1
00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:07,200
Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from half

2
00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:13,680
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff.

3
00:00:13,720 --> 00:00:18,280
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland, and I love all things tech.

4
00:00:19,040 --> 00:00:21,799
Speaker 1: And in a couple of episodes recently, as in't the

5
00:00:21,840 --> 00:00:24,840
Speaker 1: ones just before the one that published yesterday, I talked

6
00:00:24,880 --> 00:00:27,760
Speaker 1: about vapor ware, and today I'm going to focus on

7
00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:32,120
Speaker 1: crowdfunding platforms and some of the best and worst examples

8
00:00:32,280 --> 00:00:35,800
Speaker 1: of tech projects that have received crowdfunding. This is not

9
00:00:36,360 --> 00:00:39,239
Speaker 1: a definitive list by any stretch of the imagination. I

10
00:00:39,280 --> 00:00:43,920
Speaker 1: could do a month's worth of episodes about really cool

11
00:00:44,159 --> 00:00:48,000
Speaker 1: crowdfunded tech projects and ones that just went terribly wrong.

12
00:00:48,400 --> 00:00:51,440
Speaker 1: And by worst, I don't necessarily mean that the idea

13
00:00:52,200 --> 00:00:55,480
Speaker 1: for the project was a bad one, but rather something

14
00:00:55,640 --> 00:01:00,440
Speaker 1: happened between the campaign launching and what of her the

15
00:01:00,520 --> 00:01:04,800
Speaker 1: delivery time was supposed to be for that product. Sometimes

16
00:01:04,840 --> 00:01:07,640
Speaker 1: that just means that things didn't go as planned. It

17
00:01:07,680 --> 00:01:11,319
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily mean any particular idea was bad. But first

18
00:01:11,680 --> 00:01:14,000
Speaker 1: I want to go into the background of the two

19
00:01:14,080 --> 00:01:17,760
Speaker 1: most popular crowdfunding platforms that are out there, and that

20
00:01:17,800 --> 00:01:22,360
Speaker 1: would be Kickstarter and indie go Go. Kickstarter was an

21
00:01:22,360 --> 00:01:24,560
Speaker 1: idea that's been around for a pretty long time. As

22
00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:28,120
Speaker 1: it turns out. In late two thousand one, an artist

23
00:01:28,280 --> 00:01:32,200
Speaker 1: named Perry Chen wanted to get a musical performance organized

24
00:01:32,480 --> 00:01:35,360
Speaker 1: during the two thousand two Jazz Fest in New Orleans.

25
00:01:35,440 --> 00:01:38,200
Speaker 1: So he's looking ahead. He's saying, next year, there's gonna

26
00:01:38,200 --> 00:01:42,160
Speaker 1: be this big jazz festival. I want to create a

27
00:01:42,240 --> 00:01:45,360
Speaker 1: show where these these two dep DJs can come down

28
00:01:45,480 --> 00:01:48,960
Speaker 1: and do a full performance in the course of the

29
00:01:49,040 --> 00:01:52,640
Speaker 1: jazz festival. Uh, I really want to make this happen.

30
00:01:52,720 --> 00:01:55,960
Speaker 1: So he tries to get this show together. He takes initiative,

31
00:01:56,480 --> 00:01:59,960
Speaker 1: but the musical venue he was talking to wanted way

32
00:02:00,240 --> 00:02:03,000
Speaker 1: more money than he could provide. There was no way

33
00:02:03,040 --> 00:02:05,880
Speaker 1: he could come up with the the expense it was

34
00:02:05,880 --> 00:02:09,160
Speaker 1: going to take just to have the show. So even

35
00:02:09,160 --> 00:02:12,040
Speaker 1: if the show were incredibly successful, it would never be

36
00:02:12,120 --> 00:02:13,680
Speaker 1: able to happen because he could not come up with

37
00:02:13,720 --> 00:02:17,600
Speaker 1: that front capital. So that experience inspired him to brainstorm

38
00:02:17,639 --> 00:02:20,600
Speaker 1: about a way where people who are interested in having

39
00:02:20,680 --> 00:02:24,880
Speaker 1: something happen could pledge money toward that thing, perhaps using

40
00:02:24,919 --> 00:02:28,560
Speaker 1: credit cards or some other form, and if enough money

41
00:02:28,600 --> 00:02:32,400
Speaker 1: were pledged to meet the costs to have that thing happen,

42
00:02:33,080 --> 00:02:35,520
Speaker 1: then it would happen. They would be charged the money,

43
00:02:35,919 --> 00:02:39,160
Speaker 1: The money would go towards the cost of production, and

44
00:02:39,520 --> 00:02:41,919
Speaker 1: the thing would go on, and in return, people could

45
00:02:41,919 --> 00:02:45,400
Speaker 1: actually go to that thing. They would end up receiving

46
00:02:45,480 --> 00:02:48,320
Speaker 1: essentially a ticket in return for their pledge. But if

47
00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:51,600
Speaker 1: not enough money were pledged, let's say that after a

48
00:02:51,600 --> 00:02:54,880
Speaker 1: certain amount of time there just wasn't enough interest, then

49
00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:57,639
Speaker 1: the whole thing would be scrapped. No one would be charged,

50
00:02:58,160 --> 00:03:01,040
Speaker 1: and everything would go on. It's mary little way. Well

51
00:03:01,080 --> 00:03:03,640
Speaker 1: that would become the germ of the idea for Kickstarter,

52
00:03:04,040 --> 00:03:07,760
Speaker 1: but the actual launch of Kickstarter was still years away.

53
00:03:08,080 --> 00:03:12,079
Speaker 1: Flashboard to two thousand five. Perry Chen has relocated. He's

54
00:03:12,320 --> 00:03:16,040
Speaker 1: living in Brooklyn. That's when he met Yancy Strickler, a

55
00:03:16,160 --> 00:03:19,080
Speaker 1: writer and editor who had worked for m j I

56
00:03:19,240 --> 00:03:24,160
Speaker 1: Interactive and Flavor Pill Media. He was mostly working as

57
00:03:24,160 --> 00:03:27,360
Speaker 1: sort of a rock and roll music critic and writer.

58
00:03:27,960 --> 00:03:30,600
Speaker 1: Chen was waiting tables at that time in a restaurant

59
00:03:30,600 --> 00:03:34,240
Speaker 1: in Brooklyn, and Strickler was a regular at this particular

60
00:03:34,280 --> 00:03:38,800
Speaker 1: restaurant and the two started talking and eventually Chen told

61
00:03:38,800 --> 00:03:44,600
Speaker 1: Strickler about his idea about this fundraising approach, this idea

62
00:03:44,640 --> 00:03:48,280
Speaker 1: of pledging money towards something, but only getting charged if

63
00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:51,800
Speaker 1: enough money were raised to make that something happen. And

64
00:03:52,600 --> 00:03:55,560
Speaker 1: Strickler thought this was a really cool notion, so they

65
00:03:55,600 --> 00:03:57,960
Speaker 1: went and bought a white board and they began to

66
00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:00,920
Speaker 1: actually brainstorm what Kickstarter might look like and how it

67
00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:04,560
Speaker 1: might work. That kept on going for a couple of years,

68
00:04:04,560 --> 00:04:07,400
Speaker 1: and in two thousand seven they ended up meeting another

69
00:04:07,520 --> 00:04:10,280
Speaker 1: person by the name of Charles Adler. He would become

70
00:04:10,320 --> 00:04:15,240
Speaker 1: the final piece of that triumvirate who founded Kickstarter. Adler

71
00:04:15,280 --> 00:04:19,960
Speaker 1: and Chen began work on the actual artistic layout of Kickstarter.

72
00:04:20,480 --> 00:04:23,000
Speaker 1: Uh Strickler was still working on the project as well.

73
00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:25,560
Speaker 1: He was also working his regular day job, but none

74
00:04:25,560 --> 00:04:29,599
Speaker 1: of the three co founders were actual developers, so building

75
00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:33,279
Speaker 1: out a functional website was laborious and filled with errors.

76
00:04:33,320 --> 00:04:36,920
Speaker 1: So they started hiring people to work on the idea.

77
00:04:37,240 --> 00:04:39,160
Speaker 1: Some people would stay on the project for a little while,

78
00:04:39,200 --> 00:04:42,640
Speaker 1: some would stay a little bit longer. They ideated several times.

79
00:04:42,839 --> 00:04:46,440
Speaker 1: There are pictures online of the various versions of Kickstarter

80
00:04:46,560 --> 00:04:49,640
Speaker 1: that were proposed before the site went live. Some of

81
00:04:49,680 --> 00:04:54,640
Speaker 1: them are truly hideous to behold. But they began meeting

82
00:04:54,640 --> 00:04:56,920
Speaker 1: with other people who had helped them with the design

83
00:04:57,040 --> 00:04:59,599
Speaker 1: and the launch, and eventually they were able to get

84
00:04:59,640 --> 00:05:02,320
Speaker 1: something together. They went to an early beta test in

85
00:05:02,360 --> 00:05:05,880
Speaker 1: two thousand nine, and then on April two thousand nine,

86
00:05:05,920 --> 00:05:09,880
Speaker 1: nearly a decade after Chen had the original idea, they

87
00:05:09,960 --> 00:05:13,680
Speaker 1: launched with a public website. The first project to fund

88
00:05:13,839 --> 00:05:18,640
Speaker 1: successfully on Kickstarter was called Drawing for Dollars, and it

89
00:05:18,760 --> 00:05:22,200
Speaker 1: hit its goal on May third, two thousand nine. It

90
00:05:22,320 --> 00:05:26,480
Speaker 1: raised all of thirty five dollars. Two other projects funded

91
00:05:26,520 --> 00:05:30,280
Speaker 1: that week as well. In two thousand ten, Time magazine

92
00:05:30,360 --> 00:05:34,320
Speaker 1: named Kickstarter one of the ten best inventions of the year.

