WEBVTT - The Best and Worst of Crowdfunding 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:07.200 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from half 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:13.680 stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:18.280 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland, and I love all things tech. 0:00:19.040 --> 0:00:21.799 And in a couple of episodes recently, as in't the 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:24.840 ones just before the one that published yesterday, I talked 0:00:24.880 --> 0:00:27.760 about vapor ware, and today I'm going to focus on 0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:32.120 crowdfunding platforms and some of the best and worst examples 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:35.800 of tech projects that have received crowdfunding. This is not 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:39.239 a definitive list by any stretch of the imagination. I 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:43.920 could do a month's worth of episodes about really cool 0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:48.000 crowdfunded tech projects and ones that just went terribly wrong. 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:51.440 And by worst, I don't necessarily mean that the idea 0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:55.480 for the project was a bad one, but rather something 0:00:55.640 --> 0:01:00.440 happened between the campaign launching and what of her the 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:04.800 delivery time was supposed to be for that product. Sometimes 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:07.640 that just means that things didn't go as planned. It 0:01:07.680 --> 0:01:11.319 doesn't necessarily mean any particular idea was bad. But first 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:14.000 I want to go into the background of the two 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:17.760 most popular crowdfunding platforms that are out there, and that 0:01:17.800 --> 0:01:22.360 would be Kickstarter and indie go Go. Kickstarter was an 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:24.560 idea that's been around for a pretty long time. As 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:28.120 it turns out. In late two thousand one, an artist 0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:32.200 named Perry Chen wanted to get a musical performance organized 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:35.360 during the two thousand two Jazz Fest in New Orleans. 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:38.200 So he's looking ahead. He's saying, next year, there's gonna 0:01:38.200 --> 0:01:42.160 be this big jazz festival. I want to create a 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:45.360 show where these these two dep DJs can come down 0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:48.960 and do a full performance in the course of the 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:52.640 jazz festival. Uh, I really want to make this happen. 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:55.960 So he tries to get this show together. He takes initiative, 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:59.960 but the musical venue he was talking to wanted way 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:03.000 more money than he could provide. There was no way 0:02:03.040 --> 0:02:05.880 he could come up with the the expense it was 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:09.160 going to take just to have the show. So even 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:12.040 if the show were incredibly successful, it would never be 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:13.680 able to happen because he could not come up with 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:17.600 that front capital. So that experience inspired him to brainstorm 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:20.600 about a way where people who are interested in having 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:24.880 something happen could pledge money toward that thing, perhaps using 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:28.560 credit cards or some other form, and if enough money 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:32.400 were pledged to meet the costs to have that thing happen, 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:35.520 then it would happen. They would be charged the money, 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:39.160 The money would go towards the cost of production, and 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:41.919 the thing would go on, and in return, people could 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:45.400 actually go to that thing. They would end up receiving 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:48.320 essentially a ticket in return for their pledge. But if 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:51.600 not enough money were pledged, let's say that after a 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:54.880 certain amount of time there just wasn't enough interest, then 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:57.639 the whole thing would be scrapped. No one would be charged, 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:01.040 and everything would go on. It's mary little way. Well 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:03.640 that would become the germ of the idea for Kickstarter, 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:07.760 but the actual launch of Kickstarter was still years away. 