Kickstarter sucks

[broadbill]

I use my own money to commercialize my idea = OK.
My dad uses his money to commercialize my idea = OK.
My cousin uses his money to commercialize my idea = OK.
My cousin's aunt's maid uses her money to commercialize my idea = OK
Putting my idea out on the internet for people to find and donate to in order to commercialize my idea = PANHANDLING!

makes sense.

 

[highgravitybacon]

The reason you hate kickstarter is the reason you will never have something on kickstarter, and the reason you would spend money on hookers and xbox: lack of imagination.

You can't imagine that someone would simply want to help out a friend, family member, member of their community, or stranger? I'd rather buy a $200 dollar mug and help someone in my community build something that they want and that I want than invest it.

WTF am I going to do with a $200 dollar investment in a startup? Watch it make me $2 in the next year? Waste of time.

That's pretty sad if you can't imagine that someone would want to help another person.

Wow. You've certainly established an ability to miss the point.

 

[MuddyCreek]

A good kickstarter project will set the rewards for investment such that at any given tier the investor feels as though he or she is getting good value.

A poor kickstarter project doesn't do that. Generally speaking, poor kickstarter projects don't get funded.

It's like nature. The bigger, smarter bugs eat the small, dumb bugs' heads.

 

[broadbill]

A good kickstarter project will set the rewards for investment such that at any given tier the investor feels as though he or she is getting good value.

A poor kickstarter project doesn't do that. Generally speaking, poor kickstarter projects don't get funded.

It's like nature. The bigger, smarter bugs eat the small, dumb bugs' heads.

Well, lets not get ahead of ourselves, people who put money toward a KS should not be considered investors in any sense of the word.

You are throwing money toward what you consider a good cause with the return of some swag. You aren't getting a "share" of anything, and its not going to gain in value. Donor is a better descriptor.

 

[mbbransc]

I think KS is a GREAT idea (wish I'd thought of it). I'd donated to some local shops trying to get their feet under them as well as some local breweries opening up shop. I think it's a fantastic way to support my community in a way I choose. Similar to patronizing a store I like or supporting my LHBS. If I want those shops/svcs available to me, I should help support them.

Seems like a great way to tap into your community.

 

[MuddyCreek]

Fair enough Broadbill. I use the word "investor" very loosely. Certainly the return on investment is slight.

 

[TxBrew]

So, you would want a percentage of ownership for a couple hundred dollars? That doesn't seem reasonable.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that owning stock?

Just an idea, but have you considered not looking at Kickstarter? That's what I usually do with completely avoidable things I don't like. Come to think of it, I ignore panhandlers, too.

Sure, but this is an off topic section so they can come here to complain about kickstarter as long as I can keep posting polls on nonsense.

It's probably my age, but I agree. While others see it as a viable alternative when funding is difficult, I see it as begging/panhandling.

Having investors in a business is one thing.

I would not even look at a "kickstarter" site nor be interested in looking at products.

It is, and I had to put the kickstarter section in place to put a stop to people signing up and trying to pan handle here.

I like the idea of crowd sourcing, and please feel free to invest in whatever you would like, but Kickstarter isn't for me.

 

[fosaisu]

This isn't a kickstarter thread. It's about how awful Kickstarter is. Why would anyone give money to an idea when it's all the risk for you, none of the risk of the recipient? In a traditional venture capital situation, it's totally different. The VC provides the money and in return captures some of the revenue stream from the business or idea. You get none of that with Kickstarter. The recipient takes your money, spends it in any manner they deem fit with no accountability to you, and then if things go well you might get whatever product they promised in a year or two.

I see breweries doing Kickstarter stuff all the time. It's usually "give us a few hundred, get a mug." A mug? For real. Wow. What a bargain. So I give you a bunch of money and in exchange get a piece of $8 glassware that I have to pay to fill? Oh, you include a $9 T shirt, where do I sign up?

Kickstart is the internet equivalent of panhandling. It's just like the vagrants I see congregating on the side of the road with their cardboard signs begging for money to get another beer with.

I don't really get the vitriole here. There are no doubt some Kickstarter offers that are essentially requests for donations, but I think the vast majority give you something substantial in exchange for your money. For instance, I got copies of a boardgame (physcial and digital) in exchange for pledging less than it would have cost to buy the boardgame at retail (assuming they were even able to get it off the ground w/o the Kickstarter funding). I don't view that as a charitable donation, I view that as pre-ordering something I was interesting in.

