I am interested if any of you ever backed a Kickstarter or Indiegogo project. There are tons of crowdfunding platforms out there, but I think those two are the largest.

I have never backed a project other than for the company where I work, but that was not an authentic backing and I ended up getting my money reimbursed because I only did it to help early traction. That was on Indiegogo. But I was very interested in backing a project last year. It was an animated film project on Kickstarter. There was this animation studio called Mano Animation Studios, and they were creating this beautifully animated film called The Glassworker. Also, if I remember correctly they were the first animated film studio in Pakistan. I ended up not backing them, but I would have liked to - I think I asked them many questions and they did not reply, so I bitterly stopped checking the page.

I know that Magic Mike is very interested in the crowdfunding platform where film is involved (all of the movie threads with "Kickstarter" and "Indiegogo" in the title were created by him). I wonder where he finds about these projects. Is there a news feed specifically for them?

I always imagined Groucho as being a fan of crowdfunding. Whether it's for his wife's dryer lint art or for him and his fantasy friends.

Anybody else have any experience or thoughts on it?

Get a real job!

I donated $20 to my friends college gofundme after her parents divorced and her father refused to pay.

I thought I did have a real job. What about my posts makes you think my job is not real?

Yes, GoFundMe is the other fairly big one but that's usually for social causes. But yeah, what a douche-bag father.

It all worked out because someone anonymous gave her $12,000.

Maybe it was her dad.

The LARP group I run did one in order to buy more mattresses for the camp beds. It was quite successful, especially since the rewards we gave didn't cost us any money. (Donate $20 and get a Potion of Healing for your character!)

So the company I work for is planning to launch a new Kickstarter campaign for delivery before Christmas, despite their two previous failed Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns. They exceeded goals, raised a ton of money, but couldn't deliver the product. It's a technical product so that's not uncommon, but many backers are pissed (though not as many as I thought would be). So the owner has just created a new account and with a slightly different product will launch a new campaign. To me, it is deceitful and unethical, but the owner can somehow convince himself that any sly move is A-OK; he just thinks he is being entrepreneurial! The owner has removed any mention of the company's brand, there will be no "team" section, it'll be a new video, new content, not using the previous backer list, we cannot promote it on social, etc. etc. ... it's just such a cover up.

Instead of owning up, it's all trying to be hidden. I've expressed that I think it is ill-advised, but I've had to bite my lip to what I really think - I think it's a fucking awful idea, and I'm seriously ready to leave so I have nothing to do with it. From a marketing perspective, it has the potential to be an absolute disaster, and our company already doesn't have the best standing. It's as if the owner doesn't live in the real world. I guess sitting in China will do that to a person - the US feels like a different planet, and repercussions are relatively non-existent if things do go awry. But there is just no way you can hide these things since everything is on the Internet now, and backers are a shrewd bunch. I mean, backers will get this new product if the campaign is a success. That's pretty much guaranteed as they already have thousands of units produced and ready to send, but I just have a problem with covering up previous campaigns. A part of me hopes nobody cares and it fails to reach its [very low] goal, just to show how much of a bad idea it is. But I would also like it to succeed. Ever since I've been at the company there hasn't been any success (almost exclusively the owner's fault).

Anyway, glad to get this out.

I did a kickstarter or maybe it was gofundme. I can't remember but it was from the guy who did a documentary the Death of Superman Lives. I ended up getting the blu ray, patch, something else. I can't remember but it took like 2 or 3 years to get the stuff. If you got money to donate and aren't in a rush to get your return and have patience then invest all you want.

So here's an update if anyone wanted one...

The campaign was a complete and utter failure. It only managed $17,000 with 5 days to go, so it might finish with around $18,000 (though it is normal for backers to pull out just before the campaign ends, rather than there being a surge of interest, so it may finish with less). Due to this and the company's app not getting traction and the previous product not getting sufficient sales, the company has been burning through money quite quickly. The owner was absent for a week. He failed to secure more investment from the investors. He made a lot of stupid decisions which has now resulted in the closure of the company on Tuesday just gone. So I'm now out of a job. And this is how much of a dick the owner is....he only told us 4 hours before the end of our contracts that we were out of a job. He's known for weeks. So basically no notice. We went to work Tuesday with a job and came home without one.