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:12.079 Flashboard to two thousand five. Perry Chen has relocated. He's 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:16.040 living in Brooklyn. That's when he met Yancy Strickler, a 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:19.080 writer and editor who had worked for m j I 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:24.160 Interactive and Flavor Pill Media. He was mostly working as 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:27.360 sort of a rock and roll music critic and writer. 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:30.600 Chen was waiting tables at that time in a restaurant 0:03:30.600 --> 0:03:34.240 in Brooklyn, and Strickler was a regular at this particular 0:03:34.280 --> 0:03:38.800 restaurant and the two started talking and eventually Chen told 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:44.600 Strickler about his idea about this fundraising approach, this idea 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:48.280 of pledging money towards something, but only getting charged if 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:51.800 enough money were raised to make that something happen. And 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:55.560 Strickler thought this was a really cool notion, so they 0:03:55.600 --> 0:03:57.960 went and bought a white board and they began to 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:00.920 actually brainstorm what Kickstarter might look like and how it 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:04.560 might work. That kept on going for a couple of years, 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:07.400 and in two thousand seven they ended up meeting another 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:10.280 person by the name of Charles Adler. He would become 0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:15.240 the final piece of that triumvirate who founded Kickstarter. Adler 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:19.960 and Chen began work on the actual artistic layout of Kickstarter. 0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:23.000 Uh Strickler was still working on the project as well. 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:25.560 He was also working his regular day job, but none 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:29.599 of the three co founders were actual developers, so building 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:33.279 out a functional website was laborious and filled with errors. 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:36.920 So they started hiring people to work on the idea. 0:04:37.240 --> 0:04:39.160 Some people would stay on the project for a little while, 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:42.640 some would stay a little bit longer. They ideated several times. 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:46.440 There are pictures online of the various versions of Kickstarter 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:49.640 that were proposed before the site went live. Some of 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:54.640 them are truly hideous to behold. But they began meeting 0:04:54.640 --> 0:04:56.920 with other people who had helped them with the design 0:04:57.040 --> 0:04:59.599 and the launch, and eventually they were able to get 0:04:59.640 --> 0:05:02.320 something together. They went to an early beta test in 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:05.880 two thousand nine, and then on April two thousand nine, 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:09.880 nearly a decade after Chen had the original idea, they 0:05:09.960 --> 0:05:13.680 launched with a public website. The first project to fund 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:18.640 successfully on Kickstarter was called Drawing for Dollars, and it 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:22.200 hit its goal on May third, two thousand nine. It 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:26.480 raised all of thirty five dollars. Two other projects funded 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:30.280 that week as well. In two thousand ten, Time magazine 0:05:30.360 --> 0:05:34.320 named Kickstarter one of the ten best inventions of the year. 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:37.720 So that shows you that just within a year Kickstarter 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:40.840 was already making a big impact right out of the gate. 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:46.320 Nearly another ten years and more than three billion dollars 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:50.800 in crowdfunding campaigns later, things have changed a lot. Charles 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:55.119 Adler would leave Kickstarter in two thousand thirteen. Perry Chen 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:58.360 was serving as CEO until two thousand fourteen, and then 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:01.919 stepped down just to to the the chair of the 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:05.760 board of directors. Yancey Strickler took over as CEO, and 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:12.359 he would remain as CEO until Kickstarter actually became a 0:06:12.440 --> 0:06:16.720 public benefit corporation. That means that benefiting the public good 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:19.919 is actually part of the company charter, in addition to 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:24.080 making a profit. In seventeen, when Strickler stepped down as CEO, 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:28.320 Chen actually stepped back in, first as interim CEO, and 0:06:28.360 --> 0:06:31.040 then he said he was the new permanent CEO, although 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:35.760 no official announcement about that came out of the company. 