Or you could read about this awesome kickstarter, where a guy wrote a choose your own adventure version of Hamlet and kept using the additional money coming in to improve the quality. The book's now selling for $20 on Amazon, when you would have got a signed version plus some other schwag if you'd done the Kickstarter.

Ultimately, I'll bet if you look at which projects get funded it tends to be ones where a) you get a "prize" of reasonably comporable value to your pledge and b) the company seems reasonably likely to actually pull it off if they get funded.

 

[LabRatBrewer]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that owning stock?


That's a good point.

 

[Randy_Bugger]

Prairie Ales out of Oklahoma recently funded their new brewery with kickstarter money. They got distribution with Shelton Brothers before they even had their own brewery. They make really good beer! They make mostly saisons that probably wouldn't score well at a homebrew contest, but get rave reviews from people who paid $15 for a bomber.

Now more people will get to enjoy their beer and more people will be employed simply because there were some people who wanted to help them get started. I have a hard time seeing the downside here.

Panhandling is when someone gets in your face and begs or coerces money from you. That's not what Kickstarter does.

 

[blizzard]

Prairie Ales out of Oklahoma recently funded their new brewery with kickstarter money. They got distribution with Shelton Brothers before they even had their own brewery. They make really good beer! They make mostly saisons that probably wouldn't score well at a homebrew contest, but get rave reviews from people who paid $15 for a bomber.

Now more people will get to enjoy their beer and more people will be employed simply because there were some people who wanted to help them get started. I have a hard time seeing the downside here.

Panhandling is when someone gets in your face and begs or coerces money from you. That's not what Kickstarter does.

I do love me some prairie, but I'd rather they had a membership program.

 

[Hammy71]

I went on Kickstarter earlier after reading this thread and found some cool products. Ended up spending $30 for a plastic lid that turns a mason jar into a coffee cup and a knit koozie to go around the jar and protect my hands from aforementioned hot coffee... Yup, I'm a dirty hipster. I have fixie bikes, and love overpriced stuff. Sorry.

So, I can donate my money to the local little league or shelter......or some ****** that has invented a mason jar lid/coffee cup? Who the hell would want that? It's panhandling. Or at the very least, uncooth. Just MHO.

 

[blizzard]

So, I can donate my money to the local little league or shelter......or some ****** that has invented a mason jar lid/coffee cup? Who the hell would want that? It's panhandling. Or at the very least, uncooth. Just MHO.

Worst. Hipster. Ever.

 

[Johnnyhitch1]

I went on Kickstarter earlier after reading this thread and found some cool products. Ended up spending $30 for a plastic lid that turns a mason jar into a coffee cup and a knit koozie to go around the jar and protect my hands from aforementioned hot coffee... Yup, I'm a dirty hipster. I have fixie bikes, and love overpriced stuff. Sorry.

You one of those guys who listen to their ipod, drink Starbucks coffee, and camp out for "occupy wall street" complaining about corporate america?

30$ on a plastic lid...for a mason jar??

Im sorry, toss that 30 in a charity fund!

 

[jbaysurfer]

So, I can donate my money to the local little league or shelter......or some ****** that has invented a mason jar lid/coffee cup? Who the hell would want that? It's panhandling. Or at the very least, uncooth. Just MHO.

Damn panhandling little league. Like it doesn't cost enough to register your kid to play, get your wife to volunteer her time in the snack shack, pay 6 bucks for the .75 hot dog and then contribute to the "fundraisers".

And the entrepreneurs are the panhandlers? Judgment is a funny thing.

PS, I know what I'm talking about. I coach. Little league is a FOR PROFIT venture who knows you'll pony up just about your last dollar if it's "for the kids".

 

[jbaysurfer]

PS, I think the folks b!tching about kickstarter doth protest too much. Just skip the website. Like it's some sort of blight on human existence or something. SMH...

 

[jbaysurfer]

You one of those guys who listen to their ipod, drink Starbucks coffee, and camp out for "occupy wall street" complaining about corporate america?

30$ on a plastic lid...for a mason jar??

Im sorry, toss that 30 in a charity fund!

I bet you never bought a carbonator cap either.

 

[aygov]

I don't know what is more hilarious here. The people all bothered by a website on the internet that no one is making them visit or the all the people who THINK they know what the definition of panhandling is.


pan·han·dle
2 [pan-han-dl] verb, pan·han·dled, pan·han·dling. Informal.
verb (used without object)
1.to accost passers-by on the street and beg from them.
verb (used with object)
2. to accost and beg from.
3.to obtain by accosting and begging from someone.