93
00:05:35,080 --> 00:05:37,720
Speaker 1: So that shows you that just within a year Kickstarter

94
00:05:37,800 --> 00:05:40,840
Speaker 1: was already making a big impact right out of the gate.

95
00:05:41,520 --> 00:05:46,320
Speaker 1: Nearly another ten years and more than three billion dollars

96
00:05:46,360 --> 00:05:50,800
Speaker 1: in crowdfunding campaigns later, things have changed a lot. Charles

97
00:05:50,880 --> 00:05:55,119
Speaker 1: Adler would leave Kickstarter in two thousand thirteen. Perry Chen

98
00:05:55,200 --> 00:05:58,360
Speaker 1: was serving as CEO until two thousand fourteen, and then

99
00:05:58,400 --> 00:06:01,919
Speaker 1: stepped down just to to the the chair of the

100
00:06:01,960 --> 00:06:05,760
Speaker 1: board of directors. Yancey Strickler took over as CEO, and

101
00:06:05,839 --> 00:06:12,359
Speaker 1: he would remain as CEO until Kickstarter actually became a

102
00:06:12,440 --> 00:06:16,720
Speaker 1: public benefit corporation. That means that benefiting the public good

103
00:06:16,800 --> 00:06:19,919
Speaker 1: is actually part of the company charter, in addition to

104
00:06:20,160 --> 00:06:24,080
Speaker 1: making a profit. In seventeen, when Strickler stepped down as CEO,

105
00:06:24,440 --> 00:06:28,320
Speaker 1: Chen actually stepped back in, first as interim CEO, and

106
00:06:28,360 --> 00:06:31,040
Speaker 1: then he said he was the new permanent CEO, although

107
00:06:31,080 --> 00:06:35,760
Speaker 1: no official announcement about that came out of the company.

108
00:06:35,800 --> 00:06:39,240
Speaker 1: According to BuzzFeed, Chen's returned to the helm was not

109
00:06:39,560 --> 00:06:44,240
Speaker 1: greeted with universal approval. About fifty out of a hundred

110
00:06:44,240 --> 00:06:48,880
Speaker 1: twenty employees left the company, including all but one of

111
00:06:48,920 --> 00:06:53,080
Speaker 1: the executive team who had worked under Strickler. Kickstarter, by

112
00:06:53,120 --> 00:06:56,599
Speaker 1: the way, takes a five percent cut of any successfully

113
00:06:56,680 --> 00:07:00,599
Speaker 1: funded campaign. According to kickstarter itself, the site has seen

114
00:07:00,640 --> 00:07:04,680
Speaker 1: about three point three three billion dollars worth of successful campaigns,

115
00:07:04,680 --> 00:07:07,200
Speaker 1: which would put the company take it around a hundred

116
00:07:07,200 --> 00:07:11,320
Speaker 1: sixty six million dollars, which isn't bad, but Kickstarter also

117
00:07:11,440 --> 00:07:15,360
Speaker 1: has a reputation. More than three fifths of the total

118
00:07:15,440 --> 00:07:19,280
Speaker 1: dollars pledged on Kickstarter has gone to campaigns for games,

119
00:07:19,720 --> 00:07:24,440
Speaker 1: design projects and tech projects rather than creative artistic projects.

120
00:07:24,480 --> 00:07:26,720
Speaker 1: So a lot of people look at Kickstarter as the

121
00:07:26,720 --> 00:07:29,920
Speaker 1: place to go to pitch your ideas to the general public.

122
00:07:30,400 --> 00:07:33,280
Speaker 1: So instead of like going to a company and saying

123
00:07:33,440 --> 00:07:35,560
Speaker 1: I've got this idea of for our product, I would

124
00:07:35,600 --> 00:07:37,600
Speaker 1: like to work with you to produce it, or going

125
00:07:37,640 --> 00:07:41,440
Speaker 1: with potential private investors like Angel investors to get a

126
00:07:41,440 --> 00:07:45,080
Speaker 1: company together, you take it to Kickstarter and you pitch

127
00:07:45,120 --> 00:07:46,960
Speaker 1: it to the general public and see if you can

128
00:07:46,960 --> 00:07:51,360
Speaker 1: get your support that way. Indie go go is similar

129
00:07:51,440 --> 00:07:55,520
Speaker 1: in many ways to Kickstarter. It actually launched before Kickstarter did.

130
00:07:55,600 --> 00:07:59,200
Speaker 1: It went live in January two th eight. Indie go

131
00:07:59,200 --> 00:08:02,800
Speaker 1: Go was the brain child of Denay Ringelman, Eric Shell,

132
00:08:03,240 --> 00:08:07,320
Speaker 1: and Slava Rubin, who met at the University of California, Berkeley.

133
00:08:07,480 --> 00:08:10,040
Speaker 1: Like Chen, these three wanted to create a platform that

134
00:08:10,080 --> 00:08:13,040
Speaker 1: would make it easier for people to get funding for

135
00:08:13,120 --> 00:08:16,280
Speaker 1: various projects. Ringelman came up with the idea. She was

136
00:08:16,360 --> 00:08:19,600
Speaker 1: inspired originally by her parents, who were small business owners,

137
00:08:20,040 --> 00:08:23,480
Speaker 1: and also her experiences both as a student and someone

138
00:08:23,480 --> 00:08:26,320
Speaker 1: who had worked in the financial district over on Wall Street.

139
00:08:26,680 --> 00:08:30,360
Speaker 1: Her original idea was for an offline business, but Shell

140
00:08:30,480 --> 00:08:33,240
Speaker 1: and Ruben would collaborate with her and convince her that

141
00:08:33,360 --> 00:08:36,640
Speaker 1: an online platform would actually be a better solution. The

142
00:08:36,679 --> 00:08:39,840
Speaker 1: three struggled for three years to find investors to help

143
00:08:39,920 --> 00:08:42,839
Speaker 1: fund their company. It was live, it was working, but

144
00:08:43,400 --> 00:08:45,160
Speaker 1: they didn't have a whole lot of money to work

145
00:08:45,200 --> 00:08:48,040
Speaker 1: on this. They were actually supporting it largely themselves. In

146
00:08:48,080 --> 00:08:50,839
Speaker 1: two thousand and eleven, they landed one point five million

147
00:08:50,840 --> 00:08:53,840
Speaker 1: dollars in venture capital, and then over the next few

148
00:08:53,880 --> 00:08:57,079
Speaker 1: years they would raise more. Indie goog covers a broader

149
00:08:57,160 --> 00:09:01,320
Speaker 1: spectrum of projects than Kickstarter does. Kickstarter is really meant

150
00:09:01,320 --> 00:09:04,559
Speaker 1: for creative projects, although that can include products like tech

151
00:09:04,679 --> 00:09:07,880
Speaker 1: or games. Indie go go can be used for just

152
00:09:07,960 --> 00:09:11,840
Speaker 1: about anything, including raising money for causes. So if you

153
00:09:11,880 --> 00:09:14,960
Speaker 1: wanted to hold a funding campaign for a nonprofit organization,

154
00:09:15,440 --> 00:09:18,560
Speaker 1: you could conceivably use indie go go, but you could

155
00:09:18,640 --> 00:09:22,240
Speaker 1: not use Kickstarter because it's not what kickstarters for. Also,

156
00:09:22,559 --> 00:09:26,720
Speaker 1: Kickstarter limits people in the US, UK, Canada, and a

157
00:09:26,760 --> 00:09:30,400
Speaker 1: couple of other countries for their campaigns. You cannot launch

158
00:09:30,440 --> 00:09:32,720
Speaker 1: a campaign if you live outside of that small group

159
00:09:32,720 --> 00:09:37,720
Speaker 1: of countries. Indie go Go considers itself an international crowdfunding option,

160
00:09:38,160 --> 00:09:41,560
Speaker 1: although it does not allow campaigners that are that belong

161
00:09:41,800 --> 00:09:45,160
Speaker 1: to the nations that are on the United States Office

162
00:09:45,160 --> 00:09:49,480
Speaker 1: of Foreign Assets Controls sanctioned list. That would include countries

163
00:09:49,520 --> 00:09:53,320
Speaker 1: like North Korea, Iran, Syria, Cuba, that kind of thing.

