Just curious, as that seemed like such a neat way to get into large format film. The endless delays really sucked the life out of that idea though. Havent heard much about the Travelwide in ages. Did they ever ship?
What I wanted it for was the 65mm pinhole. I'd be happy to take it with just that. And while I'm sure Ben and Justin have taken some very inappropriate and unfair flak in private for their failure to deliver, I'm getting tired of their whining about how rough this process has been on them - they consistently over-promised and under-delivered with things even as simple as posting updates about what's going on.
I think it is ridiculous that they reached their goal may 2013 and two years later...
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It is still coming and I will love it when it arrives. It is still a terrific idea even though additional patience is required.
I'm getting tired of their whining about how rough this process has been on them - they consistently over-promised and under-delivered with things even as simple as posting updates about what's going on.
A counterexample is the New55 project. They are prolific on Facebook and their blog, as well as posting monthly Kickstarter updates right on schedule. Though they are a few months behind schedule (and also running low on dough), their supporters are more excited and positive than ever.
Updates are good, product is much better. I pledged, and I certainly hope they succeed, but I have given up hope of seeing delivery this year. Maybe they need to try conventional financing -- asking potential customers to bear the risk to the tune of hundreds of dollars each is not really a good model.
FYI, there have been comments in the past two days from Ben on the Kickstarter page:
"We had to special order 250 lbs of resin for our final batch of helicals, and it's been a painful wait. I paid $450 for our shop to rush the last sample run, so we can confirm a fit as soon as humanly possible. I'm still waiting to hear when our sample run has been scheduled, but I'll let you guys know when I have a date."
and
"I heard back from our injection shop, and they're scheduled to run some parts for us on Monday. Stay tuned!"
While I'm all for the mad-scientist persistence of these guys, it's puzzling how bad they are at communication which, as an earlier poster pointed out, is half the battle. The quotes above were posted as COMMENTS on the Kickstarter page, not UPDATES. This means that only people who actually look at the Kickstarter page will be able to read them. If they had posted them as updates they would have been emailed to all their supporters.
A counterexample is the New55 project. They are prolific on Facebook and their blog, as well as posting monthly Kickstarter updates right on schedule. Though they are a few months behind schedule (and also running low on dough), their supporters are more excited and positive than ever.
This has been way too common across many Kickstarter campaigns. One I was involved with failed miserably as the person way over-estimated what she could deliver on. Good news is she promised to pay everyone back as she only incurred costs as she delivered each item so had the money left to refund to those she did not deliver to. Bad news is that was almost two years ago now. She did some refunds, kept promising more were coming then nothing. I was out $75 in the end.
And while I know Kickstarter is not a promise of actually getting anything when this happens a few times or the item delivered is so late as to be no longer useful (i.e. an iPhone 4 case with a lens polarizer that was so late in delivery that it came out way after the iPhone 5 was released and most people had upgraded their iPhones by then) you get skeptical and lose interest in new Kickstarters. I got flak for showing skepticism even before the campaign closed that the Travelwide could deliver on their timing estimates. Had no idea how right I'd be.
Your participation in any Kickstarter project is as an investor, not a consumer. Yes, you are an 'angel', just a very tiny one. The eventual receipt of the product or service is a reward for your good faith in the project, not the fulfillment of a purchase. It's a gamble, just like the stock market or a night at the casino. You win some, you lose some.
Personally, I'm in on both Travelwide and New55. The former is a typical first-time project where the guys with the good idea encountered a steep reality curve. The latter is professionally managed by experienced entrepreneurs and technicians who accounted for the inevitable delays and failures as a part of their original plan. We'll hope for the best and see how things turn out.
Actually, we're NOT investors on Kickstarter. An investor earns a return on their investment and owns a share of the profits of the company until which time they sell their share. Kickstarter themselves make that distinction very clear - Kickstarter is more like a microloan from a bank - the microloan has a time frame and an expected payoff (in the Kickstarter project, the final product).
Kickstarter. Just another word for "we know perfectly well the Shark Tank would send us packing".
Kickstarter. Just another word for "we know perfectly well the Shark Tank would send us packing".
Personally, I'm in on both Travelwide and New55. The former is a typical first-time project where the guys with the good idea encountered a steep reality curve.
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