So unless people are somehow accosting you on the internet with their kickstarter campaign then it's no more panhandling than people posting stuff in the For Sale forum.

 

[Hammy71]

PS, I think the folks b!tching about kickstarter doth protest too much. Just skip the website. Like it's some sort of blight on human existence or something. SMH...

Well, I've never been to the website. But, there have been a ton of people peddling their kickstarter "great ideas" on here and begging for people to go to the site and pony up. Beg/use your friends/family (if you must) for money, not total strangers.


And I too have dealt with Little League. It takes a lot of money and volunteers to make the thing work. The lights at the fields, the electricity at the snack shack, uniforms, insurance, umps, the cost of materials (food, gear, sand etc) are more than most people think. Let alone gas for the mowers for the 'volunteers' that mow the fields. I'll give my money to the local little league any day. Least I'm not throwing it away for some stranger's "pipe dream".

Once again, I'm not angry. I could care less if you like the idea of begging. That's OK. I guess my generation and my work ethic....tend to make me frown upon it. Pull yourself up by your own boot straps etc. I've never in my entire life begged someone for money and I don't intend to start now.

 

[jbaysurfer]

Well, I've never been to the website. But, there have been a ton of people peddling their kickstarter "great ideas" on here and begging for people to go to the site and pony up. Beg/use your friends/family (if you must) for money, not total strangers.


And I too have dealt with Little League. It takes a lot of money and volunteers to make the thing work. The lights at the fields, the electricity at the snack shack, uniforms, insurance, umps, the cost of materials (food, gear, sand etc) are more than most people think. Let alone gas for the mowers for the 'volunteers' that mow the fields. I'll give my money to the local little league any day. Least I'm not throwing it away for some stranger's "pipe dream".

Once again, I'm not angry. I could care less if you like the idea of begging. That's OK. I guess my generation and my work ethic....tend to make me frown upon it. Pull yourself up by your own boot straps etc. I've never in my entire life begged someone for money and I don't intend to start now.

You clearly are incapable or unwilling of understanding my perspective. I'm ok with that. I won't ad hominem like you do. The number of assumptions/insinuations you make about me in that one post says all I need to know about your willingness to consider my opinion.

Oh yeah. Smiley face!!!!!!

 

[grathan]

With some product ideas, timing is of the essence. If you have to work 30 years in your minimum wage factory job to fund $80k startup costs then you might miss the boat and the world may never see your invention.

I love gov't funded contests. And I love kickstarter. (though I have never bought anything).

 

[Warthaug]

I've never in my entire life begged someone for money and I don't intend to start now.

Try starting up a company that needs hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars just to startup, then come back and tell us how you feel about 'begging'. No work ethic or skimping will get the average Joe those kinds of funds; certainty not in time for anything even remotely technological. Kickstarter is full of successful examples where those kinds of funds were raised to support those kinds of startups.

Like I said before, I see no difference between seeking money @ kickstarter vs. from investors, VC's or banks. The only difference is the kickstarter crowd don't expect a voice in the management of funded companies. Speaking from personal experience, that is a huge boon. I've had VC's force one of my companies in a direction I would never have chosen, resulting in an outcome I did no desire (namely, licencing of our patents and cessation of our product pipeline).

Bryan

 

[jglazer]

LOL and back in my days
we walked uphill BOTH WAYS
to the tipsy tavern
in bare feet
and had to drink beer
from wooden bowls with holes
and paid in pain with little gain...

People are donating money to complete stranger's goals and dreams!!! Isn't this an amazing and touching thing?? ITS ALMOST LIKE PEOPLE WANT TO SUPPORT AND HELP OTHER PEOPLE...WEIRD HUH? And these donators are doing this with the knowledge that they are not getting equal monetary gain in return...almost like the sheer joy from giving and supporting others is ENOUGH??? SO WEIRD!!!! MY MIND IS BLOWN...

Sucks for the people who broke their backs and banks to get their business up and running...but hey that's life.

I think those people
deserve to grumble high in their steeple
moan
groan
get cheese with their wine...
thats totally fine
We should learn from these few
who always pew pew
because we can then say
HEY...
I think there's an easier way

Sry for my Dr. Seuss of a brain I just couldn't refrain

 

[grathan]

They're saying it's harder than ever to go from rags to riches, though at the same time you see a lot of millionaire brats who did next to nothing to get there.

