5 awesome projects that failed on Kickstarter

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Thanks to Kickstarter, the world saw such cool things as the Pebble watch, the Robin cloud smartphone, the Oculus Rift virtual reality helmet. In February 2016, Kickstarter reported 100,000 successfully launched projects. But not all stories end happily. There are many cases when the creators of projects, having received money, have not been able to make the fairy tale come true. They will be discussed.

Refrigerator Coolest Cooler

Target: 50 thousand dollars.

Collected: more than $ 13 million.

Idea. In 2014, Ryan Grepper decided to create a portable refrigerator of the future that would cost only $ 185. In addition to the banal cooling of food and drinks, it can:

• mix drinks and grind ice using the built-in blender;
• play music, as it is also a wireless speaker;
• charge a pair of devices via two USB ports.

You can also cut a salad or cut meat for a barbecue on it. The knife is not afraid of him, as there is a special coating. Inside there is a compartment for dishes, a bottle opener and a storage space for knives, and there is also an LED light for evening gatherings.

In general, the dream of lovers of picnics and outdoor recreation. No wonder the required $ 50,000 was raised in just 36 hours! A month later, the amount exceeded $ 13 million, which is even more than the first Pebble. The refrigerator was waiting for 56 thousand people and, according to Ryan Grapper, should have received it in February 2015.

What happened. But in February 2015, no one received the refrigerator. People understood and forgave: after all, a large-scale campaign, being late in a couple of months is not critical. And they waited a little, and then a little more. The manufacturer periodically reported on the problems with the battery, then with the delivery.

By the end of summer 2015, only 3,000 out of 56,000 people received a refrigerator. The dissatisfaction of sponsors grew, but the surprises did not end there. In the fall, the coveted refrigerator went on sale on Amazon for $ 500 instead of the originally announced $ 185. Ryan Grepper explained this by the fact that he did not calculate the cost of delivery and did not have enough money. It turns out that buyers from Amazon paid for shipping to "kickstarters".

Even now, in May 2016, Coolest Cooler has not yet reached all customers. It just so happened that one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns turned into one big scandal. And only illiterate management remains to blame.

Skarp laser razor

Target: 160 thousand dollars.

Collected: more than $ 4 million.

Idea. Imagine shaving without cuts, irritation and expensive replacement blades. The idea is great, and 20 thousand investors who have invested about $ 4 million in the Skarp project agree with me.

Skarp is a laser razor, which, according to the developers, should replace the usual razor with blades. The laser cuts hairs neatly, eliminating cuts and irritation. The shaver runs on a regular AAA battery, one battery lasts for a month. People liked the idea of the device, and about 250 thousand dollars were raised 24 days before the end of the campaign.

What happened. The idea, of course, is cool, but how feasible? Many began to doubt the reality of the project, if only because there was not a single real image of the razor. Just renders and promises. The principle of operation of the device also raises questions. According to the manufacturers, the laser beam should simply cut off the hairs, just like a regular razor does. But this is hardly possible, because this will require a laser that is several times more powerful than a laser pointer. It will, of course, cut off the hairs, but it will leave a severe burn on the skin.

The inventors answered all the questions with a video in which they cut off five (!) Hairs in two minutes. Such a demonstration of the device's capabilities gave rise to even more doubts. As a result, Kickstarter simply closed the project due to the lack of a working prototype.

But it seems that this did not become a big disappointment for the authors of the project, as it soon appeared on Indiegogo. On this site, real prototypes are not required, and in three hours 34 thousand dollars were collected from the declared 160 thousand. Naturally, no real images of the razor have appeared, so I think this is nothing more than the work of scammers.

Nanodron Zano

Target: 190 thousand dollars.

Collected: more than 3.5 million dollars.

Idea. The authors of the project decided to create a small drone that can fly and shoot video in high definition. The crumb was supposed to fit easily in the palm of your hand, it was proposed to control it using a smartphone or gestures. There was an idea to make the most simple and convenient control that any person can master.

The potential of the Zano is, of course, amazing. Thanks to the multitude of sensors, the drone had to fly almost autonomously, dodge obstacles, shoot and stream video for at least 15 minutes. They promised support for wireless charging, video stabilization and even a thermal imaging camera. A tempting feature set for such a crumb.

There were many who wanted to get the Zano, they managed to raise more than 3.5 million dollars. The developers have promised to deliver the drones in June 2015.

What happened. And it turned out to be one of the biggest scandals on Kickstarter. According to the already familiar scheme, the creators of the project first fed the sponsors with promises, postponed the deadlines several times. As a result, having thwarted all the deadlines, they sent a couple of hundred half-dead drones (with 3 thousand customers). The gadgets turned out to be of terrible quality, they were only able to rise a few centimeters above the ground, after which they flew into the wall. There was no trace of autonomous flights and avoiding obstacles.

This caused a wave of outrage, which led to Kickstarter even having to hire the famous journalist Mark Harris (Mark Harris) for an independent investigation. Naturally, everything turned out to be a lie, videos demonstrating the capabilities of the drone were falsified. The money was spent on personal needs, and when they ran out, the company declared itself bankrupt.

3D Printer Peachy Printer

Target: 50 thousand dollars.

Collected: more than 650 thousand dollars.

Idea. Rylan Grayston and David Boe decided to make a 3D printer accessible to everyone. They developed a compact device called the Peachy Printer, which was supposed to be sold as a kit so that each user could build and configure the printer based on a specific task. The gadget was able to print even colored objects using eight mixed colors. In general, a useful thing, and for only $ 100.

Having collected more than 650 thousand dollars, the creators of the project promised that they would return soon, and disappeared for more than two years.

What happened. And then Rylan Greyston got in touch, announcing that his companion had spent most of the money building his home. Since they did not have a common account, all funds raised on Kickstarter went to David Bo's account. When Rylan asked to give him the collected money, David transferred only 200 thousand dollars. Before going to the police, Rylan decided to appeal to the conscience of his companion and demanded that he confess to theft and return the money with interest.

David, of course, apologized, but returned only 107 thousand dollars from the remaining 450 thousand. The rest went home. However, Rylan Greyston decided not to give up and promised to still send the printers to customers, even without having the entire amount.

Ant Simulator

Target: 4 thousand dollars.

Collected: 4, 5 thousand dollars.

Idea. ETeeski decided to create an Ant Simulator game. As you may have guessed, in it you are offered to become an ant: to extract resources, to fight, to build - in general, to do the usual ant activities. At the same time, the emphasis is on virtual reality, support for Oculus Rift glasses, ANTVR and others is announced. In addition to third-party investments, the guys raised over 4 thousand dollars on Kickstarter and were already preparing for open beta testing.

What happened. In early 2016, the game developer Eric Tereshinski published a video announcing the closure of the project. It turned out that his partners and part-time best friends spent all the money on booze, poker and strippers. According to Eric, almost all the money was spent, so he cannot continue developing the game. Moreover, his ex-partners threatened Eric with a court if he began to work on the project on his own.

The moral is simple: choose your partners wisely and do not blindly trust them, even if they are your bosom friends.

Here's a selection came out. It is a pity that many interesting projects fail simply because of stupidity and illiterate management. Well, Kickstarter should carefully select projects, as well as develop a support system for users who are affected in such situations.