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Comment by qq66 | Hacker News Reader

What's the general-case solution to technical failure of a Kickstarter project? For example, what happens if the organizers spend the money they raised to build the product, but it turns out that they underestimated the costs, and now can't deliver what they promised to give you if you pledge $x?

I ask because usually when you buy a product, it's already been made -- if a Kickstarter investment is purely a donation that's one thing, but a lot of Kickstarters seem to be a way of pre-buying something that hasn't actually been implemented yet.

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I had contributed to a Kickstarter project (a piece of software) that failed to finish. Recently, the author wrote an update offering refunds (plus 5% interest) to all backers.

Personally, I consider all Kickstarter donations to be be just that, even if the reward includes some sort of 'preorder' - although saying that, I would be super disappointed if I invested $100+ in a project that then fell on its face.

I guess that the risk of investment, right?

So if this team just decided to run off with the $1.6M right now for essentially writing a page worth of text and making a couple concept videos, would there be any legal recourse for the donors? Not that I have any suspicion at all that that's what this team is doing, but Kickstarter projects in general seem like a relatively easy way for someone to make a good chunk of money for the cost of a couple hours' worth of work.

Is there really nothing more to it - donors just have to cross their fingers that the team is legit and isn't just going to run away with the money?

I thought they won't get the money until they finish the product?

As I understand it, Kickstarter projects get the money as soon as the 40 day countdown is up, but only if they get 100% funded.

For many projects the money is used to build/develop the project, so it would not be possible to withhold the money until the project is complete.

I've funded a few projects. The money goes through as soon as the funding period is over assuming the project has surpassed it's funding goal. I've funded 9 projects and received 6 rewards (just checked). Two of the last three are from the last six months and still in progress (one is an apology for being late with an excuse of the creator quitting his job and moving) and the last was a project that launched but I never received the reward on my funding level (not that I care all that much, as it was a series of letterpress postcards).

Correct - it's all trust based. For reference, here the 'accountability' section from the Kickstarter FAQ:

http://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq/backing%20a%20project#Ac...

I think these 'big budget' projects are generally from groups/people that are known to communities, or have some existing goodwill. Looks like these guys had previously taken a watch to market that worked only with Blackberry devices.

Here's another example, where someone made a metal iPhone case that didn't really work since it interfered with calls. http://a.wholelottanothing.org/2012/01/lessons-for-kickstart...

Well, donors should be mindful of who they give money to. cough+Diaspora+cough

Well, donations to Disapora were never really marketed as "Pay $x, get this thing Y in return," while a lot of Kickstarter products do exactly this.

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