[hackerspaces] Start a Kickstarter for Your Laser Cutter Today

[Tim Saylor]

Personal-ish experience.  Pumping Station One had a Kickstarter initiative a
while back but it didn't take off largely because we were concerned about
amazon giving us our money.  We'd been burned by them already.  We had
another group of members successfully use Kickstarter to fund their
documentary on makers and hackerspaces: http://www.electromagnate.com/.

My point though was that it's free to start a kickstarter project, but
getting people who aren't ardent supporters of your mission already to
pledge to your project costs you "good will" for lack of a better word.  If
you get funded then all is well, but if not you've burned their good will
and they'll be less likely to pledge for repeated efforts.  You then either
have to address a large enough group of potential backers that the few that
are burned don't matter or you have to do a lot more leg work getting
previous backers to believe you this time.

On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 1:36 AM, tetsu yatsu <tetsuharu at gmail.com> wrote:

> Not sure if you're speaking from personal experience or just trollin', but
> the only loss is a loss in confidence.
>
> Sounds like you already know about the whole kickstarter 'all-or-nothing'
> deal, so I won't proselytize about that.
>
> If you're willing to try again, might maybe you could phrase it a little
> differently :). We made some stupid flyers that we distributed to all the
> local college campuses, and had a silly story about how we were going to
> decrease the out-of-control secret agent population.
>
> We could help you make flyers if it's holding you up?
>
>
> On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 2:25 AM, Tim Saylor <tim.saylor at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Well, the worst that will happen is you won't have a laser cutter but
>> you've already cashed in your chips with whoever you convinced to go
>> "donate" once and now they'll be less inclined to "donate" for your second
>> try even though they haven't really donated yet.  Kickstarter is a great
>> tool but you should put some thought into your proposal before kicking it
>> off.
>>
>> On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 1:17 AM, tetsu yatsu <tetsuharu at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> https://www.kickstarter.com/start
>>>
>>> Now I may just be high off sublimated acrylic fumes, but I love our lab's
>>> laser cutter and I want everyone to have this chance. I cut out 15 Hudson-CI
>>> logos to entice people at my work to buy into continuous integration, 8
>>> stupid keychain things, and I couldn't help but fill the sheet with little
>>> rockets that say 'derp' on them. Now I have 2 dozen 'derp' rockets. And I'm
>>> cutting out a big wooden Github Octocat made by our member JohnBentCope,
>>> which my girlfriend thinks is adorable, and was a big hit at the MagicRuby
>>> conference.
>>>
>>> I want everyone to have a laser cutter.
>>>
>>> If you start a kickstarter for getting a laser cutter, I will donate.
>>>
>>> There's the link. Doesn't cost anything. Just do it.
>>>
>>> Worst that'll happen is you'll not get a laser cutter, which is where you
>>> are now.
>>>
>>> Come on.
>>>
>>> I got my pocket book out. Let's get you a laser cutter.
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Discuss mailing list
>>> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
>>> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>>>
>>>
>>
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>
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