0:06:35.800 --> 0:06:39.240 According to BuzzFeed, Chen's returned to the helm was not 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:44.240 greeted with universal approval. About fifty out of a hundred 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:48.880 twenty employees left the company, including all but one of 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:53.080 the executive team who had worked under Strickler. Kickstarter, by 0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:56.599 the way, takes a five percent cut of any successfully 0:06:56.680 --> 0:07:00.599 funded campaign. According to kickstarter itself, the site has seen 0:07:00.640 --> 0:07:04.680 about three point three three billion dollars worth of successful campaigns, 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:07.200 which would put the company take it around a hundred 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:11.320 sixty six million dollars, which isn't bad, but Kickstarter also 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:15.360 has a reputation. More than three fifths of the total 0:07:15.440 --> 0:07:19.280 dollars pledged on Kickstarter has gone to campaigns for games, 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:24.440 design projects and tech projects rather than creative artistic projects. 0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:26.720 So a lot of people look at Kickstarter as the 0:07:26.720 --> 0:07:29.920 place to go to pitch your ideas to the general public. 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:33.280 So instead of like going to a company and saying 0:07:33.440 --> 0:07:35.560 I've got this idea of for our product, I would 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:37.600 like to work with you to produce it, or going 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:41.440 with potential private investors like Angel investors to get a 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:45.080 company together, you take it to Kickstarter and you pitch 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:46.960 it to the general public and see if you can 0:07:46.960 --> 0:07:51.360 get your support that way. Indie go go is similar 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:55.520 in many ways to Kickstarter. It actually launched before Kickstarter did. 0:07:55.600 --> 0:07:59.200 It went live in January two th eight. Indie go 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:02.800 Go was the brain child of Denay Ringelman, Eric Shell, 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:07.320 and Slava Rubin, who met at the University of California, Berkeley. 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:10.040 Like Chen, these three wanted to create a platform that 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:13.040 would make it easier for people to get funding for 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:16.280 various projects. Ringelman came up with the idea. She was 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:19.600 inspired originally by her parents, who were small business owners, 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:23.480 and also her experiences both as a student and someone 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:26.320 who had worked in the financial district over on Wall Street. 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:30.360 Her original idea was for an offline business, but Shell 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:33.240 and Ruben would collaborate with her and convince her that 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:36.640 an online platform would actually be a better solution. The 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:39.840 three struggled for three years to find investors to help 0:08:39.920 --> 0:08:42.839 fund their company. It was live, it was working, but 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:45.160 they didn't have a whole lot of money to work 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:48.040 on this. They were actually supporting it largely themselves. In 0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:50.839 two thousand and eleven, they landed one point five million 0:08:50.840 --> 0:08:53.840 dollars in venture capital, and then over the next few 0:08:53.880 --> 0:08:57.079 years they would raise more. Indie goog covers a broader 0:08:57.160 --> 0:09:01.320 spectrum of projects than Kickstarter does. Kickstarter is really meant 0:09:01.320 --> 0:09:04.559 for creative projects, although that can include products like tech 0:09:04.679 --> 0:09:07.880 or games. Indie go go can be used for just 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:11.840 about anything, including raising money for causes. So if you 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:14.960 wanted to hold a funding campaign for a nonprofit organization, 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:18.560 you could conceivably use indie go go, but you could 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:22.240 not use Kickstarter because it's not what kickstarters for. Also, 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:26.720 Kickstarter limits people in the US, UK, Canada, and a 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:30.400 couple of other countries for their campaigns. You cannot launch 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:32.720 a campaign if you live outside of that small group 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:37.720 of countries. Indie go Go considers itself an international crowdfunding option, 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:41.560 although it does not allow campaigners that are that belong 0:09:41.800 --> 0:09:45.160 to the nations that are on the United States Office 0:09:45.160 --> 0:09:49.480 of Foreign Assets Controls sanctioned list. That would include countries 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:53.320 like North Korea, Iran, Syria, Cuba, that kind of thing. 