I don't know why the campaign failed. I have my thoughts (previous negative experience campaign, basic product, too cheap, no build up, launched too suddenly), but the main one is the owner. Everything he's ever done has failed. He calls himself a "serial entrepreneur", which is just hilarious. He's started 4 companies before, and all have failed. They all ended before he started the next. That's not a serial entrepreneur, that's a serial failure. A serial entrepreneur is someone that starts companies, builds them up and makes them successful, leaves to start a new company while the existing ones are still operational. Probably why he came to China - nobody would give him investment in the UK and Spain where he's depleted his goodwill among the country's investors.

Wow. Sorry to hear about that Algren. Can't imagine being let go with literally no notice. I hope things rebound quickly for you and your family.

Thanks nghtvsn. I hope so too. It's partly my fault too. I have to get better at my due diligence when choosing people to work for.

Sorry it didn't work out. How much were you asking for if you don't mind. 18,000 still is a pretty decent number.

I've always found crowdfunding a tricky business, unless you're making a board game (I've shot a few of these videos and statistically that is the best genre for it)

If you're company is making an app, why not just find a legit investor for it? From you're earlier posts, sounds like the guy is kind of a cheat.

The company had plenty of investors. The app just didn't gain any traction.

The new Kickstarter campaign's goal was only $5,000. But crowdfunding goals are never the REAL goal. The real goal was actually 6 figures. He didn't say it in as many words, but I know it was the owner's last ditch attempt to make success of things. He had been rushing everything through for the last few weeks to make sure it was ready for this arbitrary launch date -- because money was running out and it couldn't have been postponed. Ideally, this launch should have waited until Q2 2019. But hey ho, it went ahead and failed.

Right but that is sort of confusing. If the campaign went more than 3x the goal it's not really a failure. If you were expecting over 100k, he should have asked for it.

That's crowdfunding 101, it'll lose major attention once the set goal is hit. People will click right off.

I kind of doubt that last point considering how many campaigns I've seen go many multipliers beyond the goal.
It's really just about having an product idea people want and which they feel they can get at a relative bargain why waiting for it. If a campaign only reaches it's goal I doubt it's ever going to turn in a viable company as the market just seems not there. Also campaigns set the goal deliberately as low as possible I think just so it can be considered a success.

That's not the way it works at all. and wouldn't you say 3.5x your goal pretty good multiplier.

Asking for 5k when you're hoping that it'll get 100+ in whatever time amount is just stupid business sense. There are filters, notifications, etc. Once you reach the goal you fall off the search list. No one goes to kickstarter and says "Hey what company has already reached its goal, I'll give them more" and a social media campaign is just as important.

The goals are only there for bragging rights. Which is why these days campaigners always put a low goal so they can say "we smashed through our goal in 24 hours" etc. etc. It's all about image.

Nobody goes on Kickstarter looking to help companies reach their goal. People go on there to buy extremely discounted products in the development stage. It's a store to many people. And Kickstarter's algorithm doesn't work as you claimed. If you're making sales, you stay at the top. Same goes for Indiegogo.

Found a new job, by the way. Definitely the most excited I've been about any of my previous jobs.

My China career so far:
Lighting > Headphones > Sweets

Interestingly? I got a new (old) job too.

Joining my previous company again in January, after having left it 5 years ago:

Lighting > Packaging> Lighting

Oh hey, I did not congratulate you yet. Sorry about that. Congrats dude! I know you have been really wanting to leave the packaging company, so I hope this makes your life a little more comfortable.

No worries, I considered the "nicely done" as such.
And yeah, pretty excited about changing jobs and moving cities finally.