TinyLightbulbs

Courtesy: WobbleWorks LLC

Most of us are familiar with the mega-funded campaigns that have taken Kickstarter by storm over the past year, most notably Pebble.

Last week, another mega-funded project has quickly risen to join the ranks of these iconic campaigns. That project is 3Doodler. 

3Doodler is described as a pen that allows you to “draw in the air.” It sounds crazy, but the project video (shown below) gives a glimpse into how it works. To explain it simply, it’s a pen that uses a variation of standard 3D printing technology.

The project was launched on February 18 with an initial humble goal of $30K and is already at about $1.9M. Kicktraq shows a projected final funding amount of ~$8M, though the project creators have begun to limit the availability of each reward tier, so it’s likely that, in a similar fashion to what was seen with the Pebble campaign, funding will hit a ceiling.

Courtesy: Mirza Minds

This week we’re focusing on a project that has a mission to share its success: 1:Face Watches on Indiegogo.

These watches, in addition to being beautifully designed and presented, also serve to allow the individuals wearing them to participate in one of six different charities.

The way this works is fairly straightforward. The guys over at Mirza Minds have chosen six charities: One Day’s Wages, Charity:Water, The National Breast Cancer Foundation, The Adventure Project, Keep a Child Alive, and the American Cancer Society, each represented by a different color of watch.

Each watch that’s sold translates into a certain amount of money that is donated to the corresponding charity. The breakdown can be seen below:

Courtesy: Mirza Minds

Yesterday evening, Kickstarter announced a set of new project guidelines: 

1) Project creators are required to outline potential risks and challenges they may face throughout their project, and how they are able to overcome them. 

(The following guidelines affect Hardware and Product Design projects)

2) Product simulations are prohibited. Projects cannot simulate events to demonstrate what a product might do in the future, and can only be shown performing actions that they’re able to perform in their current state of development.

3) Product renderings are prohibited. Product images must be photos of the prototype as it currently exists.

4) Multiple quantities of a product as a reward are prohibited. Only one unit of any product can be offered to a backer.

These guidelines have not arrived without significant resistance from the site’s users (we've shown just a few comments in the image above).

Not much criticism has come up regarding the first guideline, as it seems to be a sensible request to ask of creators. But the next three guidelines are sparking controversy.

One of the biggest criticisms being voiced is that these new guidelines are, in a word, ironic. They were announced under the general statement of “Kickstarter is Not a Store”, though, as many individuals have commented on the blog post where they were posted, they will inevitably increase the amount of projects showcasing finished products and decrease the amount of projects showcasing a blossoming idea.

In other words, individuals with great ideas who are lacking the funds to bring them to life will likely struggle even more, as backers will be less likely to invest money in a project consisting of a makeshift prototype that doesn’t give justice to the final design of the product (through the use of images such as renderings). So how can project creators combat this problem? By gathering enough funds to produce a polished product able convey the final concept.

But isn’t that what Kickstarter is for? If a project creator has enough money to bring his product to a near-final/final stage, doesn’t that defeat the purpose of Kickstarter (and this recent announcement), as the creator would essentially be selling a product that already exists?

Finally, the guideline prohibiting the offering of multiple quantities of a product is leading many project creators to question whether or not they will be able to easily reach their campaign goals. By offering multiple quantities, a project can very quickly accrue a large amount of money, due to the presence of higher priced reward levels. Restricting rewards to only one product, however, will lead to lower priced reward levels, an overall decrease in the average pledge to Hardware and Product Design projects, and therefore lower campaign totals.

It will be interesting to see how Kickstarter responds, if at all, to the community’s backlash. What’s clear at this point is that the general response from Kickstarter users, both creators and backers, is that these new guidelines are unwelcome.

And, while Kickstarter has made it clear that they are not a store for crowdfunded products, you can rest assured that TinyLightbulbs certainly is.

Courtesy: Gawker

We occasionally like to take a look at crowdfunding projects that don’t involve a product as the end result. While gadgets and accessories are a large portion of what’s coming from crowdfunding today, there are many other projects that are just as newsworthy.

Earlier this year, a video was uploaded to YouTube by several middle schoolers, showing them harassing Karen Klein, a 68-year-old bus monitor. The video is, to say the least, pretty hard to watch. Once the video had been uploaded, it began to garner a significant amount of attention.