0:09:53.720 --> 0:09:57.000 Indie go Go has a slightly different approach to funding 0:09:57.120 --> 0:10:00.000 than Kickstarter. So if you launch an indie go go campaign, 0:10:00.320 --> 0:10:03.320 you can choose to keep whatever money you raise even 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:05.680 if you don't make your goal. So let's say that 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:08.920 your goal is twenty dollars but you only raise seven 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:12.320 thousand dollars. Well, you could actually select an option that 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:14.800 allows you to keep whatever money you raised. Now, in 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:17.800 that event, indie go go gets to keep a nine 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:21.319 percent take of whatever you raised. Now if you hit 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:24.160 your goal, if you hit that twenty dollars, you get 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:27.120 back some of that cut that indiego go takes, so 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:30.560 indigoga would only take uh four percent of the total, 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:34.080 not nine. Or you could choose the all or nothing 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:37.280 approach similar to what Kickstarter does, that also locks in 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:40.040 that four percent indie go go fee. So if you 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:42.959 do that, you're actually owing a little less to indie 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:44.600 go go than you would if you were running the 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:47.679 exact same campaign on Kickstarter. There are also a lot 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:50.400 of other crowdfunding platforms out there, by the way, some 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:53.080 of them are like go fund me, and that's more 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:57.160 about fundraising for causes, personal or general. Some of them 0:10:57.240 --> 0:11:00.000 are more like Patreon. Actually, Patreon really is kind of 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:03.440 its own thing. Patreon sets up a recurring pledge, like 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:07.160 a monthly pledge, to fund ongoing projects and work. So 0:11:07.200 --> 0:11:10.520 it's not a startup thing. It's an ongoing thing. So 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:13.440 if I were saying making a web series, I could 0:11:13.440 --> 0:11:18.079 have a Patreon and in return for monthly uh pledges, 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:21.880 you might get extra material related to the web series. 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:23.920 So not only would you be supporting my work, but 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:25.960 you would get a little extra something on the side. 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:29.240 And there are others that are geared specifically for stuff 0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:32.840 like musicians, or for startup companies or for charities. But 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:36.320 when it comes to tech products, the two big crowdfunding 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:40.840 platforms out there really are Kickstarter and indiego Go, and 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:45.160 both of them have played host to some good and 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:49.040 some questionable tech products. I'll talk more about those in 0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:52.200 just a second, but first let's take a quick break 0:11:52.480 --> 0:12:04.360 to thank our sponsor. Okay, let's get this underway. Let's 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:07.400 go to the tech category. Over to Kickstarter. One of 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:12.520 the most successful campaigns on Kickstarter in the tech category 0:12:12.800 --> 0:12:17.560 was the Pano Music campaign. This was championed by musician 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:21.800 Neil Young, and the idea was pretty interesting. Pano Music 0:12:22.160 --> 0:12:26.160 would take the master recordings of various songs, so the 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:29.920 masters are the recordings from which all copies are made. 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:32.120 If you get your hands on a master, you are 0:12:32.160 --> 0:12:36.040 listening to the most accurate representation of how the music 0:12:36.160 --> 0:12:40.360 was originally sounding when it was recorded. That is copy 0:12:40.480 --> 0:12:44.320 number one, or really recording number one. It's not a copy, 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:48.600 is the recording. Pano Music was going to create digital 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:52.199 versions from those masters, and it was going to use 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:55.240 a lossless digital format that you could play on a 0:12:55.280 --> 0:13:00.800 special digital music player. Lossless means that no data gets 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:05.480 thrown out, whereas a compression format like MP three is 0:13:05.520 --> 0:13:09.000 known as a lossy format, and it's called lossy because 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:14.520 during the compression algorithm, some data gets pushed out in 0:13:14.640 --> 0:13:18.439 order to make the file size more manageable. And typically 0:13:18.720 --> 0:13:23.240 a lossy sound file will eliminate any sounds that fall 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:27.400 outside the normal range of human hearing, because the the 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:29.280 idea is that you would not be able to perceive 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:33.120 them anyway. There are audio files who argue know that 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:36.480 actually has an effect on the overall quality of the sound. 