164
00:09:53,720 --> 00:09:57,000
Speaker 1: Indie go Go has a slightly different approach to funding

165
00:09:57,120 --> 00:10:00,000
Speaker 1: than Kickstarter. So if you launch an indie go go campaign,

166
00:10:00,320 --> 00:10:03,320
Speaker 1: you can choose to keep whatever money you raise even

167
00:10:03,400 --> 00:10:05,680
Speaker 1: if you don't make your goal. So let's say that

168
00:10:05,760 --> 00:10:08,920
Speaker 1: your goal is twenty dollars but you only raise seven

169
00:10:08,960 --> 00:10:12,320
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. Well, you could actually select an option that

170
00:10:12,360 --> 00:10:14,800
Speaker 1: allows you to keep whatever money you raised. Now, in

171
00:10:14,880 --> 00:10:17,800
Speaker 1: that event, indie go go gets to keep a nine

172
00:10:17,880 --> 00:10:21,319
Speaker 1: percent take of whatever you raised. Now if you hit

173
00:10:21,360 --> 00:10:24,160
Speaker 1: your goal, if you hit that twenty dollars, you get

174
00:10:24,200 --> 00:10:27,120
Speaker 1: back some of that cut that indiego go takes, so

175
00:10:27,320 --> 00:10:30,560
Speaker 1: indigoga would only take uh four percent of the total,

176
00:10:30,600 --> 00:10:34,080
Speaker 1: not nine. Or you could choose the all or nothing

177
00:10:34,120 --> 00:10:37,280
Speaker 1: approach similar to what Kickstarter does, that also locks in

178
00:10:37,360 --> 00:10:40,040
Speaker 1: that four percent indie go go fee. So if you

179
00:10:40,040 --> 00:10:42,959
Speaker 1: do that, you're actually owing a little less to indie

180
00:10:42,960 --> 00:10:44,600
Speaker 1: go go than you would if you were running the

181
00:10:44,600 --> 00:10:47,679
Speaker 1: exact same campaign on Kickstarter. There are also a lot

182
00:10:47,720 --> 00:10:50,400
Speaker 1: of other crowdfunding platforms out there, by the way, some

183
00:10:50,480 --> 00:10:53,080
Speaker 1: of them are like go fund me, and that's more

184
00:10:53,080 --> 00:10:57,160
Speaker 1: about fundraising for causes, personal or general. Some of them

185
00:10:57,240 --> 00:11:00,000
Speaker 1: are more like Patreon. Actually, Patreon really is kind of

186
00:11:00,040 --> 00:11:03,440
Speaker 1: its own thing. Patreon sets up a recurring pledge, like

187
00:11:03,480 --> 00:11:07,160
Speaker 1: a monthly pledge, to fund ongoing projects and work. So

188
00:11:07,200 --> 00:11:10,520
Speaker 1: it's not a startup thing. It's an ongoing thing. So

189
00:11:10,559 --> 00:11:13,440
Speaker 1: if I were saying making a web series, I could

190
00:11:13,440 --> 00:11:18,079
Speaker 1: have a Patreon and in return for monthly uh pledges,

191
00:11:18,440 --> 00:11:21,880
Speaker 1: you might get extra material related to the web series.

192
00:11:21,960 --> 00:11:23,920
Speaker 1: So not only would you be supporting my work, but

193
00:11:23,960 --> 00:11:25,960
Speaker 1: you would get a little extra something on the side.

194
00:11:26,679 --> 00:11:29,240
Speaker 1: And there are others that are geared specifically for stuff

195
00:11:29,240 --> 00:11:32,840
Speaker 1: like musicians, or for startup companies or for charities. But

196
00:11:32,880 --> 00:11:36,320
Speaker 1: when it comes to tech products, the two big crowdfunding

197
00:11:36,320 --> 00:11:40,840
Speaker 1: platforms out there really are Kickstarter and indiego Go, and

198
00:11:40,920 --> 00:11:45,160
Speaker 1: both of them have played host to some good and

199
00:11:45,440 --> 00:11:49,040
Speaker 1: some questionable tech products. I'll talk more about those in

200
00:11:49,120 --> 00:11:52,200
Speaker 1: just a second, but first let's take a quick break

201
00:11:52,480 --> 00:12:04,360
Speaker 1: to thank our sponsor. Okay, let's get this underway. Let's

202
00:12:04,360 --> 00:12:07,400
Speaker 1: go to the tech category. Over to Kickstarter. One of

203
00:12:07,440 --> 00:12:12,520
Speaker 1: the most successful campaigns on Kickstarter in the tech category

204
00:12:12,800 --> 00:12:17,560
Speaker 1: was the Pano Music campaign. This was championed by musician

205
00:12:17,840 --> 00:12:21,800
Speaker 1: Neil Young, and the idea was pretty interesting. Pano Music

206
00:12:22,160 --> 00:12:26,160
Speaker 1: would take the master recordings of various songs, so the

207
00:12:26,200 --> 00:12:29,920
Speaker 1: masters are the recordings from which all copies are made.

208
00:12:30,320 --> 00:12:32,120
Speaker 1: If you get your hands on a master, you are

209
00:12:32,160 --> 00:12:36,040
Speaker 1: listening to the most accurate representation of how the music

210
00:12:36,160 --> 00:12:40,360
Speaker 1: was originally sounding when it was recorded. That is copy

211
00:12:40,480 --> 00:12:44,320
Speaker 1: number one, or really recording number one. It's not a copy,

212
00:12:44,559 --> 00:12:48,600
Speaker 1: is the recording. Pano Music was going to create digital

213
00:12:48,720 --> 00:12:52,199
Speaker 1: versions from those masters, and it was going to use

214
00:12:52,240 --> 00:12:55,240
Speaker 1: a lossless digital format that you could play on a

215
00:12:55,280 --> 00:13:00,800
Speaker 1: special digital music player. Lossless means that no data gets

216
00:13:01,000 --> 00:13:05,480
Speaker 1: thrown out, whereas a compression format like MP three is

217
00:13:05,520 --> 00:13:09,000
Speaker 1: known as a lossy format, and it's called lossy because

218
00:13:09,520 --> 00:13:14,520
Speaker 1: during the compression algorithm, some data gets pushed out in

219
00:13:14,640 --> 00:13:18,439
Speaker 1: order to make the file size more manageable. And typically

220
00:13:18,720 --> 00:13:23,240
Speaker 1: a lossy sound file will eliminate any sounds that fall

221
00:13:23,360 --> 00:13:27,400
Speaker 1: outside the normal range of human hearing, because the the

222
00:13:27,440 --> 00:13:29,280
Speaker 1: idea is that you would not be able to perceive

223
00:13:29,320 --> 00:13:33,120
Speaker 1: them anyway. There are audio files who argue know that

224
00:13:33,200 --> 00:13:36,480
Speaker 1: actually has an effect on the overall quality of the sound.

225
00:13:36,520 --> 00:13:38,640
Speaker 1: You may not be able to hear those individual sounds,

226
00:13:38,679 --> 00:13:44,839
Speaker 1: but they'll produce other elements like harmonics that you can

227
00:13:45,280 --> 00:13:48,280
Speaker 1: actually perceive. So there's this argument that goes back and

228
00:13:48,320 --> 00:13:52,520
Speaker 1: forth between audio files and people who work in compression technology,

229
00:13:52,720 --> 00:13:59,080
Speaker 1: and that has raised the the issue of lossy versus lossless.

230
00:13:59,120 --> 00:14:02,079
Speaker 1: So this Pondom Music player was supposed to play lossless

231
00:14:02,160 --> 00:14:04,280
Speaker 1: music files, although it could handle other ones as well.

232
00:14:04,480 --> 00:14:08,000
Speaker 1: The campaign had an early bird special for one hundred backers.

233
00:14:08,440 --> 00:14:10,800
Speaker 1: If they pledged at least two hundred dollars, they would

234
00:14:10,840 --> 00:14:14,079
Speaker 1: get a Pinto Player device as soon as they became available.

235
00:14:14,559 --> 00:14:16,320
Speaker 1: After that, you would have to make a pledge of

236
00:14:16,360 --> 00:14:19,000
Speaker 1: at least three hundred dollars to get a Poto Player,

237
00:14:19,080 --> 00:14:21,000
Speaker 1: So the first one hundred could get that two hundred

238
00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:24,080
Speaker 1: dollar price, and then if you showed up at the

239
00:14:24,120 --> 00:14:26,800
Speaker 1: campaign after that, you'd have to The lowest you could

240
00:14:27,040 --> 00:14:28,840
Speaker 1: pledge to get a pot a Player would be three

241
00:14:28,880 --> 00:14:31,960
Speaker 1: hundred dollars, but even at that price, backers were assured

242
00:14:32,280 --> 00:14:38,120
Speaker 1: they would be spending tollars less than what the eventual

243
00:14:38,240 --> 00:14:41,400
Speaker 1: retail price for the Pinto Player would be. That retail

244
00:14:41,440 --> 00:14:45,800
Speaker 1: price ended up being three cents, so you would save

245
00:14:45,800 --> 00:14:48,680
Speaker 1: about a hundred bucks off the final price. By being

246
00:14:49,080 --> 00:14:53,760
Speaker 1: a supporter during the Kickstarter campaign. The campaign more than

247
00:14:53,840 --> 00:14:56,960
Speaker 1: met it's eight hundred thousand dollar goal. By the end

248
00:14:57,280 --> 00:15:00,480
Speaker 1: it had raised more than six million dollars ers and

249
00:15:00,520 --> 00:15:03,960
Speaker 1: the Poto Player did actually come out in two thousand fifteen,