After watching the video, one individual decided to take action. Max Sidorov immediately set up a campaign on Indiegogo with the goal of raising $5,000 to pay for Karen to take a short vacation from her $15K/year job.

What resulted far exceeded Max’s initial expectations.

Individuals from over 80 countries banded together through this crowdfunding campaign and donated a total of over $700,000.

Courtesy: Clip Tree

This week’s project spotlight is showcasing an inventive product that was launched just a few days ago.

The project is Clip Tree. 

The concept behind Clip Tree is very simple, and combined with a great minimalist design and presentation, it quickly caught our attention.

Clip Tree is a sleek valet featuring a variety of different clips that can be attached in order to provide different functions. Some examples of the clips that are available are: hook, bowl, tray, peg, mirror, and more.

As you can see above, the possible uses for Clip Tree are seemingly limitless. It can be used as a coat rack, a key/smartphone tray, or whatever else your imagination can come up with.

It seems that artists have been working overtime with putting together awesome infographics related to crowdfunding. You won’t hear any complaining from us. As you all have probably noticed, we love visual representations of data. It makes things much more memorable and interesting.

The most recent one we found gives some great insight into several aspects of Kickstarter, such as the factors that increase a project’s chance at success, which categories see the highest percentage of successful projects, and more.

Another reason we love this infographic? It referenced a project we were previously unaware of: Motivational Tapes for Cats. Stumbling across that little gem alone makes us happy we found this. 

It’s no secret that there have been several very successful video game projects that have shown up this year on the crowdfunding scene.

If you’ve even remotely been paying attention over the last several months, it’s likely that you’ve come across projects such as Double Fine Adventure, Wasteland 2, Ouya, and most recently, Homestuck (which raised an impressive $500,000 in its first day).

But did you know that the game category on Kickstarter has already brought in a whopping $50 million this year? That’s just this year so far. There’s still 4 months left.

It’s true - gamers of all types have spoken loud and clear and shown the online community that they’re really into independently funded games. While the game category does include products such as board games, it is usually the video games that rake in the ultra funding, as well as much of the attention. 

To give you an idea of just how quickly this category is expanding: In 2009 the game category didn’t even bring in a total of $50,000 on Kickstarter. In 2010, that figure jumped to just over $500,000. In 2011, the total was $3.6 million. 

And now, just 2/3 of the way through 2012, it’s already at $50 million.

If that doesn’t make the established players in the gaming industry just a little nervous, I don’t know what would.

Courtesy: ThingsWeStart

There’s a new site that launched today with the mission of providing an easy to use interface that will allow users to view current Kickstarter projects based on location.

The site is ThingsWeStart. It’s a very interesting idea, and we have yet to see anything like this until now.

Anyone who’s tried to search for crowdfunding projects knows that it can sometimes be a tedious task if you want to add any sort of filter to the search. Things We Start makes this process a breeze by displaying a realtime map that pinpoints the locations of any projects within your search parameters.

Looking for all design projects in Seattle? No problem. Just select the category of project and zoom into the map to see what projects are getting funded right now in that area.

In addition to searching by location and category, users can also view projects based on funding amount. If you want to see projects that are close to being fully funded, simply select the “Almost There” option, and you’ll be given a list of projects that just need a final push to become successful.

Courtesy: BugASalt

Several days ago, we came across a project on Indiegogo that is unlike any other project we’ve seen – BugASalt.

The BugASalt is a miniaturized toy shotgun, which has been designed as an “insect eradication device.”

In short, it functions by shooting a lethal pinch of salt at any unwelcome insects you may have around, taking them down in an instant. The device is most accurate within a range of approximately 3 feet.

When we first saw this project, we were blown away by the creativity of it. If you don’t already have the same reaction as we did, we suggest re-reading the previous few sentences …

It’s a salt shotgun that’s used on insects.

If ever the word “creative” should be applied to a project, this is the time. We love seeing quirky ideas like this come about through crowdfunding, and definitely think that this deserves some recognition.

The BugASalt is currently in its final days on Indiegogo, and has already raised an impressive $500,000.

Ever wonder about some of the statistics behind the projects that make it and those that don’t on Kickstarter?

Want to know some of the variables that come into play in deciding which one of those groups a project winds up in?

How about the percentage of projects that end up delivering their rewards within the estimated timeframe?

