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Indiegogo: Your Parallax Ideas help the world, the world may help you! — Parallax Forums

Indiegogo: Your Parallax Ideas help the world, the world may help you!

mklrobomklrobo Posts: 420
edited 2014-09-28 09:10 in General Discussion
:smile: Hello!

I recently visited a website , Indiegogo. This web site will host your ideas, and anyone worldwide can contribute $ to
you idea, via this website. Anyone can contribute $ to your idea, whether it is profitable or not. Does not cost you, except for your
information to present to the world. No liability, or stipulations on your product.Has anyone ran across this website before, or
contributed an idea to Indiegogo? Thanks for your feedback.:smile:

Comments

  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-09-24 14:07
    Oh yeah, you have discovered Indiegogo. You are late to the game. There is also kickstarter.com and no doubt others.

    We look forward to seeing what ideas you have to put up for sponsorship.
  • mklrobomklrobo Posts: 420
    edited 2014-09-24 16:43
    :innocent:
  • prof_brainoprof_braino Posts: 4,313
    edited 2014-09-24 19:00
    I backed the Mu Thermal imaging camera on indegogo for $150. Kind of a risk, but considering the next cheapest option at the time was $1500 (or more, I forget the exact numbers) it was worth the risk. At of now, the project is about 18 month to 2 years behind schedule. Which is no surprise for new developement. Considering the companies with experience are typically years behind "schedule" for new development, its quite to be expected. (It takes as long as it takes, and an arbitrary schedule has no affect or meaning). Consider the Prop 2 for example. The different between these examples and "real" companies, is the usually companies wil try to BS their way out of schedule slips, a technique which guarantees disaster. MS for example.

    Anyway, the Mu Thermal Camera looks like it will be out in a couple months. There are still folks bitching about "behind schedule". Stupidity has no limits.

    Thats all my experience with indegogo.
  • GadgetmanGadgetman Posts: 2,436
    edited 2014-09-24 23:43
    I stay away from IndieGoGo.
    Not because I don't believe in the concept, but because IndieGogo offers 'flexible funding', where the project starter gets the money even if the target isn't reached.

    Note, I've backed nearly 100 projects on Kickstarter, so may be a bit biased...
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-09-24 23:58
    What?! I have not looked into IndieGoGo but that flexible funding thing sounds nuts.

    The Kickstater idea seems cool because if you have any kind of sensible project and plan then you know how much cash you need. If you can't raise that amount there is no point in even starting. Hoisting your idea up the flag pole of Kickstarter allows you to find out if there is any interest in your project before sinking loads of money into it. Meanwhile the backers have their risk minimized during that initial fund raising.

    I backed Parallella and Espruino on Kickstater. Both worked out as promised even if the Parallella board was somewhat late. Like any investment it's a little gamble. You are not buying a product but investing in it's potential creation. Thinks can always go wrong and in the worst case you can just be blatantly ripped off. Probably wise to check the track record of anyone asking for money on Kickstarter on anywhere else in life.

    Don't back this guy [url][/url]     Well, unless you want him to continue making very funny videos that is:)
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2014-09-25 00:07
    Sad to hear about the flexible funding problem, I recently discovered the Robot DragonFly project therein that was quite successful.

    http://techject.com/robot-dragonfly/

    But the reality is that crowd sourcing is just one of those things that is likely to become more abused over time. Some people are creative, others are just clever at getting money away from others.
  • mklrobomklrobo Posts: 420
    edited 2014-09-25 01:22
    Wow! Great info!
    I had no idea people would contribute money to an idea! That is a great thing, but, of course, some people abuse the system.
    I have alot of ideas, but just want to bounce the concept off of the world, to see if anybody even cares. I know ALOT of
    people with brilliant ideas that would make incredible inprovements, but they never even see the light of the internet.
    :innocent:
    With all the incredible and helpful projects that hobbiests in this forum have come up with, has
    anybody in the forum, or contest winners of Parallax made it big time in their projects?
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2014-09-25 03:22
    We all desire to money-tize something... that's just survival in sink or swim river of needed cash-flow.

    So bear in mind, that these services do include some fees attached for helping you. You might not initially pay out anything, but down the road, the amount you crowd-source is likely going to be reduced by some charges. And you may have to wait for your money while your service enjoys collecting interest.

    It is all just the typical middle-men hidden cost senario.
  • prof_brainoprof_braino Posts: 4,313
    edited 2014-09-28 09:10
    mklrobo wrote: »
    Wow! Great info! I had no idea people would contribute money to an idea!

    There is a whole community in Chicago that do this. A lot of them are centered around Pumping Station 1 (PS1). There are a few prop projects here, but no one has conquered the workd using a prop yet.

    If you cannot recruit your own "angel investors", I would suggest kickstarter over indegogo and quirky for the time being.
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