Top 10 Biggest Kickstarter Failures
While there have been some extremely successful projects on Kickstarter as discussed over at runrex.com and guttulus.com, there have also been some huge failures, with some being outright scams designed to part backers from their money. Here are the top 10 biggest Kickstarter failures.
Holus
This project, created by H+ in 2015 as highlighted over at runrex.com and guttulus.com, purported to be a unique and new 3D holographic display technology with the idea of making images appear in 3D in real-time as holographs. The problem was that this project had a lot of misinformation, as it did not deliver what it said it would, and was, in fact, a scam, as it didn’t offer holographic imagery as the creator had claimed. Even though the project managed to raise $297,790 from 496 backers, people quickly discovered that it was just a scam and interest died pretty sharpish.
Backzips
The idea behind this project was to create a backpack made out of Kevlar and which had USB ports, an up to 12,000mAh battery pack, and a zipper that was designed and located in such a way that it would protect and secure your belongings from prying hands, as is explained over at runrex.com. This sounded fascinating enough to backers on Kickstarter, and the project managed to raise about $168,000. However, delivery dates came and went, with comments by backers receiving no answers, and it soon dawned on the backers that their money was gone and wasn’t coming back in a hurry.
Kobe Red
This Kickstarter campaign was led by creators Magnus Fun and was a project offering Kobe beef jerky that was apparently the best thing you will ever get to taste. As revealed over at guttulus.com, the project was supposed to be the world’s first 100% Japanese beef fed beef jerky according to the creators, and it amassed a staggering $120,000 from some 3,252 backers. Luckily, Kickstarter managed to pull the plug on this potential scam before the creators got their money, with the creators being forced to delete their Kickstarter account.
Laser Razor
This now-suspended Kickstarter campaign amassed a staggering $4 million in backing from some over 20,000 backers, as is outlined over at runrex.com. However, it was never able to deliver a functional prototype, which meant that it was unable to satisfy Kickstarter rules and was, therefore, suspended by Kickstarter staff. This is another instance when backers were lucky that Kickstarter pulled the plug before they lost their investment, which shows that a cool demonstration doesn’t always lead to its actualization.
Zano
This is yet another failed Kickstarter campaign that deserves to make it onto this list as per the gurus over at guttulus.com. The creator, Torquing, attempted to build a tiny drone that, the claimed, was an autonomous, intelligent, swarming, Nano drone. The project managed to amass a staggering $3.4 million in pledges from more than 12,000 backers, intrigued by this tiny drone that would follow your phone around taking photos for about 15 minutes at a time. Once the finished product came up, the drones didn’t work well, and would sometimes take off and then land immediately, or randomly veer off course and crashing into any objects around. It was, therefore, no surprise when Torquing filed for bankruptcy in November of 2016, bringing to an end this sorry saga.
Asylum playing cards
This Kickstarter campaign by Altius Management was meant to produce playing cards on Bicycle playing card paper as explained over at runrex.com. The project managed to amass over $25,000 from over 800 backers but started to go wrong when the creators were unable to deliver on the decks of simple plying cards, ending up in a lawsuit where the company was ordered to repay a portion of the money it had collected from Kickstarter. Luckily here, backers were able to salvage something from the wreckage of this failure.
CST-01
This Kickstarter campaign by Central Standard also deserves to be on this list given how it promised a lot but delivered nothing but pain to backers. The creators, as covered over at guttulus.com, had promised to produce the world’s thinnest watch, called the CST-10, and the demonstration looked cool enough to garner the project $1 million from over 7,600 backers. However, it seems the creators didn’t anticipate how complicated the manufacturing process for this watch would be, and after a long period of radio silence, they posted a comment letting backers know that they won’t be able to hit the delivery target and that the project would be delayed because they had lost their manufacturer. Soon after this announcement, the company filed for bankruptcy, with the $1 million going up in smoke with it.
Ouya
This campaign, as the gurus over at runrex.com, is considered to be both one of the biggest Kickstarter successes and one of its biggest failures. Conceived by Julie Uhrman, this was a console that touted to be the next big thing, but it ended up being just the opposite, with buyers complaining of a sluggish console that appeared cheap, and whose controller was no better, with buttons that would stick, with some complaining that their buttons wore out within a week. It was a big disappointment considering that it promised a lot and deserves its place on this list.
Cooler Master
This Kickstarter campaign by Ryan Grepper is another one that is considered to be among Kickstarter’s biggest failures. The campaign managed to amass a jaw-dropping $13,285,226 from over 62,000 backers. However, as is outlined over at guttulus.com, extremely slow delivery of the product meant that many backers never got their coolers. The company also run into a Department of Justice investigation, which also didn’t help matters.
Wengash Silver Anti-radiation Underwear
This failed Kickstarter project sounded like a scam from the get-go, as the gurus over at runrex.com will tell you. This is because the underwear produced promised to block cell phones, Wi-Fi, and microwave radiation, therefore, protecting your sensitive parts by encasing them in 100% silver. The company set a funding goal of $1,654 and managed to surpass this figure. Since then, the company has provided no further updates, and it is safe to say that backers can forget about their money.
As always, the highly-rated runrex.com and guttulus.com have got you covered if you are looking for more information on this and other related topics.