Crowdfunding is one of the best and most popular ways to make money these days, as it checks nearly every box for commercial success in today’s society.  It’s incredibly social, personal, grassroots, and seemingly honest.  However, it’s fraught with issues, as you might expect of any system where people give money to strangers for a promise.  

The biggest and most recent example of this is the projection watch, a band that was supposed to go around your wrist and project an image of the time, which was largely criticized by some as being impossible to make.  Despite the warnings, Ritot raised $1.4 million, and then promptly canceled the project, leaving over 7,000 out of luck.  

Despite the inherent risks, crowdfunding can be quite successful, and there are countless examples of excellent campaigns that left backers happy and satisfied.  If you are interested in funding one in particular, there are a few things that can be learned from the projection watch.  The first, and most telling issue, was how quickly and often the  public names of the founders and locations changed.  This should be a red flag for any sort of project, not to mention that there was no functional prototype.  Looking closer, the bill of materials for the project did not line-up with the $199 early-bird price.  

It’s unclear whether or not this was a scam or just simple incompetence, but the fact of the matter is that when giving people money, online or otherwise, make sure to do lots of research first.