Anyone else looked at Kickstarter?

[Stoo]

I found out about this a little while ago:
http://www.kickstarter.com/

It's kinda like a virtual Dragon's Den, but where many people fund small projects in exchange for either recognition, a discounted product or service, or several other things - unfortunately unlike Dragon's Den you don't get to keep a share of the profits

You pledge a given amount of money, and if the required funds are raised, the product/service is sent through and your money is taken, if the project doesn't go ahead, you lose nothing

It's pretty neat, and there are some interesting projects on there, I've signed up for these ones:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...ra-lens-system

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...cumentary-film

The first one was successful in raising the funds required, and my lens adaptor will be in the post shortly, the second one is still in the gaining backers phase, but will hopefully gain the required backing soon

There are all sorts of projects to get involved with, from random computer hardware, toys, games, art, films, music etc, I found it quite enlightening

[Output]

I was already aware of it and thought that it looks interesting, but I gathered that to give money your card would be charged in dollars (which is obviously not ideal due to various transaction fees that may be added for paying in a different currency).

Would I be correct in thinking that?

Also, are there generally any issues to watch out for when supporting US-based projects that ends in something being sent to you (such as unwillingness to send outside the US, or more being wanted before they will do so etc.)?

The second project you mentioned looks to be a very interesting one.

[Stoo]

Yep, it's charged in dollars, and handled by the Amazon flexible payments system, however they are looking at setting up international kickstarters at the moment.

I've not had any problems so far with either the exchange rate or the willingness to ship internationally - projects tend to state if they will ship the products internationally or not, the ones I've found tend to only charge $5 or so more for international shipping to the UK.

Yeah, I liked the look of that one after watching the deathbed vigil video a while back It was really interesting how compromised everything was, and how one or two bad decisions snowballed and killed a profitable company in no more than a couple of years..

I still have both of my Amigas btw

[LWA]

Very interesting! There's a couple on there I may consider investing in.

Stoo (or other Hexus members) are you aware of anything that's like a smaller version of Dragon's Den where you can invest in companies and share in the profits / loss?

[pauldarkside]

Signed up when the Minecraft: The Story of Mojang documentary was first being touted. Since then, I've backed an indie game (No Time To Explain) and another documentary (Indie Game: The Movie, 100% funded in 24 hours and still ongoing).

Good to see there's interest from other Hexites

[Stoo]

Very interesting! There's a couple on there I may consider investing in.

Stoo (or other Hexus members) are you aware of anything that's like a smaller version of Dragon's Den where you can invest in companies and share in the profits / loss?

In all honesty, I've not really looked, if there isn't, it's certainly in interesting concept..