Crowdfunding, 5 Years and 81 Projects Later
Post from November 4, 2015 (↻ August 7, 2021), filed under Everything Else.
I’m a Kickstarter and Indiegogo backer. I’ve backed my first campaign in February 2011 (Detroit Robocop!), and the so far last one in May (Models on Phones). In the five years on Kickstarter and Indiegogo, I’ve bid on 81 projects of which 73 funded successfully.
Here I, an originally rather compulsive supporter, want to share some brief stats and ideas on how the crowdfunding life has been like so far.
Supported projects | 81 |
---|---|
↳ of which cancelled | 2 |
↳ of which unsuccessful | 6 |
↳ of which successfully funded | 73 |
↳ of which still open | 11 |
↳ of which overdue | 4 |
Total pledge amount | $3,240.50 |
Average pledge amount | $44.39 |
Oldest open projects | Kickstarter: Magnetic Bike Lights, August 2012 |
Indiegogo: Tapp Water Filter, December 2012 | |
Possibly fraudulent projects | 1 (mPrinter (Kickstarter), August 2012) |
Although I invested in more garbage than anything, I can’t really complain about neither Kickstarter nor Indiegogo. But then… I do have some beef with Kickstarter, and campaigns like mPrinter, Magnetic Bike Lights, but also CST-01 (two of which cost in the three digts). They are among those Kickstarter projects to suffer from long delays, failed expectations, and possibly fraud.
Delayed, failed, fraudulent projects are frustrating and thus, for me, begin to tip the scale to move to low-investment, low-risk, or high-involvement projects. I deem it likely that other backers contemplate similar steps. I had briefly talked to Kickstarter staff proposing to insure higher value campaigns to offer partial refunds, but it didn’t seem like this was seriously considered. And yet failed higher value campaigns can have rather disastrous effects for crowdfunding as a business.
That has been my crowdfunding life so far. How’s yours going?
(This is one of five “lost” articles that I only published in 2021.)
About Me

I’m Jens Oliver Meiert, and I’m an engineering manager and author. I’ve worked as a technical lead for Google, I’m close to the W3C and the WHATWG, and I write and review books for O’Reilly. Other than that, I love trying things, sometimes including philosophy, art, and adventure. Here on meiert.com I share some of my views and experiences.
If you have questions or suggestions about what I write, please leave a comment (if available) or a message.
Read More
Have a look at the most popular posts, possibly including:
Looking for a way to comment? Comments have been disabled, unfortunately.

Perhaps my most comprehensive book: The Web Development Glossary (2020). With explanations and definitions for literally thousands of terms from Web Development and related fields, building on Wikipedia as well as the MDN Web Docs. Available at Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play Books, and Leanpub.