 

[Warthaug]

LOL and back in my days
we walked uphill BOTH WAYS
to the tipsy tavern
in bare feet
and had to drink beer
from wooden bowls with holes
and paid in pain with little gain...

Cry me a river. In MY days we had to walk to school, but f**k nekked, uphill both ways, through 5 feet of snow. Your not a man unless you've had to scrape ice off your naughty bits

ITS ALMOST LIKE PEOPLE WANT TO SUPPORT AND HELP OTHER PEOPLE

Didn't you get the memo - we're all supposed to be a bunch of heartless capitalists driven solely by the pursuit of the holy dollar, with naught a thought given to compassion, charity, desires or dreams.

I'd have made mine rhyme too, but I'm on my 3rd beer of the evening (a fantastic strong brown ale, brewed by our clubs webmaster, FWIW)



Bryan

 

[dkwolf]

Well, I've never been to the website. But, there have been a ton of people peddling their kickstarter "great ideas" on here and begging for people to go to the site and pony up. Beg/use your friends/family (if you must) for money, not total strangers.


And I too have dealt with Little League. It takes a lot of money and volunteers to make the thing work. The lights at the fields, the electricity at the snack shack, uniforms, insurance, umps, the cost of materials (food, gear, sand etc) are more than most people think. Let alone gas for the mowers for the 'volunteers' that mow the fields. I'll give my money to the local little league any day. Least I'm not throwing it away for some stranger's "pipe dream".

Once again, I'm not angry. I could care less if you like the idea of begging. That's OK. I guess my generation and my work ethic....tend to make me frown upon it. Pull yourself up by your own boot straps etc. I've never in my entire life begged someone for money and I don't intend to start now.

How about before you form your definite, be-all-end-all opinion, you actually go to the site, poke around it for a while, and see what some of the ideas there actually ARE, before condemning it as below your royal "my work ethic is better than yours" station.

Case in point: There's a daily webcomic I've been reading for the last 2-3 years. Said comic at one point featured a heavy/electronic metal band comprised of several main characters. As a little 'side project', the author of the comic started recording some music for the band. Every now and then, he'd post a new song. He had enough people ask him for a professionally recorded album that he checked in to it. More money than he could spend - but he still got requests. So he started a Kickstarter - said to produce the album, it would cost $9,500. That was his goal for the Kickstarter campaign. 10 days into the campaign, there is nearly $67,000 pledged. He's since added more "perks" - extra freebies for the donors, a vinyl release of the album, and if they hit $75k, the previous album will be professionally recorded and re-released. Without the Kickstarter, there would not be a professionally mastered album, but because of the Kickstarter, over 2,000 fans will get a CD they have requested for some time now.

(This particular campaign, any donation over $10 gets you a digital download, and all donations over $20 you get the CD. HARDLY begging.)

 

[Gitmoe]

I guess my generation and my work ethic....tend to make me frown upon it. Pull yourself up by your own boot straps etc. I've never in my entire life begged someone for money and I don't intend to start now.

I don't see how using Kickstarter isn't pulling yourself up. Starting a business or launching a new product is incredibly difficult regardless of where the funding comes from. It takes a massive amount of effort and commitment. Just because someone is asking for capital doesn't mean they aren't working twice as hard as you. Maybe you've never "begged" for money because you never had to. Good for you...

 

[Darwin18]

I don't see how using Kickstarter isn't pulling yourself up. Starting a business or launching a new product is incredibly difficult regardless of where the funding comes from. It takes a massive amount of effort and commitment. Just because someone is asking for capital doesn't mean they aren't working twice as hard as you. Maybe you've never "begged" for money because you never had to. Good for you...

When you have people like Spike Lee doing this on kickstarter I think your argument falls flat:

http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/08/21/spike-lee-film-raises-1-4-million-on-kickstarter/

 

[aygov]

Once again, I'm not angry. I could care less if you like the idea of begging. That's OK. I guess my generation and my work ethic....tend to make me frown upon it. Pull yourself up by your own boot straps etc. I've never in my entire life begged someone for money and I don't intend to start now.

Oh that old chestnut! In my day I had to mine the copper to make the pennies to buy my own shoes because my parents couldn't afford it.

Since you're so adamantly against Kickstarter and any form of begging I trust you've bought and paid for everything you own without any form of loans or credit...

 

[Darwin18]

Since you're so adamantly against Kickstarter and any form of begging I trust you've bought and paid for everything you own without any form of loans or credit...

You do understand how loans and credit work right? You pay interest on them. You don't get money for free which is essentially what kickstarter does.