0:13:36.520 --> 0:13:38.640 You may not be able to hear those individual sounds, 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:44.839 but they'll produce other elements like harmonics that you can 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:48.280 actually perceive. So there's this argument that goes back and 0:13:48.320 --> 0:13:52.520 forth between audio files and people who work in compression technology, 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:59.080 and that has raised the the issue of lossy versus lossless. 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:02.079 So this Pondom Music player was supposed to play lossless 0:14:02.160 --> 0:14:04.280 music files, although it could handle other ones as well. 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:08.000 The campaign had an early bird special for one hundred backers. 0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:10.800 If they pledged at least two hundred dollars, they would 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:14.079 get a Pinto Player device as soon as they became available. 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:16.320 After that, you would have to make a pledge of 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:19.000 at least three hundred dollars to get a Poto Player, 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:21.000 So the first one hundred could get that two hundred 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:24.080 dollar price, and then if you showed up at the 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:26.800 campaign after that, you'd have to The lowest you could 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:28.840 pledge to get a pot a Player would be three 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:31.960 hundred dollars, but even at that price, backers were assured 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:38.120 they would be spending tollars less than what the eventual 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:41.400 retail price for the Pinto Player would be. That retail 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:45.800 price ended up being three cents, so you would save 0:14:45.800 --> 0:14:48.680 about a hundred bucks off the final price. By being 0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:53.760 a supporter during the Kickstarter campaign. The campaign more than 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:56.960 met it's eight hundred thousand dollar goal. By the end 0:14:57.280 --> 0:15:00.480 it had raised more than six million dollars ers and 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:03.960 the Poto Player did actually come out in two thousand fifteen, 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:07.720 So this is not one of those vaporware stories. It 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:10.760 was a device that really came out, It really worked, 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:13.800 it really got shipped to the backers. But the story 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:17.080 still doesn't have a very happy ending, or or quasi ending, 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:20.040 I guess I should say, because what the heck ever 0:15:20.240 --> 0:15:24.760 ends these days. The Pinto Player supported many different formats 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:27.960 for music. It could support MP three's as well as 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:30.040 tons of other file formats, but the goal was to 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:33.920 guide users to the Panto music World digital music store 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:38.880 to buy this lossless form factor to get hold of 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:44.560 these high definition, high resolution audio recordings. However, according to 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:49.480 Neil Young, music labels demanded very high prices for those 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:53.800 high resolution, lossless format audio files. They're demanding two to 0:15:53.880 --> 0:15:57.920 three times as much for normal MP three files, which 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:00.800 again is a lossy format. They said, if you're gonna 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:05.680 spend let's say five dollars on this sound file, then 0:16:05.840 --> 0:16:08.000 for this other format, you're gonna have to spend fifteen 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:12.440 dollars for it in the music store went offline when 0:16:12.480 --> 0:16:16.640 Ponto Music's partner company, omni Phone, was sold off. Panto 0:16:16.680 --> 0:16:20.240 announced it would partner with another company called seven Digital, 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:24.520 but the store never came back. Neil Young moved on 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:29.040 to launch a free music streaming service called Xtreme. The 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:32.240 letter X followed by the word stream. But the Ponto 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:35.560 Music Player only plays downloaded songs. It doesn't have any 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:39.600 WiFi or cellular capability. You cannot streaming to the Pinto Player. 