I've personally reaped the benefit of knowing I've helped launch projects for people who might not have been able to accomplish it themselves. There's a bunch of music projects, a documentary, a short film, and an Arduino Shield that wouldn't have existed without my (and a bunch of likeminded people's) help. There's a few things that clearly _would_ have existed without my help (Amanda Palmers current project, for example), things that clearly didn't need my tiny bit of help, but that I feel good about being part of anyway. The hundred or two dollars that those Kickstarter projects cost me was worth every single cent, and would have been even if a few or even all of them had failed. At least we tried…
And more power too all the project creators - I hope they all get corruption-inducingly-rich out of the things my $5 or $50 or $300 helps get started. Anybody who thinks "investing" to the tune of a couple of hundred bucks entitles them too, or even stands any chance of that resulting in a significant equity stake in something - probably hasn't thought that through very hard...
The warm fuzzies you get have very little to do with it. I'm sure the angel investors who front millions for medical research into a disease get the same rush from their cash as you do, but there is more different between your spending and theirs than magnitude. If you invest in a company you have a legal claim to own part of it, and it's pretty clear that Kickstarter backers own no part of the companies they support.
Whether the cash is given in the spirit of altruism or profit-seeking isn't the real question; the question is whether equity is expected in return or not. Of course people don't expect "significant" equity for their contributions, but a good fraction may think they are really investing.
You're right, but at least in my head there's a _big_ differences between $5 or $10, or even $300 Kickstarter pledges, and the amount of money required before "whether equity is expected in return or no".
Unless otherwise stated, my personal expectation would be that amounts under about $1000 wouldn't possibly be expected to have equity in return.
Other people may have different thresholds, but surely nobody really expects equity for sub $100 "investments"?
> Unless otherwise stated, my personal expectation would be that amounts under about $1000 wouldn't possibly be expected to have equity in return.
For me, I'd expect equity starting at the point where I'm providing something significant, rather than simply part of a mob. If I'm providing the equivalent of living expenses for a year or two, for instance, or enough money to purchase serious infrastructure, like an office. I think the floor for that amount starts at 20k as an extreme minimum.
I've personally reaped the benefit of knowing I've helped launch projects for people who might not have been able to accomplish it themselves. There's a bunch of music projects, a documentary, a short film, and an Arduino Shield that wouldn't have existed without my (and a bunch of likeminded people's) help. There's a few things that clearly _would_ have existed without my help (Amanda Palmers current project, for example), things that clearly didn't need my tiny bit of help, but that I feel good about being part of anyway. The hundred or two dollars that those Kickstarter projects cost me was worth every single cent, and would have been even if a few or even all of them had failed. At least we tried…
And more power too all the project creators - I hope they all get corruption-inducingly-rich out of the things my $5 or $50 or $300 helps get started. Anybody who thinks "investing" to the tune of a couple of hundred bucks entitles them too, or even stands any chance of that resulting in a significant equity stake in something - probably hasn't thought that through very hard...
big