It’s hard enough coming up with good ideas, let alone getting them off the ground. But when smart entrepreneurs take to the internet to ask random people for money to fund their project, sometimes the response is just phenomenal.
1. Pebble Watch
Raking in over $10 million on Kickstarter is the Pebble watch. It’s initial crowdfunding target of $100,000 was reached within just 2 hours as the internet went wild for it’s black and white e-paper display, eventually being backed by 69 thousand people.
It’s also programmable and includes storage, bluetooth, a vibrating motor, and all the gadgetry you’d expect from the likes of Apple. Except this thing made it to market many years before watches fell from Apple’s tree.
The pebble watch doesnt just displaying the time, but can also interact with smartphone notifications, activity tracking, gaming, map display and even the price of bitcoin
2. Potato Salad
If there ever was a record for most funded picnic lunch, this campaign has to take the cake. Well, the potato salad.
Zach Brown just wanted to raise $10 bucks for a nice lunch but instead awoke the appetite of almost 7000 people on kickstarter who gave him $55,000! For potato salad!
So, what do you do when you have $55,000 to spend on lunch? Throw a party of course! With a concert and potatoes and races and rides and potatoes. Well, that’s exactly what Zach did and called it potatostock. Kinda like Woodstock, no, chickenstock!
3. Ethereum Smart Contracts
Coming in as the second highest crowdfunding campaign ever, is something so geeky, not many people have even heard of it.
It’s called Ethereum and it’s a decentralized platform and protocol for publishing smart contracts, which are a set of rules that tell computers how and when to pay for something.
Ethereum must be on to something because they raised over $18 million from bitcoin users around the world.
Not only is it the 2nd highest crowdfunding campaign ever, it’s also the most successful one to be funded entirely in bitcoin.
4. Exploding Kittens
Would you buy a Card game featuring exploding kittens?
Cat-lovers might be horrified to learn that over 219,000 people pledged $8.8 million for a deck of cards. With pictures of exploding kittens.
Well, they’re just cartoons and it’s not just kittens. There’s also goats, men with overgrown back hair, unicorns, laser beams and weaponized enchiladas.
The game is essentially Russian Roulette; you draw cards until you get an exploding kitten, at which point you get kicked out of the game.
The project hit its primary goal of $10,000 in just 8 minutes and exceeded $2,000,000 in 24 hours.
This deck of cards is in the top 10 most crowdfunded campaigns ever.
5. Star Citizen
The single largest crowdfunding campaign even made it into the Guinness Book of World Records.
With a whopping $72 million raised, the prestigious title goes to Star Citizen, a Space combat video game for PCs from the designer of Wing Commander. Star Citizen aims to create a living, breathing science fiction universe with unparalleled immersion.
Chris Roberts has big plans for the game saying:
"I don’t want to build a game. I want to build a universe."Chris Roberts
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For contributing to the game’s funding, backers receive virtual rewards which include a spaceship and credits to buy equipment, fuel and pay rental fees.
6. Oculus Rift
Possibly the most famous crowdfunding campaigns is that of the Oculus Rift.
The first truly immersive virtual reality headset for video games raised $2.4 million on kickstarter to develop Next-Generation Virtual Reality Technology.
The Oculus Rift tracks head position and uses a new type of display to eliminate motion blur and judder with HD resolution for each eye.
With this headset on, the wearer can immerse themselves in 3D games and movies.
The technology is so likeable, Facebook thought it would be worth their while to acquire the company that makes Oculus Rift for a $2 billion valuation!
7. REMee Lucid Dreaming Mask
In another crowdfunding campaign project that attaches to your face, The Remee is an REM enhancing Lucid Dreaming Mask to wear while sleeping.
Ever wanted to control your dreams and do whatever you want in them? Like, you know, fly to mars, or eat a whole bucket of chocolate ice-cream, or seek revenge on those who have wronged you.
This project raised over half a million dollars to produce the mask which flashes lights into your eyes during a specific stage of your sleep cycle when dreaming occurs, known as REM sleep.
When you see the lights in your dreams, you’re meant to consciously recognize that you’re sleeping, so then you can go about your business of flying around and bumping uglies with your ex.
8. 3Doodler
Ever dreamed of drawing in 3D? Well, you dont need the lucid dreaming mask to achieve that goal. Introducing the 3D oodler! or is it 3 doodler.
Either way, it’s a 3D printing pen that allows you to draw in 3 Dimensions by extruding a heated plastic filament that cools almost instantly into a solid, stable structure.
This awesome pen raised $2.3 million from over 26,000 backers and can make some really impressive stuff.
Now I can bring my crappy 2 dimensional drawings to life.
9. Coolest Cooler
You know what’s cool? $13 million. That’s the amount raised for this cooler. It’s the coolest cooler. That’s not my opinion, that’s just the name of it, but hey, it is cool.
So what makes it so cool, i hear you ask?
OK, it has a built-in ice crushing blender, a waterproof bluetooth speaker and a USB charger so you can stay cool while charging your phone.
It also has a light on the lid, a cutting board, integrated storage for plates and utensils and it’s all waterproof.
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Tags: 3D Printing Pen3DoodlerCoolest CoolerEthereumExploding KittensKickstarterLucid Dreaming MaskOculus RiftPebble WatchPotato SaladREMeeSmart ContractsStar CitizenVirtual Reality Headset
