Not my usual posts about projects on Kickstarter when I am posting about backing an exciting new project or receiving products from a successful project. Projects through Kickstarter have received some bad press in recent months with the collapse of Zano, the project that raised $3.4 million for a mini drone.
Two of my backed projects, Pico and Kokoon, are a big disappointment this month.
Pico: Time-lapse made simple
Pico was funded in January 2015 and was supposed to deliver in July 2015. The founders, Mindarin, not only have failed to deliver but are not keeping their backers updated with meaningful updates. Weeks or even months passed without any updates and when updates are posted they usually generate more questions. My lesson learnt is to research more the founders and any projects that they have claimed to deliver in the past as now it turns out Mandarin have had another not very successful project through Kickstarter.
This project was a Kickstarter staff pick simply because it offered a great way to control your camera and to generate time lapse pictures using a smartphone. I am lucky as the iPhone app is now available other backers who have Android phones are still waiting for an app to be released.
December 1st was the latest promised shipping date but their latest update simply requests address checks and contains no meaningful information.
Update My Pico was deivered on the 23rd February 2016 read about it here.
The ultimate sleep sanctuary: Kokoon EEG headphones
On November 16th Kokoon dropped their bombshell update that shipping was slipping by over 6 months. Interestingly Kokoon had regularly posted updates and there had been no hint of what was to come. The explanation of the slip was all about changes to manufacturing partners and making the product ‘better’.
Hopefully, this project will not go the way of Zano and simply disappear.
Both projects are a big disappointment over their delays and lack of meaningful communication. Communication on one being virtually non-existent and the other not explaining the issues either before or after the announced slip.