Well, not only that, but even after shipping, life isn't necessarily roses and rainbows for even the most successful Kickstarter campaigns. A story worth writing would be a followup with some of the biggest winners in Kickstarter's history, with sort of a "Where are they now?" angle.

It's awesome that the Thermodo guys were able to get such interest in their product, and to generate such a big round on Kickstarter. But let's ask ourselves: is there really a market for plug-in thermometers for mobile phones? Would they have been able to establish such a market without Kickstarter? Will they maintain a market after the Kickstarter campaign is over? Or, perhaps more likely, is the set of all people who bought into this Kickstarter round = to the set of all people who will ever buy a Thermodo?

Don't get me wrong; I'm a big Kickstarter fan. And I've contributed to plenty of campaigns to get "gee-whiz" types of novelty products. But I have a hard time seeing a sustainable business model in many of these ostensible success stories.

(Maybe that's ok. Maybe some of these guys are just trying to bring cool or interesting products to a big group, and nothing more. So be it.)