0:16:40.680 --> 0:16:44.120 So wamp wamp, there's a four dollar MP three player 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:47.200 you've got now, essentially. Also, I should add that, according 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:49.880 to several reviews I read, the Pinto Player was a 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:53.080 good digital music device, but it was really hard to 0:16:53.080 --> 0:16:56.920 tell the difference between lossless and lossy file formats, assuming 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:00.120 that someone wasn't going crazy with the compression rate when 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:03.560 they were making the lossy file. So while the device 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:06.600 performed well, it was based on a somewhat faulty premise, 0:17:06.720 --> 0:17:09.960 because if you could not reliably tell the difference between 0:17:10.000 --> 0:17:12.960 a lossy file and a lossless one, why are you 0:17:13.000 --> 0:17:17.720 spending four hundred dollars on this thing? Anyway, Let's move 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:20.320 on to a different one. Another big winner in the 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:23.840 text space on Kickstarter was the z Time smart watch 0:17:23.920 --> 0:17:28.960 from Micronos Switzerland. The watch is a kind of hybrid watch, 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:33.040 so it actually has physical hands, like in that analog style, 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:37.320 actual clock hands on your watch. So if you don't 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:39.359 know how to read a clock, an analog clock, I 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:41.760 guess you're out of luck here. But in addition to 0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:45.240 these physical hands that would point to the time, there 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:49.000 was also a touch screen digital interface incorporated into this watch. 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:52.159 The goal for the campaign was to raise fifty dollars, 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:55.680 but it raised more than five point three million dollars. 0:17:56.160 --> 0:17:59.120 The campaign had three early bird specials for the first 0:17:59.160 --> 0:18:02.360 one thousand to contribute at each of those levels. Uh 0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:04.639 there was a hundred and nineteen dollar level, a D 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:08.960 seven dollar level, and a one level for the original, 0:18:09.000 --> 0:18:12.720 Premium and Elite models respectively. And the company designed the 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:14.879 hands so that they would actually move out the way 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:18.240 when you received messages on the smart watch screen. So 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:20.840 let's say that you're looking at your watch and it's 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:24.359 normally would say six PM, which means the the hands 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:27.600 would be in a vertical line, but it needs to 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:30.959 display a message to you, then the hands would actually 0:18:31.000 --> 0:18:33.920 shift so that one is pointing at three and one's 0:18:33.960 --> 0:18:36.640 pointing at nine, So it's making a horizontal line. That's 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:38.680 just the clearer the face so that you can read 0:18:38.720 --> 0:18:41.119 the messages. Probably it would then go back to the 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:43.919 regular time once you had dismissed the message, which I 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:45.880 thought was kind of a cool idea. Also, the hands 0:18:45.920 --> 0:18:48.760 would automatically adjust to reflect whatever time zone you were 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:51.920 in at that time, and it had some other features. Uh, 0:18:52.240 --> 0:18:54.280 I guess I should say it has other features The 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:58.399 watch does exist, including a pedometer has a heart rate motor. 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:02.119 According to Digital Trend, those features worked really, really well, 0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:06.320 although their overall review for the watch was less than stellar. 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:11.080 The campaign listed a ship date of September, and that's 0:19:11.119 --> 0:19:13.440 when the first Z time watches actually began to ship, 0:19:13.520 --> 0:19:16.480 So that's good. This is one of those stories where 0:19:16.880 --> 0:19:19.720 there was something that was promised, that thing was delivered. 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:22.840 It appears to be the thing that everyone was promised. 0:19:22.960 --> 0:19:26.480 It wasn't a bait and switch. But the reviews I've 0:19:26.520 --> 0:19:28.760 seen for the watch say the features tend to be good, 0:19:28.760 --> 0:19:31.800 but the interface is a little tricky, maybe a little frustrating. 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:34.760 So your mileage may vary, but I would at least 0:19:35.200 --> 0:19:38.520 say this campaign should fall into the good category, not 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:41.919 the bad story category, because it actually produced what was 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:45.760 promised and they shipped it. Another one of kickstarters most 0:19:45.880 --> 0:19:51.240 funded tech projects came to a pretty dismal end down 0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:54.240 the line, and that would be the Zano Nano drone. 