My Crowdfunding Projects - A Brief Look Back at the Projects I Backed & Future Backings

Kickstarter and Indiegogo are two of the crowd-funding projects, yet they are two competing crowd-funding projects. The first instance that I heard about it was a hint from one of my friends, who was asking for support on Kickstarter. That one is one of my high school classmates named Trenton LaPorte, who asked many of us to help support his brother, Wesley, on his PhoneSoap project. Despite being a San Jose State student, I have decided to support his big project for a good reason.

The following is a timeline of the successful projects that I've backed so far, not including those that have not successfully backed. While not all of my backings are from within the Bay Area, most of my backings were inspired by a lot of creative things never seen on my radar.

THE TIMELINE OF MY KICKSTARTER EXPERIENCE

I was simply watching my Facebook wall posts when one post caught my eye that seemed to be unavoidable, which eventually became my first Kickstarter backed project. The project is called the PhoneSoap, which Wesley LaPorte introduced after he has done extensive research on a solution of cleaning the phone. He found out that a simple UV ray is simple enough to clean the entire phone without the use of harsh chemicals or liquids that result in an electric shock. I did eventually backed 2 PhoneSoaps along with a book. By then, I have decided that I would be backing many of my friend's projects on crowd-funding sites. So far, out of all of my friends that has backed projects, only Wesley has started his own crowd-funding via Kickstarter.

The second project that I've backed was a food project created by Việt Nam Nguyễn on his idea of some days opening up a pizza place and making Neapolitan pizzas. The project was successful, and the response was big. Since then, Việt Nam Nguyễn has been married to his sweetheart. Originally, Nguyen was from somewhere in Indiana, but since then, moved to San Jose since he appreciates the community and has the talent to explore the great food. This was so far my only food backing on Kickstarter.

Wesley was a bit excited for his next Kickstarter project, which was called the Luna Lamp. He integrated technology with the lamp, and interestingly, added two USB plugs to charge up or power their mobile device. There were several members of the creative team that were involved in helping to design the lamp, as well as the shape and other important components that help power the lamp. Despite the cost of the lamp, I did manage to back Wesley's project and as of so far, I'm the only person among fellow high school students (other than Trenton) to have backed the project, as well as the only SJSU student to have supported Wesley's advances in technology.

A few months later, I successfully backed another project, which was in the inspiration of solar technology implemented into a device. That device is known as the StormTag, which had a major story within a weather segment on "Our Vancouver" shown on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) via the television side. CBC meteorologist and seismologist Johanna Wagstaffe at the end of the segment showed something that partially caught my attention, but what really caught my attention even more was the solar component, which was the big reason why I backed the project. 

Not long afterwords, another project involving headphones was on my radar that included Bluetooth technology. That project was called the VRB headphones, which so far, no such company have ever thought of adding Bluetooth to the headphones so that those become wireless. Many of the headphones that I've bought are not wireless, but the Bluetooth feature has particularly caught my attention, which was the reason why I have backed.

WHY SUPPORT SOME OF LAPORTE'S PROJECTS?

There are many reasons why I support my friend's projects, such as all of the Kickstarter projects that he creates. Although I did not have the intentions of backing projects, there are several factors that comes into my mind. All of them are based on a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being the highest (numeric decimals are also used). The first factor is the interest part. I ask myself a set of questions related to the interest of the product - those include promises, abilities, reliability, and durability. The second factor is the convincing part - in that case, another set of questions arise, which includes number of backers, the comments, and the layout of the product, including product description. The third and final factor is the proof of performance part - in that factor, that main question is about the testing of the product, which includes a disclaimer of which if the product is tested or not. For food, it's mainly about the quality rather than the quantity. If all of the three gets passing parks, I would be more than likely to support the product. So here's my grading breakdown. 

0 to 5: Fail

6: Questionable

7: OK

8 to 10: Pass

In Wesley LaPorte's PhoneSoap, for instance, I gave the "interest" part a 9.8, the "convincing" part a 9.6, and the "proof of performance" a full 10 - my overall score is rated a 9.8. The proof of performance was a big plus as he did his research on bacteria and how UV rays would kill those nasty germs. Both the interest and the convincing parts are high in part because many people want their bacteria to be as minimal as possible, which the study on UV Rays was high enough to spread the word about a clean phone. There were a few questions about the shipping and stuff by users, but those have mainly no effect on my reason to support Wesley's PhoneSoap project. The only minimal effect was the timeline for delivery, though I was pleased on how the product turned out.

Wesley's second project, the Luma Lamp, gets a really good score, though not as high as the PhoneSoap. In that case, my "interest" part was a 9.8, the "convincing" part a 9.6, and the "proof of performance" a 9.4 - overall score would be a 9.6. The performance seemed to be questioned by quite a few backers over the use of one accessory, though I did not seem to mind getting it. The most interesting of the score was that the light part contributed to my high interest, as saving energy through the use of LED lights was well more than satisfactory to me. 

While I have not met any of the creators of both the Luna Lamp and the PhoneSoap yet, I'll be surprised if Wesley and Trenton would ever thank me for my review in person and on social media, as I would like to see them in person sometime in the future. More projects that I plan to support are expected, hoping to follow Wesley's genius example of the PhoneSoap.

Original Work: Kyle Chak

E-mail: chak595301@gmail.com

Twitter/Instagram: @KyleSChak