250
00:15:04,240 --> 00:15:07,720
Speaker 1: So this is not one of those vaporware stories. It

251
00:15:08,080 --> 00:15:10,760
Speaker 1: was a device that really came out, It really worked,

252
00:15:10,840 --> 00:15:13,800
Speaker 1: it really got shipped to the backers. But the story

253
00:15:13,840 --> 00:15:17,080
Speaker 1: still doesn't have a very happy ending, or or quasi ending,

254
00:15:17,080 --> 00:15:20,040
Speaker 1: I guess I should say, because what the heck ever

255
00:15:20,240 --> 00:15:24,760
Speaker 1: ends these days. The Pinto Player supported many different formats

256
00:15:24,800 --> 00:15:27,960
Speaker 1: for music. It could support MP three's as well as

257
00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:30,040
Speaker 1: tons of other file formats, but the goal was to

258
00:15:30,160 --> 00:15:33,920
Speaker 1: guide users to the Panto music World digital music store

259
00:15:34,440 --> 00:15:38,880
Speaker 1: to buy this lossless form factor to get hold of

260
00:15:38,920 --> 00:15:44,560
Speaker 1: these high definition, high resolution audio recordings. However, according to

261
00:15:44,640 --> 00:15:49,480
Speaker 1: Neil Young, music labels demanded very high prices for those

262
00:15:49,560 --> 00:15:53,800
Speaker 1: high resolution, lossless format audio files. They're demanding two to

263
00:15:53,880 --> 00:15:57,920
Speaker 1: three times as much for normal MP three files, which

264
00:15:58,160 --> 00:16:00,800
Speaker 1: again is a lossy format. They said, if you're gonna

265
00:16:00,840 --> 00:16:05,680
Speaker 1: spend let's say five dollars on this sound file, then

266
00:16:05,840 --> 00:16:08,000
Speaker 1: for this other format, you're gonna have to spend fifteen

267
00:16:08,040 --> 00:16:12,440
Speaker 1: dollars for it in the music store went offline when

268
00:16:12,480 --> 00:16:16,640
Speaker 1: Ponto Music's partner company, omni Phone, was sold off. Panto

269
00:16:16,680 --> 00:16:20,240
Speaker 1: announced it would partner with another company called seven Digital,

270
00:16:20,920 --> 00:16:24,520
Speaker 1: but the store never came back. Neil Young moved on

271
00:16:24,640 --> 00:16:29,040
Speaker 1: to launch a free music streaming service called Xtreme. The

272
00:16:29,160 --> 00:16:32,240
Speaker 1: letter X followed by the word stream. But the Ponto

273
00:16:32,360 --> 00:16:35,560
Speaker 1: Music Player only plays downloaded songs. It doesn't have any

274
00:16:35,560 --> 00:16:39,600
Speaker 1: WiFi or cellular capability. You cannot streaming to the Pinto Player.

275
00:16:40,680 --> 00:16:44,120
Speaker 1: So wamp wamp, there's a four dollar MP three player

276
00:16:44,160 --> 00:16:47,200
Speaker 1: you've got now, essentially. Also, I should add that, according

277
00:16:47,240 --> 00:16:49,880
Speaker 1: to several reviews I read, the Pinto Player was a

278
00:16:49,920 --> 00:16:53,080
Speaker 1: good digital music device, but it was really hard to

279
00:16:53,080 --> 00:16:56,920
Speaker 1: tell the difference between lossless and lossy file formats, assuming

280
00:16:57,320 --> 00:17:00,120
Speaker 1: that someone wasn't going crazy with the compression rate when

281
00:17:00,120 --> 00:17:03,560
Speaker 1: they were making the lossy file. So while the device

282
00:17:03,600 --> 00:17:06,600
Speaker 1: performed well, it was based on a somewhat faulty premise,

283
00:17:06,720 --> 00:17:09,960
Speaker 1: because if you could not reliably tell the difference between

284
00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:12,960
Speaker 1: a lossy file and a lossless one, why are you

285
00:17:13,000 --> 00:17:17,720
Speaker 1: spending four hundred dollars on this thing? Anyway, Let's move

286
00:17:17,720 --> 00:17:20,320
Speaker 1: on to a different one. Another big winner in the

287
00:17:20,359 --> 00:17:23,840
Speaker 1: text space on Kickstarter was the z Time smart watch

288
00:17:23,920 --> 00:17:28,960
Speaker 1: from Micronos Switzerland. The watch is a kind of hybrid watch,

289
00:17:29,359 --> 00:17:33,040
Speaker 1: so it actually has physical hands, like in that analog style,

290
00:17:33,280 --> 00:17:37,320
Speaker 1: actual clock hands on your watch. So if you don't

291
00:17:37,320 --> 00:17:39,359
Speaker 1: know how to read a clock, an analog clock, I

292
00:17:39,400 --> 00:17:41,760
Speaker 1: guess you're out of luck here. But in addition to

293
00:17:41,880 --> 00:17:45,240
Speaker 1: these physical hands that would point to the time, there

294
00:17:45,280 --> 00:17:49,000
Speaker 1: was also a touch screen digital interface incorporated into this watch.

295
00:17:49,520 --> 00:17:52,159
Speaker 1: The goal for the campaign was to raise fifty dollars,

296
00:17:52,160 --> 00:17:55,680
Speaker 1: but it raised more than five point three million dollars.

297
00:17:56,160 --> 00:17:59,120
Speaker 1: The campaign had three early bird specials for the first

298
00:17:59,160 --> 00:18:02,360
Speaker 1: one thousand to contribute at each of those levels. Uh

299
00:18:02,400 --> 00:18:04,639
Speaker 1: there was a hundred and nineteen dollar level, a D

300
00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:08,960
Speaker 1: seven dollar level, and a one level for the original,

301
00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:12,720
Speaker 1: Premium and Elite models respectively. And the company designed the

302
00:18:12,760 --> 00:18:14,879
Speaker 1: hands so that they would actually move out the way

303
00:18:14,920 --> 00:18:18,240
Speaker 1: when you received messages on the smart watch screen. So

304
00:18:18,440 --> 00:18:20,840
Speaker 1: let's say that you're looking at your watch and it's

305
00:18:21,119 --> 00:18:24,359
Speaker 1: normally would say six PM, which means the the hands

306
00:18:24,359 --> 00:18:27,600
Speaker 1: would be in a vertical line, but it needs to

307
00:18:27,680 --> 00:18:30,959
Speaker 1: display a message to you, then the hands would actually

308
00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:33,920
Speaker 1: shift so that one is pointing at three and one's

309
00:18:33,960 --> 00:18:36,640
Speaker 1: pointing at nine, So it's making a horizontal line. That's

310
00:18:36,680 --> 00:18:38,680
Speaker 1: just the clearer the face so that you can read

311
00:18:38,720 --> 00:18:41,119
Speaker 1: the messages. Probably it would then go back to the

312
00:18:41,160 --> 00:18:43,919
Speaker 1: regular time once you had dismissed the message, which I

313
00:18:43,920 --> 00:18:45,880
Speaker 1: thought was kind of a cool idea. Also, the hands

314
00:18:45,920 --> 00:18:48,760
Speaker 1: would automatically adjust to reflect whatever time zone you were

315
00:18:48,760 --> 00:18:51,920
Speaker 1: in at that time, and it had some other features. Uh,

316
00:18:52,240 --> 00:18:54,280
Speaker 1: I guess I should say it has other features The

317
00:18:54,320 --> 00:18:58,399
Speaker 1: watch does exist, including a pedometer has a heart rate motor.

318
00:18:58,600 --> 00:19:02,119
Speaker 1: According to Digital Trend, those features worked really, really well,

319
00:19:02,560 --> 00:19:06,320
Speaker 1: although their overall review for the watch was less than stellar.

320
00:19:06,920 --> 00:19:11,080
Speaker 1: The campaign listed a ship date of September, and that's

321
00:19:11,119 --> 00:19:13,440
Speaker 1: when the first Z time watches actually began to ship,

322
00:19:13,520 --> 00:19:16,480
Speaker 1: So that's good. This is one of those stories where

323
00:19:16,880 --> 00:19:19,720
Speaker 1: there was something that was promised, that thing was delivered.

324
00:19:20,119 --> 00:19:22,840
Speaker 1: It appears to be the thing that everyone was promised.

325
00:19:22,960 --> 00:19:26,480
Speaker 1: It wasn't a bait and switch. But the reviews I've

326
00:19:26,520 --> 00:19:28,760
Speaker 1: seen for the watch say the features tend to be good,

327
00:19:28,760 --> 00:19:31,800
Speaker 1: but the interface is a little tricky, maybe a little frustrating.

328
00:19:32,080 --> 00:19:34,760
Speaker 1: So your mileage may vary, but I would at least

329
00:19:35,200 --> 00:19:38,520
Speaker 1: say this campaign should fall into the good category, not

330
00:19:38,680 --> 00:19:41,919
Speaker 1: the bad story category, because it actually produced what was

331
00:19:41,960 --> 00:19:45,760
Speaker 1: promised and they shipped it. Another one of kickstarters most

332
00:19:45,880 --> 00:19:51,240
Speaker 1: funded tech projects came to a pretty dismal end down

333
00:19:51,280 --> 00:19:54,240
Speaker 1: the line, and that would be the Zano Nano drone.