0:19:54.880 --> 0:19:57.360 Now as a quad copter drone, it can actually fit 0:19:57.400 --> 0:20:00.400 in the palm of your hand, and the campaign included 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:03.560 an incredible video showing off what the drone could supposedly do, 0:20:03.640 --> 0:20:07.280 which was really impressive. The late fourteen campaign aimed to 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:11.840 raise a hundred five thousand pounds British pounds that's equivalent 0:20:11.880 --> 0:20:15.680 to about a hundred nine thousand dollars back at that time. Ultimately, though, 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:18.560 it would end up raising two point three million pounds 0:20:18.640 --> 0:20:21.879 or nearly three and a half million dollars. The drones 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:24.480 were supposed to include a high definition camera. They were 0:20:24.480 --> 0:20:27.119 supposed to have some object avoidance technology so that they 0:20:27.160 --> 0:20:31.360 could um detect and easily avoid things like trees or walls. 0:20:32.000 --> 0:20:34.479 They were supposed to have tracking technology. You would end 0:20:34.560 --> 0:20:37.239 up controlling them using gesture controls on a smartphone, like 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:40.000 you could actually hold your phone up and move it 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:44.320 across your field of view and control your your drone 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:46.639 that way, and they had an early bird rate for 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:49.040 this as well. If you want to buy a white 0:20:49.160 --> 0:20:51.639 or black Xano or pledge at that level, it was 0:20:51.640 --> 0:20:53.520 a hundred thirty nine pounds if you were one of 0:20:53.520 --> 0:20:56.520 the first five hundred backers to pledge for those perks. 0:20:56.960 --> 0:21:00.240 Once the campaign was over, the company behind it, Torking Group, 0:21:00.840 --> 0:21:04.399 ended up taking pre orders for more Zano drones. They 0:21:04.440 --> 0:21:08.200 accepted around three thousand pre orders after the conclusion of 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:11.560 the campaign. The company send out regular updates about production, 0:21:11.600 --> 0:21:15.760 which is good transparent communications very important. At the launch 0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:18.560 of the campaign, the company had claimed that it pretty 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:20.480 much had all the elements in place to go into 0:21:20.520 --> 0:21:24.680 production immediately upon funding, though they did start to introduce 0:21:24.680 --> 0:21:27.400 stretch goals once they began to hit those campaign goals 0:21:27.400 --> 0:21:30.480 really early on, and those stretch goals, you could argue 0:21:30.520 --> 0:21:32.760 that's an example of feature creep, where they started to 0:21:32.760 --> 0:21:36.280 throw more and more features into these drones, and it 0:21:36.280 --> 0:21:38.520 would even include technologies that a lot of people are 0:21:38.560 --> 0:21:41.880 finding kind of questionable, like do you think you could 0:21:42.000 --> 0:21:46.080 actually work this into this design, including stuff like facial 0:21:46.119 --> 0:21:51.320 recognition technology, three sixty degree panorama capability, the ability to 0:21:51.359 --> 0:21:56.560 fly upside down and also wireless charging. Torking Group estimated 0:21:56.640 --> 0:21:58.560 that it was going to have a delivery date for 0:21:58.760 --> 0:22:00.760 June two thousand fifteen. That was when I was going 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:03.960 to start shipping out these drones. It wasn't until September 0:22:03.960 --> 0:22:07.320 two thousand fifteen that any drones were actually shipped, and 0:22:07.359 --> 0:22:09.959 even then it was only about six hundred of them. 0:22:10.000 --> 0:22:12.840 They went mostly to the preorder customers rather than the 0:22:12.880 --> 0:22:15.639 crowdfunding backers, and that raised a lot of eyebrows and 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:18.840 more than a few tempers. Out of the thousands of 0:22:18.960 --> 0:22:23.200 backers who put money towards this, only four of them 0:22:23.520 --> 0:22:27.760 ever received a drone. And to make matters worse, the 0:22:27.800 --> 0:22:30.880 people who received the drones complained that the product they 0:22:30.920 --> 0:22:34.399 got was not what they were promised. They got a 0:22:34.480 --> 0:22:37.159 quad copter, but they could barely fly. They'd hop around, 0:22:37.200 --> 0:22:41.000 they slammed into walls. They apparently had no object avoidance technology. 0:22:41.040 --> 0:22:45.040 They were missing tons of promised features. On November eighteen, 0:22:45.160 --> 0:22:49.160 two thousand fifteen, to Working announced it would undergo liquidation. 0:22:49.760 --> 0:22:53.159 All of the company's assets would be sold off and 0:22:53.200 --> 0:22:55.800 the money would be sent to creditors. To Working had 0:22:55.840 --> 0:22:59.120 spent a million pounds over the two and a half 0:22:59.160 --> 0:23:02.959 million it had earned from crowdfunding in that time, and 0:23:03.000 --> 0:23:06.000 to Working's servers shut down, which was a real shame 0:23:06.000 --> 0:23:08.679 because the drones actually would call into the server in 0:23:08.800 --> 0:23:11.919 order to operate. So once the servers shut down, the 0:23:12.000 --> 0:23:15.119 drones that were out there were left inoperable. Even if 0:23:15.119 --> 0:23:18.080 they couldn't work very well, now they couldn't work at all. 0:23:18.800 --> 0:23:21.720 Mark Harris, by the way, has an incredible piece on 0:23:21.880 --> 0:23:25.760 medium all about the Zano story. I encourage you to 0:23:25.840 --> 0:23:27.920 look it up if you want to know more about 0:23:27.960 --> 0:23:31.560 what happened. It is an exhaustive account. It's far too 0:23:31.600 --> 0:23:34.000 long for me to go into on this episode, but 0:23:34.280 --> 0:23:36.960