Last year I found out about KickStarter and joined it and pledged on 4 projects. As per the way they classify, 2 of them are technology related, 1 design related and yet another fashion related. My pledge was in a span of 3 months and then I stopped using it. The two technology related projects are, one that allows making 3d print filament and another for the 3d printer itself. The printer finally arrived a few days back and I will have another post about it. This post is mainly to ponder on my experience of using Kickstarter and why I will be less inclined to use it. First, I think it’s a great way to allow anyone to receive funding and follow their dreams. While I appreciate that part, as a consumer I have some concerns that if and when they can be addressed I might look into participating more.
Here is my list of issues.
1) ETA: Every projects gives an ETA that is 100% guaranteed to be wrong for complex projects. So, if you are hoping to use them as gifts on special occasions based on the date the projects mention, you would be signing up for a big disappointment. Similarly if you sign up for a project thinking you will have some free time at the time when the product is supposed to be shipped and it ships say 6 months to 1 yr (not unheard of) later, then your personal situation might change and not have as much time to dedicate. I know that’s the problem of the individual but it is something to be aware of when pledging your hard earned cash.
2) Skills: The 3d filament maker kit for which I pledge $365 is still not completed after a year. There are multiple reasons for this.
2.1) There was no assembly documentation. Doing it using Youtube videos is a big pain
2.2) I didn’t know the level of complexity of electric wiring when I pledged for the project. It seems to be fairly complex for a novice person like me. On top of that there was no clear documentation and the videos don’t clearly show the details and there is a lot of wiring. When pledging for a project for a complex kit, there is no easy way to know what type of skills are needed and to what level. The videos pitching the project only show how the product works but there is not enough information on the complexity of the project.
3) Support:
3.1) As I was assembling, I found that one of the parts was not fitting correctly and when I contacted the owner of the project, he never replied back. There is no way I would ever be bidding for this person’s project again in my life, trust me.
3.2) Most of these kits are hand packaged and there is always a chance for missing parts. It happened in case of the 3d printer. If you are lucky (like my 3d printer guys), you would get the part shipped that too for free.
4) Quality: A lot of times people are coming up with ideas to do something for the first time or improve existing feature. In doing so, things may not exactly work out as they expected in their prototypes for creating the video to pitch the project. So, if some of the parts they select break after a few uses, then it may be hard to get a replacement part especially if it’s custom made or they made it with 3d printing.
A lot of projects are structured such that the more you pay the sooner you receive it. But after watching some of these projects and the comments it seems like usually it’s a good idea to not be in the first batch. Why? Because the first batch guys will uncover all kinds of quality issues that result in several modifications to the product by the time the later batches receive. And those later batch people actually receive a much better product. Of course, sometimes the delay between the first and last batches is as high as 1 yr which is a pain.
You would also notice that once the company has shipped the first batch of their product they start fulfilling the direct orders (pre-orders) and not necessarily those that started on Kickstarter which is actually the seed money used to make the thing happen in the first place.
Here are some of the things I would like to see on a platform like Kickstarter to protect consumers.
1) Clear indication of skills required to make use of the product. If something requires soldiering it has to be explicitly mentioned so people who assume they just need a screwdriver and nothing else can decide if they or their buddy can complete the project or they need to stay away.
2) Assess and provide some kind of risk number for the project. A lot of the people who start their projects are not necessarily experts in running the business. They may have some great idea and technical expertise. Even people with business experience might not have experience in how to get the product manufactured in China, for example. Or what they thought works in prototype might not be working for mass production. Some of the projects raise several hundreds of thousands of dollars. So, there needs to be some kind of indication on the risk associated with the project actually completing.
3) Ensure Kickstarter pledges are fulfilled prior to other channels of fulfillment especially if the project is running late or there is a significant delay between batch x and x+1 while the project initially claimed just a month or two.
4) Provide more quantitative way of understanding the project progress. Today there is no such mechanism and requires pouring through lots of comments. For example, I know one project where a lot of vexed people wanted to get their money back. The project owner supposedly returned money. If collection can be done via Kickstarter, refunds could also be done via them. How about Kickstarter actually tying up with shipping companies and allowing the backers to use the service (much like eBay does) and track the progress of shipments?
The above are just a few but there is so much more that can be done to bring more transparency into the project execution. Right now, it only serves as a fund raising platform. This is not acceptable to me as a consumer based on my small set of projects I tried. Of course, everyone has their own tolerance to risk, their own patience to resolve issues or go rant about a project owner if they are not happy and so on. This is my personal opinion heavily based on the experience I have gone through.