Is the first set of shirts shipping October 15? Do you have a list of some of the startups you already have agreement with to do this?
72 karma · joined June 3, 2011
Can not change current reward level's, at least not after they have a purchase. But you can always add more levels. So as much as that does not alleviate the fixed prices, I think if the prices are well thought out, then more reward levels were added based on demand of the market, at that point I think it becomes a pretty successful platform for a startup or commercial activities. Although there are definitely exceptions.
"Why not simply set up a personal pre-selling page, accepting payments via PayPal or any other service?"
Awareness. If I started a new company that sold shoes, set up a seperate page. I would not have the instant credibility or the traffic that kickstarter has. As much as there is a small chance if the market demanded what I had, that I could push it viral without kickstarter. I do believe that the kickstarter platform has proved itself over the last few months. Multiple projects being pushed over the million dollar barrier, projects spanning from pure hardware to pure software. I think there are plenty of cases where kickstarter should be a last option. You're still preselling product, instead of equity, all while gaining awareness/free publicity while not taking very much risk.
On top of that, with not using kickstarter, you're losing not only the traffic, but the impulse buys. At least a lot of them. At the discounted prices, people jump on bandwagons. For instance, if I see something that has taken off, I will in a lot of cases "back" the project, even projects where I didn't think I wanted or needed before logging on to kickstarter.
I disagree, I think shopping is exactly what Kickstarter becomes. You can use the platform for a lot of different realities. But, really, I didn't back the pebble watch because I thought the guys were nice, or because I thought the world needed another watch, or another thing to charge at night. I backed it because I like having new shit, I wouldn't of done so if I didn't get something physical from the money. As much as kickstarter is the poormans way to vc projects. VC's want to see something for their money too.
Even if my only reason for backing projects was to see projects become a reality. I'd still be shopping in a way, shopping to find projects I wanted to push into a tangible place. But even at that point, I still think it's the minority.
Donation based projects are more than fine, i'd love to see light table exist. But don't underestimate affordable donations, or fair rewards.
I don't think instagram is completely invulnerable to the market. As a user of it, I'd happily adopt a different service that did the exact same thing better, and I don't think I'm alone. So in that sense, this article misses the mark. But I'd rather read this article than one that tells people they can do it too. It's a once-and-a-lifetime valuation. The service itself may be reproduceable but the results far from it, and in that vein the article speaks the truth. Your time is better spent elsewhere.
But a central power unit that worked across all devices has some major issues. If you look at something like the "Duracell Instant USB Charger", there's a few batteries like it with usb now. Looking at something like that though, I question if it's possible to make a central, charge-one-unit, device that is actually convenient/functional and makes life easier. Even though the size is down, their annoying to use. Plugging devices into it during the day on a regular basis would be suck. Unless you make some sort of inductive pants lol.
less pictures?? Not sure that's a smart move. As of right now, that's the only thing adding interest to me. Pictures of the actions. And as much as I like the deed of the day, seeing it repeated a billion times on the feed gets boring. I suppose increased ability to filter feeds will help this, as if I could select the actions that I want to see and exclude everything else, it might hold more interest. But, currently, I just can't wrap my finger around why I would use this. I'm not going to log on to tell everyone I kissed my girlfriend, or put together an ikea table. I love that you didn't wait to release it, as you're getting a ton of good feedback. But my honest opinion is it's completely missing the wow factor. It's not doing anything that new, or that different. There's no defensive edge, as someone could release ididit tomorrow even if this for some reason took off. And most importantly, it's lacking anything that would pull me back. Even if it was just fun to use, that would be a draw, but it's not currently. I'm staying tuned, as I've seen plenty of projects go from zero to hero. Although a lot of which unfortunately back to zero again. So good luck to you!
I would think about integrating with companies sooner rather than later. For example, if I drank a starbucks coffee, added the action and a picture of me drinking the coffee. After a few of those I get a free coffee. Or bought flowers for said company, walked into said electronic store, or worked out using a workout product. This maybe an over-commercialized example(aren't they all ;) ), but I'd have incentive as the company could give me things I like. And you could easily monetize as companies would love pictures of their products being used as well as raising awareness/marketing etc.
Now, as a society, as well as on facebook, we're a step away from automating our wishing people happy birthdays. That progression is what is slowly chipping away at that "nice sentiment." For all I know, you write heartfelt messages to old acquaintances, leaving them feeling awesome that you cared to write to them on such a day. But the vast majority don't, facebook tells them to say happy bday to these people [list of names]. Without even leaving the page, and following exactly what facebook tells you to say, you've said the most generic thing you can possibly say to someone on their birthday.And to top it off, you haven't said anything to that person since last year on that day. And again, by "you", I mean the majority of people, not you personally.
The occasional person will go the "extra mile" sticking the persons name at the end of the message, or saying something like "hope you're doing well!"..It's just an illusion that that doesn't mean much of anything. I'm not saying I hate getting 100s of "Happy bday's" from people I don't talk to or, in a lot of cases, even know. Or that people are assholes for routinely wishing every single person on their friends list a big happy birthday. But the sentiment really isn't even there anymore, to me. All facebook has done for us, as far as birthdays and keeping in touch with old acquaintances in this manner is concerned, is make the actual efforts, like phone calls and real personal messages, even more valuable.
I love this line, "..For the most part, it's a collection of people whom you used to know, but whom you know less and less as the time goes." Because it's so true, for me. Other than the small subset of people of which I am close to. Everyone else fits this bill for me. People that at one were acquaintances or slightly more, but over time I want less and less to do with these people. I know less and less about them, despite their personal life flooding into my feed. Interesting to me, without facebook, I actually might have more interest in at least a few of their lives. "I wonder what so and so is doing, I should give them a call." With it, I know what they are up to, every day, and I'm not interested at all.
Every so often I find myself jumping into discussion, ranting, or arguing with people I have never met personally. But there is absolutely no incentive for me to go out of my way and randomly message, comment, or talk to anyone I'm not close with via facebook. I will admit that I think facebook has tried in the past to encourage some of this behavior. It's just something that I don't think they've ever been able to pull off.