Have we got just the thing for you.

Below is a very well done infographic put together by AppsBlogger illustrating some interesting Kickstarter numbers you may not have been aware of. It’s definitely worth taking a look at, whether you’re a creator looking to start your own project or just curious about the process itself.

Courtesy: Film Finance Awards

Every year, the Film Finance Awards take place, where, according to the official website, “governments organizations, the investment community and individuals working on behalf of and within the film industry and film finance communities will be recognized for their achievements in over twenty categories of investment.”

Yesterday, the Film Finance Awards announced a partnership with the National Crowdfunding Association, or NLCFA. This partnership will ultimately lead to the creation of the Film Crowdfunding Awards, where individuals who have sought funding for the independent film through crowdfunding platforms will be recognized.

Yet another indication of the proliferation of crowdfunding into even more industries. And, after quickly browsing the pages of Kickstarter and Indiegogo projects, it’s easy to see why the area of film is drawing much attention in the crowdfunding context.

David Marlett, Founder and Executive Director of the NLCFA, states, "The film industry is perfect for crowdfunding, and crowdfunding is perfect for it … Besides being a means for financing some or all of a film's budget, crowdfunding provides a brilliantly unique opportunity for 'putting a project up on its virtual feet', to get a sense for the appetite of the crowd (its future audience)."

Marlett adds, “with the advent of investment crowdfunding in 2013, we are about to see an enormous spike in film crowdfunding competition.  The Film Crowdfunding Awards will highlight the cream of those campaigns, and inspire others in perfecting their film crowdfunding campaigns."

This year’s Film Finance Awards are scheduled for December 5, 2012 in Poland, and will follow the traditional format, without recognizing crowdfunding. However, the 2013 Film Finance Awards will mark the beginning of the Film Crowdfunding Awards.

Courtesy: L7 World

This morning, NPR’s All Things Considered covered the story of Ouya, one of the most recent million dollar projects on Kickstarter. For those of you that have been living under a rock, Ouya is an open-source gaming console that is scheduled to make its debut early next year.

The focus of the story was on what happens when Kickstarter projects don’t go exactly as planed. Which, as a side note, we think is a very odd direction that NPR took for the article, as Ouya was incredibly successful and definitely has the funding to follow through with the initial concept. Nevertheless, the interview did open up the potential for further discussion.

NPR’s Aarti Shahani interviewed the brains behind Ouya, Julie Uhrman, and asked her, among other things, what would happen if she and her team could not deliver on the promise of bringing the console to market. Uhrman suggested that the question be taken to Kickstarter, though she would treat her backers in the “best possible way”.

Kickstarter’s Yancey Strickler answered the same question stating that there has yet to be a case surrounding a failed project where Kickstarter has become involved.

The unfortunate fact is that there are, occasionally, projects that don’t live up to the expectations of the backers. It’s possible that this hasn’t garnered enough attention yet due to the fact that, more often than not, backers are rewarded with the product as promised.

But what happens when a project’s creator doesn’t deliver the product whatsoever? This certainly has occurred a couple times, and may be a topic for discussion in a future blog post, and it presents an interesting situation that may need to be fully addressed as crowdfunding becomes even more mainstream.

Courtesy: Crearri

While browsing through some current crowdfunding campaigns this week, we came across one that quickly caught our attention. We’ve seen several projects involving wallets before, but this one really impressed us – Keylet.

Keylet is designed by Crearri, a team made up of Anthony Hoang and Nhu Truong. It’s their first Kickstarter project, and they have definitely made a very good first impression entering into the crowdfunding scene.

We’re pretty big fans of minimalism, and we feel that the guys behind this product executed the concept excellently. Keylet is a very slim, sleek multifunctional wallet that will make you wish you weren’t carrying around whatever chunk of leather you’re currently using as a wallet. 

The wallet is made from stainless steel (always a great material for a sleek, modern look) and features a simple money clip to hold your cash/cards. What sets the Keylet apart from the crowd, however, is that it is designed to hold two keys that swivel out from the body of the wallet.

That’s right, no more having to worry about jingling, bulky keys on a keyring anymore. The Keylet includes two keys, which can be easily be cut at a local hardware store. If you carry around more than two keys, these guys have a solution for you as well in the Key Caddy, a similar device that holds additional keys and matches the aesthetics of the Keylet.