I don't know if the Lifx guys in particular are naive, deceptive, or six-sigma outliers.
But I'm actually surprised that projects like Lifx are able to get any funding at all. A cursory thought in the direction of the project would reveal that the pitch is essentially a) others with tons of experience have invested lots of hard money in this space b) to no real success so far but c) we have the answer and only need a hundred grand to make it large. And d) actually, we don't even need $100k, it's more like $25k plus materials, so as you can see this project is really 99% done now.
This is classic hucksterism; you will see it at any business meetup in any town. Somebody has built a better mousetrap in his garage, leaping over giants, and only needs $25k/$50k/$100k to get to market. The key is they never need large sums of money, only relatively small sums to get to market; a larger sum would indicate that the project is not 99% done, which I assure you it is.
The obvious question: if you have built a better mousetrap and only need $100k to take over a major industry like lighting, why not go max out your credit cards and just build it? Or show a prototype to anyone over 50 who might be able to connect you with an angel investor? Occam's answer: because you haven't a clue how to make it work.
Again, I don't know if the Lifx guys are hucksters. But their pitch follows a classic huckster pitch to the letter.
Well, I don't think people turn to Kickstarter funding solely for the money. It's a pretty decent way to do some cheap marketing, too. If you can get $100,000 from a bank, or $100,000 from 1,000 people in your target market, it makes sense to do the latter.
I have no idea if this is or isn't the case with Lifx, but I always viewed Kickstarter as a funding/marketing package.
But I'm actually surprised that projects like Lifx are able to get any funding at all. A cursory thought in the direction of the project would reveal that the pitch is essentially a) others with tons of experience have invested lots of hard money in this space b) to no real success so far but c) we have the answer and only need a hundred grand to make it large. And d) actually, we don't even need $100k, it's more like $25k plus materials, so as you can see this project is really 99% done now.
This is classic hucksterism; you will see it at any business meetup in any town. Somebody has built a better mousetrap in his garage, leaping over giants, and only needs $25k/$50k/$100k to get to market. The key is they never need large sums of money, only relatively small sums to get to market; a larger sum would indicate that the project is not 99% done, which I assure you it is.
The obvious question: if you have built a better mousetrap and only need $100k to take over a major industry like lighting, why not go max out your credit cards and just build it? Or show a prototype to anyone over 50 who might be able to connect you with an angel investor? Occam's answer: because you haven't a clue how to make it work.
Again, I don't know if the Lifx guys are hucksters. But their pitch follows a classic huckster pitch to the letter.