334
00:19:54,880 --> 00:19:57,360
Speaker 1: Now as a quad copter drone, it can actually fit

335
00:19:57,400 --> 00:20:00,400
Speaker 1: in the palm of your hand, and the campaign included

336
00:20:00,440 --> 00:20:03,560
Speaker 1: an incredible video showing off what the drone could supposedly do,

337
00:20:03,640 --> 00:20:07,280
Speaker 1: which was really impressive. The late fourteen campaign aimed to

338
00:20:07,400 --> 00:20:11,840
Speaker 1: raise a hundred five thousand pounds British pounds that's equivalent

339
00:20:11,880 --> 00:20:15,680
Speaker 1: to about a hundred nine thousand dollars back at that time. Ultimately, though,

340
00:20:15,720 --> 00:20:18,560
Speaker 1: it would end up raising two point three million pounds

341
00:20:18,640 --> 00:20:21,879
Speaker 1: or nearly three and a half million dollars. The drones

342
00:20:21,880 --> 00:20:24,480
Speaker 1: were supposed to include a high definition camera. They were

343
00:20:24,480 --> 00:20:27,119
Speaker 1: supposed to have some object avoidance technology so that they

344
00:20:27,160 --> 00:20:31,360
Speaker 1: could um detect and easily avoid things like trees or walls.

345
00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:34,479
Speaker 1: They were supposed to have tracking technology. You would end

346
00:20:34,560 --> 00:20:37,239
Speaker 1: up controlling them using gesture controls on a smartphone, like

347
00:20:37,280 --> 00:20:40,000
Speaker 1: you could actually hold your phone up and move it

348
00:20:40,040 --> 00:20:44,320
Speaker 1: across your field of view and control your your drone

349
00:20:44,359 --> 00:20:46,639
Speaker 1: that way, and they had an early bird rate for

350
00:20:46,680 --> 00:20:49,040
Speaker 1: this as well. If you want to buy a white

351
00:20:49,160 --> 00:20:51,639
Speaker 1: or black Xano or pledge at that level, it was

352
00:20:51,640 --> 00:20:53,520
Speaker 1: a hundred thirty nine pounds if you were one of

353
00:20:53,520 --> 00:20:56,520
Speaker 1: the first five hundred backers to pledge for those perks.

354
00:20:56,960 --> 00:21:00,240
Speaker 1: Once the campaign was over, the company behind it, Torking Group,

355
00:21:00,840 --> 00:21:04,399
Speaker 1: ended up taking pre orders for more Zano drones. They

356
00:21:04,440 --> 00:21:08,200
Speaker 1: accepted around three thousand pre orders after the conclusion of

357
00:21:08,240 --> 00:21:11,560
Speaker 1: the campaign. The company send out regular updates about production,

358
00:21:11,600 --> 00:21:15,760
Speaker 1: which is good transparent communications very important. At the launch

359
00:21:15,800 --> 00:21:18,560
Speaker 1: of the campaign, the company had claimed that it pretty

360
00:21:18,640 --> 00:21:20,480
Speaker 1: much had all the elements in place to go into

361
00:21:20,520 --> 00:21:24,680
Speaker 1: production immediately upon funding, though they did start to introduce

362
00:21:24,680 --> 00:21:27,400
Speaker 1: stretch goals once they began to hit those campaign goals

363
00:21:27,400 --> 00:21:30,480
Speaker 1: really early on, and those stretch goals, you could argue

364
00:21:30,520 --> 00:21:32,760
Speaker 1: that's an example of feature creep, where they started to

365
00:21:32,760 --> 00:21:36,280
Speaker 1: throw more and more features into these drones, and it

366
00:21:36,280 --> 00:21:38,520
Speaker 1: would even include technologies that a lot of people are

367
00:21:38,560 --> 00:21:41,880
Speaker 1: finding kind of questionable, like do you think you could

368
00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:46,080
Speaker 1: actually work this into this design, including stuff like facial

369
00:21:46,119 --> 00:21:51,320
Speaker 1: recognition technology, three sixty degree panorama capability, the ability to

370
00:21:51,359 --> 00:21:56,560
Speaker 1: fly upside down and also wireless charging. Torking Group estimated

371
00:21:56,640 --> 00:21:58,560
Speaker 1: that it was going to have a delivery date for

372
00:21:58,760 --> 00:22:00,760
Speaker 1: June two thousand fifteen. That was when I was going

373
00:22:00,800 --> 00:22:03,960
Speaker 1: to start shipping out these drones. It wasn't until September

374
00:22:03,960 --> 00:22:07,320
Speaker 1: two thousand fifteen that any drones were actually shipped, and

375
00:22:07,359 --> 00:22:09,959
Speaker 1: even then it was only about six hundred of them.

376
00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:12,840
Speaker 1: They went mostly to the preorder customers rather than the

377
00:22:12,880 --> 00:22:15,639
Speaker 1: crowdfunding backers, and that raised a lot of eyebrows and

378
00:22:15,720 --> 00:22:18,840
Speaker 1: more than a few tempers. Out of the thousands of

379
00:22:18,960 --> 00:22:23,200
Speaker 1: backers who put money towards this, only four of them

380
00:22:23,520 --> 00:22:27,760
Speaker 1: ever received a drone. And to make matters worse, the

381
00:22:27,800 --> 00:22:30,880
Speaker 1: people who received the drones complained that the product they

382
00:22:30,920 --> 00:22:34,399
Speaker 1: got was not what they were promised. They got a

383
00:22:34,480 --> 00:22:37,159
Speaker 1: quad copter, but they could barely fly. They'd hop around,

384
00:22:37,200 --> 00:22:41,000
Speaker 1: they slammed into walls. They apparently had no object avoidance technology.

385
00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:45,040
Speaker 1: They were missing tons of promised features. On November eighteen,

386
00:22:45,160 --> 00:22:49,160
Speaker 1: two thousand fifteen, to Working announced it would undergo liquidation.

387
00:22:49,760 --> 00:22:53,159
Speaker 1: All of the company's assets would be sold off and

388
00:22:53,200 --> 00:22:55,800
Speaker 1: the money would be sent to creditors. To Working had

389
00:22:55,840 --> 00:22:59,120
Speaker 1: spent a million pounds over the two and a half

390
00:22:59,160 --> 00:23:02,959
Speaker 1: million it had earned from crowdfunding in that time, and

391
00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:06,000
Speaker 1: to Working's servers shut down, which was a real shame

392
00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:08,679
Speaker 1: because the drones actually would call into the server in

393
00:23:08,800 --> 00:23:11,919
Speaker 1: order to operate. So once the servers shut down, the

394
00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:15,119
Speaker 1: drones that were out there were left inoperable. Even if

395
00:23:15,119 --> 00:23:18,080
Speaker 1: they couldn't work very well, now they couldn't work at all.

396
00:23:18,800 --> 00:23:21,720
Speaker 1: Mark Harris, by the way, has an incredible piece on

397
00:23:21,880 --> 00:23:25,760
Speaker 1: medium all about the Zano story. I encourage you to

398
00:23:25,840 --> 00:23:27,920
Speaker 1: look it up if you want to know more about

399
00:23:27,960 --> 00:23:31,560
Speaker 1: what happened. It is an exhaustive account. It's far too

400
00:23:31,600 --> 00:23:34,000
Speaker 1: long for me to go into on this episode, but

401
00:23:34,280 --> 00:23:36,960
Speaker 1: I had to call special attention to it because it

402
00:23:37,080 --> 00:23:40,560
Speaker 1: is an amazing investigative peace so if you really want

403
00:23:40,600 --> 00:23:42,720
Speaker 1: to learn all about how things can go wrong, and

404
00:23:42,720 --> 00:23:47,000
Speaker 1: I should stress that Harris concludes that this was not

405
00:23:47,080 --> 00:23:49,440
Speaker 1: a scam. It wasn't a hoax. It wasn't that people

406
00:23:49,440 --> 00:23:52,480
Speaker 1: were trying to get money from folks and then run

407
00:23:52,480 --> 00:23:54,920
Speaker 1: away with it. They really were trying to build a product.

