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Comment by nharada | Hacker News Reader

It's crazy to me that Pebble manages to crowdfund most of its operations like this. I assume that since the delivery dates are so close they've almost finished development on the products? So really this more of a pre-order than anything else.

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Worked twice will work again. You can pay and know ahead of time how the demand will be. Should lower your purchasing prices as well if you can pay upfront. Its a smart move and they will do it again and again with every new product they develop.

And they have filled order books which will help to raise money if there is a need for it.

Yup, a preorder without the legal restrictions that come with preordering (in some US states you can't charge a credit card before the order ships). So this way they can use the money from their "preorders" to actually manufacturer the product that is being shipped, where traditional preorders are more about gauging market demand and possible using that as leverage to acquire funding to go to manufacturing.

It makes a good platform for viral publicity. I presume that's worth the Kickstarter fees for them.

Exactly. In addition they also don't have to care about scaling their webshop to now almost 4000 buyers in the first hours.

Their "Risks and Challenges" section spells it out:

  Pebble 2 and Time 2 is nearly complete. We’re currently ramping up at our factory and are ready to meet the estimated delivery times.

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