Thanks for the feedback - I don’t expect we’ll change plans but I’ll announce it here if we do.
I didn’t see anyone respond to this, so I thought I would chime in. I have backed quite a few Kickstarter projects, and I have been lucky enough for all of them to be delivered. Some were as much as 2 years late from their initial expected delivery date.
I have heard, however, that many big projects, expensive ones, have gone un-delivered and since they used the backer money to try and develop the project, they couldn’t refund people. There have also been some scams. I know of one - but can’t remember the product - where one of the partners used the money to build his house. I think they pushed on and got money from somewhere else and may have eventually delivered, but I don’t know for sure.
So, yes, many crowdfunding projects fail, and most of the time the backers get nothing back.
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Everything I’ve had fail was just longer and longer between emails and then nothing. I’m lucky, nothing over $100.
That is one thing that worries me about larger and larger crowdfunding projects, the bigger it is, the more people that don’t understand the risks.
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The failed project you’re referring to was the Peachy low-cost 3d printer. IMO it’ll be the textbook example of the risks of crowdfunding.
Their kickstarter comments page is not the best example of human behavior.
With the amount of VC funding, I’m not concerned about a Glowforge collapse.
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ZPM Espresso Machine, bought it as an xmas gift. No money back. Really put me off crowdfunding anything. I view the Glowforge as different as I can get my refund at any time.
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Not once you get it. If for some reason you are not satisfied with it, you’re out of luck.
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Good point, I hadn’t even thought of that. However, based on everything I’ve seen so far that is low down my list of concerns.
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Possibly the only reason to want other backers to get theirs first.
But I’ve got faith in the Glowforge team to put out a solid product… eventually.
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The Zano drone was the most spectacular failure that I backed. I was really disappointed. There have been some other small ones that failed due to one thing or another and a couple that have just not gone the distance, though they have either offered refunds or acceptable explanations of why they failed. The one that is still up in the air is the Apollo pen set. I had intended for it to replace my beloved Rotring 600s that are not available any longer. The creators seem to have gone dark, though they log into their account just enough to keep Kickstarter happy.
I still feel positive about the Glowforge. I think they are headed the right direction and I trust the reasons that they are not being more transparent because those reasons make sense to me, having been down similar roads in the past.
I’m still waiting fro the Ziro robotic toy, Polysher 3D print smoother, and Olo (now Ono) SLA 3D printer that uses your cell phone as the light source for its visible light curable resin. My guess is that they will all get delivered sometime in the next few months and that the Polysher will be the most practical so far as usability goes. I have much higher hopes for GF.
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I’ve gotten everything I backed, except for one project for a vacuformer that cratered when (among other things) a critical supplier went belly-up. Of course, some things weren’t that useful, like some of the 3D printing accessories and one mobile radio board that still hasn’t fully worked out their development toolchain. (I have more complaints about the projects where I didn’t want anything because I just thought they were doing some good, and now they keep sending me weekly updates about the progress of the swag I never wanted.)
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The Polysher will deliver, even if it isn’t on time. Ono I have less faith in, but I still think they will probably deliver. The Ono will be interesting to play with, but I don’t see any real use for it. I am hoping to be proven wrong.
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@ben1 - I pretty much have the same impression, but felt that for ~$200 it was worth the risk. A friend that builds model engines asked me to 3D (FDM) print a distributor cap for one of his engines and that failed pretty badly. SLA might do a lot better, but the Olo/Ono was as much as I was prepared to invest to find out. Are you a backer?
Side note: the company and product was originally named Olo but that apparently violoted some other corporate name so they are changing to Ono. That seems like a rather dubious change, much like the way the Chevy Nova was received in Latin American countries, where Nova translates as “No Go”.
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Yeah, I am a backer. I thought the whole name thing was pretty funny. I think they could have fought it and won, but I think they just felt changing the name was cheaper.
I have another SLA machine but it is a kit and uses UV resin that is supposed to be pretty nasty chemicals, so I haven’t set it up yet because I wanted to see how much space the Glowforge took before I developed a splashpad setup for the SLA printer. Not sure what will happen now since I have had to add a 6th FDM printer to keep up with demand.
I’ve backed on failure that went poof with all my money, 2 current ones that are likely going to fail, and 1 that decided they couldn’t bring their dream to reality and refunded me all except the kickstarter fees.
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At least polysher is putting out status…
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I Beleive ultimately GF will succeed. It’s just hard for the average person to put about 5K up for almost 2 years. The anticipation is killing me. All will come in time.
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Yep, though Polysher seems to be having some minor problems. Looks like they have solved the last sigificant one, though. Ziro on Olo/Ono are a bit lax with respect to updates and, as a consequence, I hold out a bit less hope for those projects.
I forgot to mention backing the Codex Silenda project - they were/are a bit late, but just delivered the laser cut files.to backers. If only I had a laser with which to cut them…
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I have been using my “fidgeting energy” on collecting cardboard, acrylics and thin wood products while also mentally reconfiguring the GF 
work area.
My wife doesn’t know why I am collecting the materials (trying to surprise her). She is the creative part of our marriage and non-technical. That will be interesting to see how she applies her creativity with technology.
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Same here! She just made a water-color painting for our bedroom last night. She’ll be the one with the great ideas, I’ll be the one implementing them!
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