Two of the top-earning Kickstarters have fallen on hard times

[Shawn Knight]

Since its launch in 2009, nearly 10 million backers have pledged well over $2 billion to successfully fund more than 96,000 projects on Kickstarter. A real testament to the power of crowdfunding, Kickstarter has also been responsible for some truly awesome products.

Unfortunately, Kickstarter is also associated with a pretty serious issue in that not all funded projects have a happy ending. In fact, two of the site’s top-earning campaigns have recently fallen on hard times.

The Coolest Cooler, the second most funded project of all-time, is now being sold on Amazon (through its Launchpad program for startups) in order to fund the production of new units. As The Verge notes, the news is a bit frustrating as some early backers that were promised units in February are still waiting for theirs.

The team behind the Coolest Cooler addressed the matter in a recent project update, noting that a strike by the factory that manufactures the motor for their cooler has set them behind. The deal with Amazon was made before the strike happened, which explains why it’s on sale there before backers have theirs. If it’s any consolation, Amazon buyers are paying $500 while early backers may have paid as little as $185.

Thing are looking much worse for backers of the Zano nano drone. After raising £2,335,119 (more than $3.5 million USD) to become the most-funded European Kickstarter project ever, the company behind the tiny quadcopter – Torquing Group – has thrown in the towel after shipping just 600 of its 15,000 ordered. As Ars Technica notes, the company’s website appears to be offline and its Twitter feed hasn’t been updated since mid-October.

These are just a couple of the recent Kickstarter success stories that haven’t turned out quite as planned but they’re certainly not the first (remember Ouya, anyone?).

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https://www.techspot.com/news/62893-two-top-earning-kickstarters-have-fallen-hard-times.html

 

[cliffordcooley]

Earning my ***, more like top-scamming!

 

[Uncle Al]

Like any start-up, it's a high risk venture. The big difference here is they simply are promising some of the goodies, but not the immense profits that would normally be associated with this sort of capital investing so, as previously said, it certainly does indeed look like top-scamming by a bunch of bottom feeders!

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Earning my ***, more like top-scamming!

While there have been some worthwhile gadgets, a lot of these startups apply for Kickstarter loans just to run cons. There are always going to be those that abuse the system just to turn a quick buck. It's human nature after all.

 

[davislane1]

Not surprising. Most normal business ventures fail. No reason kickstarters would be different just by virtue of changing the capital source.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Not surprising. Most normal business ventures fail. No reason kickstarters would be different just by virtue of changing the capital source.

While that is true, it is a bit different than relying on someone that is in business supporting new adventures. The Kickstarter program preys on anyone that is not educated in that field, because they couldn't get a chance from those that are educated.

And under those conditions they should be regulated more closely as to how they can use money given to them. Leaving it unregulated is what makes it a scam from the start. Because unregulated; your money is not going into the project, your money is going into the lifestyle of those asking for aid.

Thing are looking much worse for backers of the Zano nano drone. After raising £2,335,119 (more than $3.5 million USD) to become the most-funded European Kickstarter project ever, the company behind the tiny quadcopter – Torquing Group – has thrown in the towel after shipping just 600 of its 15,000 ordered.

Funding of 3.5 million only produced 600, that's nearly $6,000 a piece. Once the prototype was built which shouldn't have cost that much in parts, mass production cloning would have cost way less. The project was thrown under the rug because they couldn't afford the rent, which shouldn't even be a factor in crowd-funding.

 

[Jeff Re]

For these and many other reasons, I will only buy music from bands of Kickstarter from now on, mostly thanks to Rocki and their horrible Kickstarter campaign.

 

[Sagacious1]

I dunno I bought a Nextbit Robin on Kickstarter. I feel pretty safe. Nextbit has been very transparent.
I think you just have to be very careful