408
00:23:54,960 --> 00:23:57,880
Speaker 1: It just got away from them. It's a good warning

409
00:23:57,920 --> 00:24:00,719
Speaker 1: story to read, both from someone who might want to

410
00:24:00,800 --> 00:24:04,560
Speaker 1: launch a product and someone who's looking at potential products

411
00:24:04,560 --> 00:24:07,679
Speaker 1: that they might support on a crowdfunding platform. Well, I

412
00:24:07,680 --> 00:24:11,080
Speaker 1: have more to say about crowdfunding misses and hits, but

413
00:24:11,280 --> 00:24:13,600
Speaker 1: before I get into that, let's take another quick break

414
00:24:13,760 --> 00:24:23,320
Speaker 1: to thank our sponsor. Now, I don't want it to

415
00:24:23,760 --> 00:24:27,320
Speaker 1: sound like I believe Kickstarter has an exclusive hold on

416
00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:32,280
Speaker 1: bad crowdfunding projects, because this next one ends up being

417
00:24:32,440 --> 00:24:35,880
Speaker 1: the realm of indie go go. And as the Dragonfly

418
00:24:36,320 --> 00:24:40,600
Speaker 1: future Phone future phone is spelled, all is one word

419
00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:45,040
Speaker 1: fu tu r e f O with a new lout

420
00:24:45,320 --> 00:24:49,240
Speaker 1: in future food. That was an indiego go project that

421
00:24:49,320 --> 00:24:53,360
Speaker 1: funded on December two, thou fourteen. The campaign raised more

422
00:24:53,440 --> 00:24:57,920
Speaker 1: than seven hundred twenty five thousand dollars, which meant the

423
00:24:57,960 --> 00:25:02,680
Speaker 1: campaign funded by six thousand, four hundred. Now, originally the

424
00:25:02,800 --> 00:25:06,760
Speaker 1: campaign goal was to hit one dollars, but Jeff Batio,

425
00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:12,480
Speaker 1: who was the head of this company that was bringing

426
00:25:12,560 --> 00:25:16,920
Speaker 1: this project up to crowdfunding, apparently lowered that to ten

427
00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:19,760
Speaker 1: thousand dollars in an effort to get the fully funded

428
00:25:19,800 --> 00:25:22,880
Speaker 1: designation on indiego go. Because that gives it a sense

429
00:25:22,960 --> 00:25:26,440
Speaker 1: of prestige. People are more willing to put money into

430
00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:28,840
Speaker 1: it when they see other people are already supporting it.

431
00:25:29,080 --> 00:25:32,680
Speaker 1: There's also this whole fear of missing out the fomo approach,

432
00:25:33,440 --> 00:25:35,960
Speaker 1: where you might think, oh, if I don't put money

433
00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:37,680
Speaker 1: into this, I'm not going to be a part of this,

434
00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:40,399
Speaker 1: or I'll have to pay three times as much when

435
00:25:40,440 --> 00:25:43,520
Speaker 1: it comes out for retail. So it was a pretty

436
00:25:43,560 --> 00:25:46,960
Speaker 1: clever move. So what was the future phone. Well, it

437
00:25:47,080 --> 00:25:50,800
Speaker 1: was supposed to be part laptop, part tablet, and part phone.

438
00:25:51,480 --> 00:25:55,679
Speaker 1: Imagine a laptop computer. Now imagine that this laptop computer

439
00:25:55,800 --> 00:25:59,280
Speaker 1: is actually kind of four pieces. Both the screen and

440
00:25:59,400 --> 00:26:02,680
Speaker 1: the keyboard are divided right down the middle, and it's

441
00:26:02,720 --> 00:26:04,720
Speaker 1: to vide in such a way where when you fold

442
00:26:04,800 --> 00:26:07,399
Speaker 1: it down like you would fold down a regular laptop,

443
00:26:07,640 --> 00:26:10,280
Speaker 1: you could then fold it again, so you're essentially folding

444
00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:13,680
Speaker 1: it twice right, once with the screen down and once

445
00:26:13,760 --> 00:26:17,800
Speaker 1: when you fold it back together against itself. Um, all

446
00:26:17,840 --> 00:26:21,600
Speaker 1: the parts were hinged. It was supposed to work seamlessly,

447
00:26:21,920 --> 00:26:24,840
Speaker 1: and you could even detach one of those two screens

448
00:26:24,880 --> 00:26:27,320
Speaker 1: and have it act as a phone with the Android

449
00:26:27,400 --> 00:26:31,320
Speaker 1: operating system. You could use a stylists or a keyboard

450
00:26:31,400 --> 00:26:33,280
Speaker 1: for input. It was supposed to have a slide out

451
00:26:33,359 --> 00:26:35,959
Speaker 1: touch pad that would come out of the keyboard as well,

452
00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:38,240
Speaker 1: so you could use that as like a mouse pad tracker.

453
00:26:39,240 --> 00:26:42,000
Speaker 1: And it was also supposed to be able to run Windows,

454
00:26:42,200 --> 00:26:44,639
Speaker 1: so you could run Android and Windows parallel to each other.

455
00:26:45,080 --> 00:26:49,359
Speaker 1: And you were supposed to have uninterrupted experiences. So if

456
00:26:49,400 --> 00:26:53,160
Speaker 1: you were watching a movie, say on your Android fablet,

457
00:26:53,840 --> 00:26:55,720
Speaker 1: which is what we used to call these things that

458
00:26:55,800 --> 00:26:58,760
Speaker 1: were larger than phones and smaller than tablets. And I

459
00:26:58,880 --> 00:27:02,160
Speaker 1: hate the phrase, but there you go. If you plug

460
00:27:02,359 --> 00:27:05,280
Speaker 1: that into your overall device, you could turn it into

461
00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:08,359
Speaker 1: back into laptop mode and keep watching right at that

462
00:27:08,480 --> 00:27:11,640
Speaker 1: same moment. From that point forward. It was also supposed

463
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:13,639
Speaker 1: to have an eight hour battery life, was supposed to

464
00:27:13,680 --> 00:27:16,240
Speaker 1: have really powerful process. There's a whole lot of ram

465
00:27:16,480 --> 00:27:20,240
Speaker 1: for both the phone version and the laptop version. Essentially

466
00:27:20,520 --> 00:27:23,440
Speaker 1: it was to have all the bells and whistles, and

467
00:27:23,680 --> 00:27:25,680
Speaker 1: yet you would be able to secure one for just

468
00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:30,879
Speaker 1: under eight hundred dollars. Remember the phrase if it sounds

469
00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:35,560
Speaker 1: too good to be true. Well, Jeff Battio has a

470
00:27:35,760 --> 00:27:40,080
Speaker 1: history of legal issues in business. He received a ban

471
00:27:40,280 --> 00:27:43,119
Speaker 1: from selling securities in the state of Illinois at one point.

472
00:27:43,760 --> 00:27:46,200
Speaker 1: The Danzing report goes so far as to call the

473
00:27:46,240 --> 00:27:50,400
Speaker 1: future Phone and outright scam, saying Battio was essentially fleecing

474
00:27:50,480 --> 00:27:53,399
Speaker 1: the public, that there was no intent to ever release

475
00:27:53,480 --> 00:27:56,320
Speaker 1: a piece of technology at all, and in fact, there

476
00:27:56,440 --> 00:28:00,480
Speaker 1: was a history of similar projects, even with similar signs

477
00:28:00,920 --> 00:28:04,280
Speaker 1: to this future phone, that never seemed to exist beyond

478
00:28:04,560 --> 00:28:07,920
Speaker 1: a computer generated model. The piece also pointed out that

479
00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:12,040
Speaker 1: Battio's company, Ideal Future Incorporated, had actually let its business

480
00:28:12,160 --> 00:28:16,040
Speaker 1: license expire, which seems to be an indication that it's

481
00:28:16,119 --> 00:28:19,480
Speaker 1: not really a thing anymore. There's some speculation online that

482
00:28:19,560 --> 00:28:22,040
Speaker 1: he's actually scheduled to go up for trial for possibly

483
00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:26,879
Speaker 1: unrelated charges later this year. And now I don't know

484
00:28:27,320 --> 00:28:31,159
Speaker 1: if Jeff Badio set out to create a scam and

485
00:28:31,760 --> 00:28:34,159
Speaker 1: fleece people out of money, that is what a lot

486
00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:37,320
Speaker 1: of people have accused him of doing. But I can

487
00:28:37,400 --> 00:28:40,320
Speaker 1: certainly say that there's been no evidence of a future

488
00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:44,920
Speaker 1: phone actually coming out since the announcement back then, and

489
00:28:45,160 --> 00:28:47,240
Speaker 1: like there was, there were several updates that would come

490
00:28:47,280 --> 00:28:50,479
Speaker 1: out over the next two years, but since it's been silent.

491
00:28:51,080 --> 00:28:54,160
Speaker 1: Not all questionable campaigns, by the way, go the distance.

492
00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:57,200
Speaker 1: Sometimes they get caught before they can go to completion,

493
00:28:57,360 --> 00:29:00,360
Speaker 1: at least not on every platform. Back in twenty of team,

494
00:29:00,400 --> 00:29:03,840
Speaker 1: there was a company called Scarp Technologies that launched a

495
00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:08,600
Speaker 1: Kickstarter campaign for the Scarp Laser razor. And yeah, this

496
00:29:08,760 --> 00:29:10,840
Speaker 1: was the device that was supposed to use laser light

497
00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:14,760
Speaker 1: to give you a smooth close shave. The razor was

498
00:29:14,800 --> 00:29:19,000
Speaker 1: supposed to reduce waste and eliminate skin irritation. Didn't use

499
00:29:19,040 --> 00:29:21,320
Speaker 1: a blade to cut. It was going to use a

500
00:29:21,960 --> 00:29:26,200
Speaker 1: fiber that has laser light running through it too destroy hair.

