Crowd Funding — Not Preordering

“Imagine we if we all were risk takers, then heck the world would have Laws not based on Rules but based off RISKS”.

How about we make it clear for everyone once and for all. When you back projects, the word back means Support, Fund and inevitably means RISK. You are considered technically a mini- one shot investor with pros and cons by contributing to fund a project. So it’s very important to make it clear, using these crowdsourcing platforms has its ups and downs. The risks are just one of those unwanted rewards we try not to expect, but they are part of it.

“The problem is people have the wrong idea of crowd funding projects, they expect their money to turn into rewards from a backed on a given successful campaign” — what they forget is they are investing in an idea which was sold to them, that idea could be a software, piece of cloth, a Protoype 1.0 or baby monitor drone which flys around your new born.

We have two type of people, people who are not business oriented so it could be a little soft to comprehend the art of risk taking and absorbing a loss from every now and then and the risk takers. This is generally a borderline between entrepreneurs and those working for the safe government jobs, essentially the non-risk takers.

Imagine we if we all were risk takers, then heck the world would have laws not based on rules but based off Risks!. It is such pious for most of us to stick to our humble conservatives ideas and save that piggy bank and this is not what we are here to talk about.

SOLVE THE PROBLEM BY EDUCATING?

So how do we solve this problem!? we don’t, we educate. Educate those investing and welcome them to the domain of risks when backing. I do not personally know what those INVENTORS might be going through if they have 1000’s backers questioning their the faith and loyalty.

I am not supporting either sides because I feel both sides have misunderstood each other.

Since the BOOM! of crowdfunding platforms, I came across “ Tilt” — an app basically works in helping community collect money from any interested member who wishes “as a GROUP” to make an event or group purchase happen — see this makes more sense to me!.

We all invest, take risk — if we reach a goal we all made it, but if we do not we all get our money back.

Now, coming back to the misunderstanding, it’s very important to educate those investing and those who are asking for help from strangers to be responsible and be more interactive . Both sides need an open mind and a sense of acknowledge for these crowdfunding campaigns.

Last week I attended a talk where our guest speaker Dan Pullato –Brilliant Growth Hacking Charity Guy. His talk changed my perception towards charities.

He said “ Everyone tends to look over the “OVERHEAD COSTS”

“ If he was really willing to commit a fraud, he would not put his name and face out there in front of thousands of people and just get away with their money” — it makes no sense.

These two things struck me quite intrinsically as I selfishly ignored them in my past.

Of-course corporations — startups have justifiable overhead costs just as these all crowdfunding campaigns do, which are most often underestimated by those founders of campaigns and those helping them fund.

Always : RISKS = OVERHEAD COST

How you define risks ? How you measure Risks ? — Solely depends on the risk taker and person taking the risks with your money.

I have personally backed about 15 projects collectively on both Kickstarter and Indiegogo and so far I have had just one disappointing experience. Basically the project stretch too far and the tech product got outdated and their delivery date promised seem superficial after all the problems. They got bought out by a tech- firm and now it’s soon planning to deliver. Nevertheless, I had to be patient and hoped for the best. I figured this was just one bad apple I could not really get to chew on but throw it away without getting my hands on it. — a.k.a bad investment.

My advice? — if it matters

Use luck a pathetic noun to refer to when sharing advice on risks but if you want to be more precise, have some selective knowledge about all or your interested industry. Technology category by far most popular and has a lot of success rate which does not necessarily translate to a successful delivery.

If you are really looking to pre-order any device from those campaigns then you might as well wait after the risk takers/backers to have their perks fulfilled and usually most campaigns founders open their pre-order section for those insecure and cry baby backers.