Kickstarter is amazing

I would like to take a moment to note how Kickstarter and the internet have completely changed the game of "product planning." Through the magic of instantaneous electronic transmission of information and funds, crowd-sourcing has provided an opportunity for good ideas to receive immediate support.

Let's take a step back and examine the traditional two processes of how a new good or service comes to life.

In the case of a large company with sufficient capital to finance their own projects it goes something like...
1) Idea
2) Preliminary business case for idea
3) Review of preliminary business case
4) New team builds statistical business case based on market data
5) Modify business case for data
6) Present business case
7) Modify business case based on reaction to review
8) Review statistics of business case
9) Present business case again.
10) Receive preliminary budget
11) Build project plan for budget
12) Revise project plan for real budget
13) Present project plan
14) Revise project plan for real real budget
15) Present new project plan
16) Enact plan.

This is somewhat exaggerated, but it imparts the point I'm trying to make. Lot of steps. Lot of revision. There's no guarantee that the idea gets from step 1 to step 16 in any kind of recognizable form. Every single step of the way is there to polish and sharpen and hone every element of the idea into some kind of perfect business model that has minimal chance of failure. At any step where there is a good indicator that the project might fail, it can be canned. There is an overwhelming process focused around ensuring that only successful prospects see the light of day, regardless of how good the initial steps were.

Now, smaller companies, start-ups and entrepreneurs have two ways to go about it.

1) Idea
2) Test out idea
3) Create sales pitch
4) Beg, solicit, acquire investors
5) Enact project
6) Succeed/Fail

OR

1) Idea
2) Test out idea
3) Acquire financing through personal assets (mortgage, etc)
4) Enact project
5) Succeed/Fail

Whereas the large processes focus on overseeing elements to guarantee success, ironically unmaking the original idea, this smaller case is much more similar to "winging it." You go almost straight from the initial plan right to hoping you get your money back.

So why is kickstarter amazing?

You look at a page and decide whether or not it is something you want to see happen. If you want it to happen, if the idea is something you want in reality, you allocate funds to it that are proportional to how strongly you feel. If it looks like something doable and something you want, then you allocate as much money as you want, if it looks like something poorly planned, then you just don't. At the end, if enough people feel the same as you, AND if the project is successful, you get the thing you wanted. If it isn't, you get your money back.

All the guess work disappears. When a community really wants something to exist, they can make it exist. Instead of a handful of people trying to decipher what the masses want, the masses just tell you what they want. How simple is that? You can pay a product into existence. If it isn't wanted, it just doesn't happen. While there are still failures, this slants the entire process to favour actual successes as opposed to anticipated successes.

Kickstarter, man, it is remarkable in both its effectiveness and its simplicity.