501
00:29:26,280 --> 00:29:29,280
Speaker 1: It was supposed to actually be the evolution of technology

502
00:29:29,360 --> 00:29:32,240
Speaker 1: that came out of the medical and cosmetics fields. The

503
00:29:32,440 --> 00:29:35,560
Speaker 1: video on Kickstarter showed a device that was supposed to

504
00:29:35,680 --> 00:29:38,400
Speaker 1: use lasers that relied on wavelengths of light that hairs

505
00:29:38,440 --> 00:29:42,560
Speaker 1: could absorb but skin would not, So hair would effectively

506
00:29:42,920 --> 00:29:45,280
Speaker 1: melt off at the base of the shaft, but your

507
00:29:45,320 --> 00:29:48,920
Speaker 1: skin would remain untouched. The video also showed that the

508
00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:51,440
Speaker 1: razor was in pretty much the same form factor as

509
00:29:51,480 --> 00:29:54,920
Speaker 1: your general plastic disposable razor. It's just didn't have a blade,

510
00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:57,800
Speaker 1: had this little laser light thing. But that's incredible they

511
00:29:57,840 --> 00:30:01,000
Speaker 1: could fit all of that into a form factor that small,

512
00:30:01,360 --> 00:30:04,400
Speaker 1: The power source, the laser, everything that you would need

513
00:30:04,440 --> 00:30:07,320
Speaker 1: would be in this little handheld razor, just like it

514
00:30:07,400 --> 00:30:11,000
Speaker 1: was disposable. That's amazing. The goal of the project was

515
00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:14,560
Speaker 1: one sixty thousand dollars and the campaign had hit four

516
00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:21,040
Speaker 1: million dollars, but then Kickstarter stepped in and suspended the

517
00:30:21,160 --> 00:30:24,760
Speaker 1: campaign on October twelve, two thousand fifteen. So why did

518
00:30:24,880 --> 00:30:28,040
Speaker 1: Kickstarter do that? While according to Kickstarter, it was because

519
00:30:28,720 --> 00:30:32,640
Speaker 1: they said the team had no working prototype to show off,

520
00:30:33,160 --> 00:30:35,920
Speaker 1: and Kickstarters said that any campaign that offers a physical

521
00:30:36,040 --> 00:30:39,920
Speaker 1: product as a reward must have a working prototype of

522
00:30:40,080 --> 00:30:44,560
Speaker 1: that product in order to be considered a valid campaign. Undeterred,

523
00:30:44,760 --> 00:30:47,040
Speaker 1: the creators hopped on over to indiego Go and they

524
00:30:47,160 --> 00:30:50,080
Speaker 1: launched a campaign there. They did not raise another four

525
00:30:50,120 --> 00:30:52,760
Speaker 1: million dollars like they did on Kickstarter, but they still

526
00:30:52,840 --> 00:30:56,080
Speaker 1: got five d seven thousand, hundred ten dollars funding. On

527
00:30:56,160 --> 00:30:59,960
Speaker 1: October twenty, two thousand fifteen, two weeks after the kickstarted

528
00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:03,160
Speaker 1: campaign had been suspended. Backers were supposed to get their

529
00:31:03,280 --> 00:31:07,360
Speaker 1: laser razors in I have not seen any reports that

530
00:31:07,440 --> 00:31:10,320
Speaker 1: anyone ever got one. Though a c Net reporter did

531
00:31:10,480 --> 00:31:13,720
Speaker 1: visit their facility and god demonstration of the technology, it

532
00:31:13,840 --> 00:31:16,000
Speaker 1: was not in the same form factor, it was not

533
00:31:16,160 --> 00:31:19,080
Speaker 1: capable of doing all the things that the laser razor

534
00:31:19,160 --> 00:31:21,600
Speaker 1: is supposed to be able to do. That the basic

535
00:31:21,800 --> 00:31:26,160
Speaker 1: principles behind the technology were demonstrated, so the technology kind

536
00:31:26,200 --> 00:31:29,360
Speaker 1: of sort of worked. The last update I saw from

537
00:31:29,400 --> 00:31:33,280
Speaker 1: the company was in mayen and here is what it said,

538
00:31:33,760 --> 00:31:37,600
Speaker 1: verbatim so quote. Dear Indiego Go supporters, it's hard to

539
00:31:37,640 --> 00:31:39,480
Speaker 1: believe it's over two and a half years since we

540
00:31:39,640 --> 00:31:41,960
Speaker 1: enlisted your support to help us bring the world's first

541
00:31:42,320 --> 00:31:45,320
Speaker 1: laser powered razor to the market. It's been a time

542
00:31:45,400 --> 00:31:48,520
Speaker 1: of many ups and downs, more downs than ups, to

543
00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:51,720
Speaker 1: be honest, but the team continued to progress the project.

544
00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:54,280
Speaker 1: It took nearly two years to produce the fiber to

545
00:31:54,360 --> 00:31:58,680
Speaker 1: the necessary specifications, and halfway through we are pleased to

546
00:31:58,760 --> 00:32:01,600
Speaker 1: announce we have also managed to apply the first coding

547
00:32:01,720 --> 00:32:04,200
Speaker 1: in a manner that will allow the device to perform

548
00:32:04,320 --> 00:32:07,320
Speaker 1: as required. We are also very pleased to announce that

549
00:32:07,480 --> 00:32:11,720
Speaker 1: some strategic manufacturing partners are assisting us with continuing developments.

550
00:32:12,080 --> 00:32:15,160
Speaker 1: Next steps include a second coding and then the challenge

551
00:32:15,240 --> 00:32:19,080
Speaker 1: of mounting the physical size of the fiber. Finally, continued

552
00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:22,720
Speaker 1: funding is vital, and meanwhile, fundraising we continue to keep

553
00:32:22,840 --> 00:32:26,600
Speaker 1: funding progress from personal means as well as backing afforded

554
00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:30,640
Speaker 1: by you, which I interpret to mean they actually are

555
00:32:30,680 --> 00:32:35,200
Speaker 1: continuing to get money from their backers. A variety of

556
00:32:35,320 --> 00:32:38,920
Speaker 1: industry professionals and executives remain involved in both these and

557
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:42,200
Speaker 1: our technical developments efforts. We knew it might not be

558
00:32:42,280 --> 00:32:44,560
Speaker 1: easy to bring SCARP to the market, but we thank

559
00:32:44,600 --> 00:32:48,240
Speaker 1: you for your continued support and optimism. Sincerely, Morgan and

560
00:32:48,320 --> 00:32:51,720
Speaker 1: the SCARP team. So from this from May two thousand eighteen,

561
00:32:51,760 --> 00:32:54,920
Speaker 1: we can presume that they're still working on this technology

562
00:32:55,280 --> 00:32:57,640
Speaker 1: and maybe one day they'll actually be able to come

563
00:32:57,640 --> 00:33:01,040
Speaker 1: out with the the full product. Whether or not it

564
00:33:01,080 --> 00:33:03,560
Speaker 1: will be worth the weight is a question that other

565
00:33:03,640 --> 00:33:06,320
Speaker 1: people will have to answer. I am not a backer

566
00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:08,520
Speaker 1: on this one, and there are a lot of people

567
00:33:08,560 --> 00:33:11,959
Speaker 1: who list this as an outright sort of scam approach.

568
00:33:12,120 --> 00:33:16,960
Speaker 1: I'm not so readily eager to jump on that bandwagon.

569
00:33:17,200 --> 00:33:20,200
Speaker 1: For one thing, the c NET report about actually seeing

570
00:33:20,240 --> 00:33:23,000
Speaker 1: the technology working, although again in a totally different form

571
00:33:23,080 --> 00:33:26,520
Speaker 1: factor and in a very limited use case, at least

572
00:33:26,560 --> 00:33:30,880
Speaker 1: tells me that they are sincere in their efforts and

573
00:33:31,320 --> 00:33:33,360
Speaker 1: raising half a million dollars. While that's a lot of

574
00:33:33,400 --> 00:33:36,400
Speaker 1: money is not a lot to work on for two

575
00:33:36,440 --> 00:33:40,360
Speaker 1: and a half years. So I suspect that this is

576
00:33:40,600 --> 00:33:43,960
Speaker 1: a passion project that the team really hopes is going

577
00:33:44,080 --> 00:33:47,600
Speaker 1: to work out, and here's hoping that they are able

578
00:33:47,680 --> 00:33:49,920
Speaker 1: to turn out something that satisfies the people who have

579
00:33:50,040 --> 00:33:55,040
Speaker 1: been backing their project. Now, no discussion about crowdfunding stories

580
00:33:55,800 --> 00:33:59,440
Speaker 1: is complete without a rundown of the coolest cooler. This

581
00:33:59,560 --> 00:34:02,720
Speaker 1: is probably really one of the most infamous tech related

582
00:34:03,760 --> 00:34:07,720
Speaker 1: crowdfunding campaigns, and this one was a huge headache. Ryan

583
00:34:07,800 --> 00:34:10,400
Speaker 1: Grepper first tried to get funding for his idea in

584
00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:14,320
Speaker 1: but that campaign failed to fund. His second try, however,

585
00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:17,840
Speaker 1: was a success, a massive success. He set a fifty

586
00:34:17,920 --> 00:34:21,719
Speaker 1: thou dollar goal and he hit more than thirteen million

587
00:34:21,920 --> 00:34:26,480
Speaker 1: dollars with more than sixty two thousand backers. And the

588
00:34:26,600 --> 00:34:29,800
Speaker 1: idea sounded kind of neat but also kind of you know, bonkers.

