Kickstarter Questions
by SpireTech | Oct 1, 2012 | Uncategorized
Kickstarter is a program for funding new, creative projects, bringing together people who have ideas for projects with funders who want to contribute. The model allows contributions at all levels, from one dollar to thousands.
Kickstarter has been getting a lot of press recently because they've raised a lot of money—over $350 million, according to their website. One advantage of using Kickstarter to seek funding—besides the funding itself—is that developers and other creative people get a window into potential interest levels among their prospective clients. Many projects offer the product to users as an incentive to encourage them to fund it.
But as more and more projects get funding, a question arises: what happens when a promising project doesn't live up to its pledge? What if it fails to deliver? What happens to investors then? NPR recently investigated Kickstarter's practices and promises, raising some public interest and scrutiny that has led Kickstarter to launch a campaign informing and cautioning users about what exactly Kickstarter is and how it should be used.
We at SpireTech like Kickstarter and think it fills a void in the market by helping worthy entrepreneurs turn their dreams into reality. However, investors need to believe in the team behind the project, that it has the experience to deliver on the promises it is making to its backers.