322: Prototipos y crowdfunding

·45 min·4 clips

Kickstarter canceled a €4 million razor campaign because the creators couldn't prove their laser shaver actually worked.

The episode begins with the hosts, Joan and Valentí, sharing personal updates. Joan discusses organizing a family celebration with vegan catering from Veganos en Paz and preparing for Black Friday campaigns. Valentí recounts a trip to Disneyland Paris with his children, explaining his decision to take a work break and only answer emails. They transition to crowdfunding news, starting with Kickstarter's announcement of a pilot program for a four-day workweek, initiated by CEO Aziz Hassan. The hosts debate the merits of measuring work by results versus hours. The second news item covers Fellow Funders, a platform planning to move €15 million in real estate crowdfunding investments by 2022, focusing on hotel complexes and rehabilitations. The core of the episode is a monographic segment on prototypes in crowdfunding. The hosts explain that platforms have different validation criteria, with Kickstarter being the most stringent, requiring functional prototypes and even video proof. They contrast this with Indiegogo's more flexible approach, which sometimes accepts renders or non-functional prototypes, linking this to Indiegogo's founding story. They mention that European platforms like Verkami offer more personalized feedback. The discussion categorizes projects as tangible, intangible, or digital, noting the different prototyping challenges for each. They use the Skarp laser razor as a case study—a project Kickstarter canceled after raising €4 million due to credibility concerns, which later struggled on Indiegogo. The hosts list the advantages of prototyping: risk reduction, increased success probability, cost reduction, audience persuasion, quality material generation, and platform approval. They conclude by encouraging listeners to consider prototyping essential for any physical product campaign and invite topic suggestions for future episodes.

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