589
00:34:30,280 --> 00:34:33,520
Speaker 1: It's a cooler, the kind you put ice and drinks into,

590
00:34:33,960 --> 00:34:36,800
Speaker 1: but it was also meant to have a USB charging

591
00:34:36,880 --> 00:34:39,560
Speaker 1: station in it. There's a blender for a crushing ice,

592
00:34:40,160 --> 00:34:43,799
Speaker 1: a waterproof Bluetooth speaker, and led light for the lid

593
00:34:43,880 --> 00:34:46,520
Speaker 1: for those nighttime beach parties and a whole lot more right,

594
00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:49,239
Speaker 1: You can actually see these things online. You can find

595
00:34:49,280 --> 00:34:53,359
Speaker 1: one on various shopping sites. Well, Grepper ran into huge

596
00:34:53,440 --> 00:34:56,560
Speaker 1: problems in production and in shipping. He discovered that it

597
00:34:56,680 --> 00:35:00,040
Speaker 1: was really really complicated and there were a lot of

598
00:35:00,160 --> 00:35:03,319
Speaker 1: points of failure and he kept running into them. And worse,

599
00:35:03,440 --> 00:35:06,560
Speaker 1: he found it was more expensive than he anticipated. So

600
00:35:06,640 --> 00:35:09,680
Speaker 1: while he had raised thirteen million dollars, that actually was

601
00:35:09,800 --> 00:35:12,279
Speaker 1: not going to be enough to cover his costs to

602
00:35:12,520 --> 00:35:17,319
Speaker 1: manufacture and ship these coolers out to backers and two

603
00:35:17,400 --> 00:35:20,080
Speaker 1: pre orders. The company also put the cooler up for

604
00:35:20,200 --> 00:35:23,399
Speaker 1: sale on Amazon before they had actually shipped out all

605
00:35:23,440 --> 00:35:26,439
Speaker 1: the coolers to backers. In fact, as of this month,

606
00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:31,000
Speaker 1: at the end of June two eighteen, approximately twenty thousand

607
00:35:31,080 --> 00:35:37,120
Speaker 1: backers still have not received their cooler. That is crazy.

608
00:35:37,280 --> 00:35:39,520
Speaker 1: I mean it's years later and twenty thousand people are

609
00:35:39,600 --> 00:35:42,480
Speaker 1: still waiting on this. The company asked backers to cough

610
00:35:42,600 --> 00:35:46,600
Speaker 1: up another nineties seven dollars at one point for expedited shipping.

611
00:35:47,160 --> 00:35:49,640
Speaker 1: That was really in an effort to get a little

612
00:35:49,680 --> 00:35:52,440
Speaker 1: more money to help cover the costs, almost you know,

613
00:35:52,600 --> 00:35:56,399
Speaker 1: robbing Peter to pay Paul sort of situation. Uh, Grapper said, well,

614
00:35:56,560 --> 00:35:58,680
Speaker 1: this is think of it this way. You're still getting

615
00:35:58,680 --> 00:36:01,600
Speaker 1: the cooler for less than what retail price is going

616
00:36:01,680 --> 00:36:06,440
Speaker 1: to be. That didn't necessarily mollify backers who had already

617
00:36:06,480 --> 00:36:08,160
Speaker 1: spent the money thinking they were going to get a

618
00:36:08,160 --> 00:36:10,600
Speaker 1: cooler in the first place. Grepper eventually would have to

619
00:36:10,680 --> 00:36:13,719
Speaker 1: settle a case with the Oregon Department of Justice, and

620
00:36:13,960 --> 00:36:17,120
Speaker 1: Coolest would ship coolers to eight seventy three backers in

621
00:36:17,160 --> 00:36:20,719
Speaker 1: Oregon as part of that settlement. Coolest Coolers remains an

622
00:36:20,760 --> 00:36:23,200
Speaker 1: example of how a project can get away from someone,

623
00:36:23,320 --> 00:36:27,719
Speaker 1: particularly a project that involves manufacturing. So when you rely

624
00:36:28,040 --> 00:36:31,480
Speaker 1: on production that's going on in another country, like in China,

625
00:36:32,120 --> 00:36:34,040
Speaker 1: you give up a lot of your control and you

626
00:36:34,160 --> 00:36:36,759
Speaker 1: might find that things do not go your way, and

627
00:36:36,840 --> 00:36:39,520
Speaker 1: when things go wrong, it's really hard to rectify them.

628
00:36:39,960 --> 00:36:44,320
Speaker 1: Actually feel pretty badly for Grepper. His campaign was incredibly successful,

629
00:36:44,680 --> 00:36:48,000
Speaker 1: his costs were way higher than he anticipated, and his

630
00:36:48,120 --> 00:36:51,120
Speaker 1: obligations were such that that really put him in a

631
00:36:51,200 --> 00:36:55,240
Speaker 1: tough position. His backers were understandably upset by numerous delays,

632
00:36:55,840 --> 00:36:58,840
Speaker 1: and he has to scramble to deliver upon promises because

633
00:36:59,080 --> 00:37:02,320
Speaker 1: he takes these obligueations seriously. It's not again, it's not

634
00:37:02,320 --> 00:37:04,120
Speaker 1: going to take the money and run kind of situation.

635
00:37:04,719 --> 00:37:08,120
Speaker 1: This is a case where success kind of stinks, where

636
00:37:08,680 --> 00:37:12,080
Speaker 1: because he was essentially promising stuff for less than what

637
00:37:12,320 --> 00:37:14,640
Speaker 1: was going to cost him to make it, and because

638
00:37:14,680 --> 00:37:18,680
Speaker 1: it got so incredibly successful, ultimately he was digging a

639
00:37:18,800 --> 00:37:22,560
Speaker 1: deep hole for himself. I feel for the guy, especially

640
00:37:22,640 --> 00:37:24,920
Speaker 1: since he just had an idea to make a kind

641
00:37:24,960 --> 00:37:29,640
Speaker 1: of ridiculous cooler. Anyway, that RUPs up this discussion, this

642
00:37:29,920 --> 00:37:33,680
Speaker 1: overview of some of the hits and misses of crowdfunding.

643
00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:37,439
Speaker 1: Really to give you guys a sense of it, it's

644
00:37:37,480 --> 00:37:43,520
Speaker 1: important to maintain skepticism and and you know, some some

645
00:37:43,680 --> 00:37:47,479
Speaker 1: realistic expectations when you look at crowdfunding campaigns, and also

646
00:37:47,600 --> 00:37:51,239
Speaker 1: to ask yourself really really really hard questions before you

647
00:37:51,400 --> 00:37:56,440
Speaker 1: launch your own crowdfunding campaign, because sometimes it might mean

648
00:37:56,520 --> 00:37:59,960
Speaker 1: the difference between setting a goal that is a chief

649
00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:01,879
Speaker 1: movable but it's going to put you in a very

650
00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:05,560
Speaker 1: difficult position, or setting a goal that is extremely ambitious.

651
00:38:05,680 --> 00:38:08,600
Speaker 1: Maybe you don't achieve it, but if you if you don't,

652
00:38:08,880 --> 00:38:14,799
Speaker 1: you're not beholden to those guarantees you've been making. It's

653
00:38:14,880 --> 00:38:19,800
Speaker 1: a delicate thing both as a crowdfunding campaign manager and

654
00:38:19,880 --> 00:38:22,760
Speaker 1: as someone who's actually looking out at the crowdfunding landscape

655
00:38:22,760 --> 00:38:24,960
Speaker 1: and saying, this sounds like a really interesting project and

656
00:38:25,040 --> 00:38:28,040
Speaker 1: I want to support it. It also depends upon how

657
00:38:28,200 --> 00:38:31,880
Speaker 1: you view the whole concept. Is it supporting a project

658
00:38:32,239 --> 00:38:34,759
Speaker 1: or are you pre ordering a product? If you're thinking

659
00:38:34,840 --> 00:38:37,799
Speaker 1: of it as pre ordering a product, maybe it's better

660
00:38:37,880 --> 00:38:40,399
Speaker 1: to just wait pay full price when it comes out,

661
00:38:40,640 --> 00:38:45,399
Speaker 1: after you have been assured that the product works as advertised.

662
00:38:46,280 --> 00:38:48,960
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe that's just my own opinion. Anyway,

663
00:38:49,360 --> 00:38:52,320
Speaker 1: If you guys have suggestions for future episodes of tech Stuff,

664
00:38:52,600 --> 00:38:54,839
Speaker 1: why not write me and let me know what those are.

665
00:38:55,160 --> 00:38:58,759
Speaker 1: Otherwise I ain't gonna know. The email address for the

666
00:38:58,800 --> 00:39:01,799
Speaker 1: show is tech Stuff at how stuff works dot com,

667
00:39:02,280 --> 00:39:04,839
Speaker 1: or you can drop me a line on Facebook or Twitter.

668
00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:07,680
Speaker 1: The hand over both of those is text stuff hs W.

669
00:39:08,239 --> 00:39:11,719
Speaker 1: Don't forget. You can follow us on Instagram and I'll

670
00:39:11,760 --> 00:39:20,239
Speaker 1: talk to you again really soon for more on this

671
00:39:20,440 --> 00:39:22,919
Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff Works

672
00:39:22,960 --> 00:39:23,359
Speaker 1: dot com