anecdotally, I've talked to two successful hardware kickstarter founders. They both regretted doing it - it took a huge amount of time to raise 30k and 70k respectively, and they were both blindsided by unforeseen issues and had to face angry backers.
For a super small hardware project it might be better to bootstrap and start by selling kits or one-offs.
The problem with hardware Kickstarters is that creators word them as presales, instead of funding for an inherently risky venture (which all hardware projects are). "Rewards" should never be the deciding factor behind contributing to a Kickstarter campaign. That way, even if a Kickstarter fails, it's no big deal; nobody is losing anything other than their actual stake in the project. And the creators are highly incented to succeed, because every sale they make thereafter is a "full" sale; with a captive market of backers, no less.
Nail on the head. Can’t emphasize this point enough. They are perks. They cannot be the product in most cases, because the product may fail and the entire dynamic is “I didn’t get what I bought.” The dynamic should be “I donated and it didn’t pan out unfortunately” in the case of a failed project.
Comments
anecdotally, I've talked to two successful hardware kickstarter founders. They both regretted doing it - it took a huge amount of time to raise 30k and 70k respectively, and they were both blindsided by unforeseen issues and had to face angry backers.
For a super small hardware project it might be better to bootstrap and start by selling kits or one-offs.
The problem with hardware Kickstarters is that creators word them as presales, instead of funding for an inherently risky venture (which all hardware projects are). "Rewards" should never be the deciding factor behind contributing to a Kickstarter campaign. That way, even if a Kickstarter fails, it's no big deal; nobody is losing anything other than their actual stake in the project. And the creators are highly incented to succeed, because every sale they make thereafter is a "full" sale; with a captive market of backers, no less.
“Rewards should never be the deciding factor”
Nail on the head. Can’t emphasize this point enough. They are perks. They cannot be the product in most cases, because the product may fail and the entire dynamic is “I didn’t get what I bought.” The dynamic should be “I donated and it didn’t pan out unfortunately” in the case of a failed project.