Kickstarter was founded in 2009 as a platform to help people crowdsource funding for their projects. Designers and artists post their projects – films, music, consumer products, and more – with a funding goal. If that goal is met in a specified time period, money changes hands, and if not, no money exchanges hands. According to Kickstarter co-founder Yancey Strickler in a recent interview with GigaOM, the platform now funds $1 million worth of projects every week. To date since being launched under two years ago, $35 million has been pledged overall to 5,000 projects.
Here in the Boston area the majority of current projects posted are in the film and music categories, but we found three consumer products that need your help: the WALdok, Stance, and Rustic Case.
WALdok
Wall Plug-In Speaker/Charger for iPhone and iPod
About: The WALdok is a small form-factor speaker/charger dock for the iPhone 3G/3GS/4 and iPod nano/classic/touch that plugs directly into any standard wall outlet. The WALdok allows you to plug-n-play and plug-n-charge in the bathroom, kitchen, office, or anywhere there is a wall outlet. It takes complete advantage of modularity. Go from jogging with ear buds to filling the bathroom with same music in an instant!
Designer: Hern Kim — Originally from NYC, I currently work out of Boston, MA as a design consultant under HERNstudio – a multi-disciplinary design engineering firm. I have worked as the design lead on projects for P&G, DURACELL, PHILIPS, GE, ColorKinetics, NAVICO, Segway, Smith & Nephew, PHILIPS Medical, Battenfeld Gloucester, ELECTROLUX, Hologic, CARE.org, Cartier, MONTBLANC, as well as dozens of sole proprietary first time product developers.
Pledged: $37,760
Goal: (Already met, but you can still pledge!) $30,000
Last Day to Fund: April 8
Stance
DIY Designer Art Toy
About: The Stance High is the first edition in a unique line of designer toys that connect the art and creativity of the customizable toy community with the passion and emotion of the sneaker culture.
Designer: Delroy Dennisur — Product Designer living and working in Boston. When I’m not working, I paint on canvas, draw, spray paint and all around try to stay creative.
Pledged: $2,336
Goal: $20,000
Last Day to Fund: March 10
Rustic Case
For iPad and Kindle 3
About: Rustic Case is a line of sleeve cases that are handmade in New England. We make them using 80% wool/ 20% polyester blend for extra durability. We hand select and buy the material from a small shop in Massachusetts that has been in business since 1905. We add 100% genuine leather accent pieces for an elegant touch with our company name branded into each piece. We’ve found small workshops all over New England that will supply us with all the materials needed to make these high quality, hand made products.
Designer: Student and creative entrepreneur currently living in Templeton, MA. On my free time I do freelance web design , run and operate BaseOneLabs.com and explore the streets of Boston looking for inspiration. My family has always been centered around hand crafting and this is just one of my current projects in the pipeline.
Pledged: $6,150
Goal: (Already met, but you can still pledge!) $5,000
Last Day to Fund: February 26
