Crowdfunding Vaporware
It would appear to be the golden age of new, innovative products. Companies and startups nobody’s ever heard of promise to deliver technological marvels. Sites like Kickstarter help connect these companies with masses of interested people, who pledge to fund the product if they reach a certain mass. I eagerly await products like WigWag, the Lit Motors C-1, and a bunch of other neat things.
Unfortunately, this may all eventually backfire. If enough companies fail to deliver on their promises, the fountain of money from the fickle public will quickly dry up. There’s a reason that venture capital firms exist. They have experience in this kind of stuff. The average person does not. But the average person gets excited about a single device that promises to unite all of your disperate home automation technologies, or an electric two-wheeled gyroscopically-stabilized electric car that gets 200 miles per charge. It’s one thing to promise these inventions. It’s another thing to actually deliver. Call me a cautious optimist.
So the companies will continue to deliver promises while promising to deliver. And the people will continue to vote with their dollars.
Until they don’t anymore.
I honestly hope that day never comes.