) skeptical of the motivations of the project and not really expect to get anything is probably healthy for Kickstarter. People that ask themselves "Am I comfortable with this money being used in an unexpected way?" before they pay a Kickstarter are less likely to be upset when the money is used in an unexpected way (or when they don't get anything or whatever).
ingenieros 13y ago
There are many well funded companies taking advantage of the Kicstarter platform to run their product/market fit experiments and generating media buzz while they are it. If you think about it it's actually really smart on their part, but shady nonetheless. Reading some of their backer reactions on Kickstarter and all across the interwebz one gets the feeling that this will most certainly have a negative impact in the short term, but hopefully these same backers will start doing more research into the people unscrupulously soliciting money when in fact they don't really need it at all.
- ubercore 13y ago
  It doesn't feel shady to me, as long as one remembers you're _buying just that particular product_. I'm really happy to have the chance to support even a major company experimenting if it provides a product more suited to me than they could have done without crowdfunding. The real tension in my eyes is that the most effective kickstarters seem to be ones that get people emotionally involved or attached some way. Joining a "revolution", or playing on nostalgia or a sense of community. It makes an effective kickstarter, but can lead to trouble in cases like Oculus where (even though they didn't and never did), people felt like they owned a small part of Oculus for kickstarting it.
  - mathattack 13y ago
    True - it's about an early right to buy the product, not the company. I have to keep reminding myself that. Do the kickstarter participants feel the same way?

maxerickson 13y ago

The message that you should be (at least somewhat) skeptical of the motivations of the project and not really expect to get anything is probably healthy for Kickstarter. People that ask themselves "Am I comfortable with this money being used in an unexpected way?" before they pay a Kickstarter are less likely to be upset when the money is used in an unexpected way (or when they don't get anything or whatever).

ingenieros 13y ago

There are many well funded companies taking advantage of the Kicstarter platform to run their product/market fit experiments and generating media buzz while they are it. If you think about it it's actually really smart on their part, but shady nonetheless. Reading some of their backer reactions on Kickstarter and all across the interwebz one gets the feeling that this will most certainly have a negative impact in the short term, but hopefully these same backers will start doing more research into the people unscrupulously soliciting money when in fact they don't really need it at all.

ubercore 13y ago
It doesn't feel shady to me, as long as one remembers you're _buying just that particular product_. I'm really happy to have the chance to support even a major company experimenting if it provides a product more suited to me than they could have done without crowdfunding. The real tension in my eyes is that the most effective kickstarters seem to be ones that get people emotionally involved or attached some way. Joining a "revolution", or playing on nostalgia or a sense of community. It makes an effective kickstarter, but can lead to trouble in cases like Oculus where (even though they didn't and never did), people felt like they owned a small part of Oculus for kickstarting it.
- mathattack 13y ago
  True - it's about an early right to buy the product, not the company. I have to keep reminding myself that. Do the kickstarter participants feel the same way?