Kickstarter project yes or no

cosmic_couple22

A local coffee house on the Sunny Coast has been running a kickstarter project to facilitate the installation of their new Probat roaster, this has me a little miffed. I know its peoples prerogative as to whether they donate or not but I thought kickstarter was for helping bring new projects to the market. Is capital infrastructure of your business up to others to pay for, in my thinking if I am starting a business I have done my cost analysis arranged finance and can afford to establish myself.

Their reasoning is that for every kilo they roast they will donate $2 to child projects in poor coffee countries, they further go on to say that anything surplus to the projected $11k they are trying to fund will be thankfully used to help pay off the Probat roaster they have financed, another $25000.

Maybe I am just being small minded, but seeking your customer base to setup your business just seems absurd to me.

Were all a family here how about you all chip in and pay off my Slayer and I'll make you a coffee 😉

Chester

Brett_H

I think you've every right to be miffed! You've made sacrifices both time and money and here is a local competitor taking an easy option! But, is it an easy option?? With all that kickstarter money come a lot of extra admin surely... Won't the pledges have to get something in return for their cash? Also, the philanthropic angle will surely come back to bite them if it turns out to be financially unsustainable (yeah inrealise they'll just charge an extra $2 per kg). I think the only benefit would be the 'any form of advertising is good advertising' angle. It could also be that the business s in trouble.... You may be able to purchase a probat roaster really cheap in 12 months 😉

Lacehim

cosmic_couple22 wrote:

A local coffee house on the Sunny Coast has been running a kickstarter project to facilitate the installation of their new Probat roaster, this has me a little miffed. I know its peoples prerogative as to whether they donate or not but I thought kickstarter was for helping bring new projects to the market. Is capital infrastructure of your business up to others to pay for, in my thinking if I am starting a business I have done my cost analysis arranged finance and can afford to establish myself. Their reasoning is that for every kilo they roast they will donate $2 to child projects in poor coffee countries, they further go on to say that anything surplus to the projected $11k they are trying to fund will be thankfully used to help pay off the Probat roaster they have financed, another $25000. Maybe I am just being small minded, but seeking your customer base to setup your business just seems absurd to me. Were all a family here how about you all chip in and pay off my Slayer and I'll make you a coffee 😉 Chester

I think you should report it to kickstarter. It doesn't sounds like a proper project to me, and more like asking customers to pay for equipment! They have rules to guide projects, have a look through them to see if it complies.

Koffee_Kosmo

Tell them to finance the lot just like everyone else

Brett_H

That's an excellent point Lacheim! Couldn't agree more KK... Putting your hand out for money while thinly guising the proposition as charity seems unethical! Having said all that I only have the information here to go on so in realiy my comments may be wide of the mark... Having said that i don't want any extra facts, I just want to feel the rage 😉

noidea

I haven't taken much notice of kickstarter but searched "coffee roaster" today and they don't appear to be the only ones, maybe its just easier to write a good spiel and have some pretty photos these days to sucker in the public than to develop a business plan and convince a bank manager? Actually a quick browse of kickstarter seems that it's turned into a way of convincing people to part with their money to support your business / hobby or whatever. Hows this for a classic: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1640819369/the-magic-world-of-miniatures?ref=category

cosmic_couple22

Well Kai Coffee have managed their kickstart project with 64 hours to go 11k was the target and they are up to $12101 so already starting to pay down the finance on the roaster, go figure. If you can get away with it, but still challenges all my thinking on what kickstarter is intended for and personal responsibility when it comes to setting up a business. The other thing that concerns me is it should be open and transparent and when you do the numbers on the side of the page No.backers and amount pledged doesn't add up to the total pledged or backers. Ah well non of my business, if people are unable to see the real picture of what's being asked.

mycuppa

I agree with you Chester - it's not fair. In fact, it's utter bovine excreta and there is absolutely no way these turkeys can operate transparently - who is going to know if they sell kilos of coffee and not record the "kick starter tax" instead shoving the $$ in their own pockets. I too have spent 10 years going without - no holidays, no fancy dinners, no fun shopping trips to reward my long suffering wife, no essential repairs to my house (still have a leaking roof and toilets that are dodgy), zero spending.......what's it called again.........."living the dream........., etc. Have just bought another new roaster (#5) and had to save all my money to do so.........geez life could have been a lot easier if I used other people's money. Would be nice to drive a car around day to day 7 days a week instead of a damn delivery van..........on the rare occasion I have to do something not work-related.....I turn up in a delivery van........yep.......living the dream. Reminds me of a friend about 7 years ago. He has a business that is not new, not innovative and has been around for 40 years........vending........(a.k.a. filling a machine with consumables).......yet he managed to coax $30K in capital from the Australian and Victoria governments in "small business startup grants".........sheez, what I could have done with that money in the early days instead of working 2 jobs and not paying myself any salary for 4 years. I wonder about the sorts of people who pledge these programs.......particularly when I have thousands of customers around Australia who kick up a stink when the price of coffee goes up $1 a kilo (despite the fact the Aussie dollar has devalued 20% in the last few months and roasters are now paying up to 70% more for raw coffee compared to 12 months ago).

Brett_H

Excellent post Jeff.... Now I'm really outraged. What's that old saying about things that come too easily? I'm off to start a kickstarter page to fund mowing my lawn. I could just go out and mow it, but there may be others who are interested in having it mowed for me. Especially as I will spend 10% of the time saved thinking positive thoughts about small kittens with learning disabilities in developing countries.

Dry_bean

cosmic_couple22 wrote:

A local coffee house on the Sunny Coast has been running a kickstarter project to facilitate the installation of their new Probat roaster, this has me a little miffed. I know its peoples prerogative as to whether they donate or not but I thought kickstarter was for helping bring new projects to the market. Is capital infrastructure of your business up to others to pay for, in my thinking if I am starting a business I have done my cost analysis arranged finance and can afford to establish myself. Their reasoning is that for every kilo they roast they will donate $2 to child projects in poor coffee countries, they further go on to say that anything surplus to the projected $11k they are trying to fund will be thankfully used to help pay off the Probat roaster they have financed, another $25000. Maybe I am just being small minded, but seeking your customer base to setup your business just seems absurd to me. Were all a family here how about you all chip in and pay off my Slayer and I'll make you a coffee 😉 Chester

As a matter of interest Chester what are the project backers being offered to entice them to part with their hard earned cash.

noidea

Brett H wrote:

Excellent post Jeff.... Now I'm really outraged. What's that old saying about things that come too easily? I'm off to start a kickstarter page to fund mowing my lawn. I could just go out and mow it, but there may be others who are interested in having it mowed for me. Especially as I will spend 10% of the time saved thinking positive thoughts about small kittens with learning disabilities in developing countries.

Come on shouldn't you be offering a bags of your used lawn clippings packaged in a zip lock bag with some of that fancy string stuff round it or somehting. You could even offer subscriptions for the high roller backers! >:-)

cosmic_couple22

So pledges from 5 dollars up to 5000 people only went up to 1x400 pledge was the largest with 13 or so 100 pledges and a mix of 10, 20 and 50 again non of the numbers added up pledges or dollar amount. 5 was a big thank you the next few were a coffee, a coffee and a brownie, coffee card for 10 coffees, 250 grams of coffee upwards approx. half the retail value of the pledge in doing the maths. 5K got you a blend named after you and privilege queue jumping and free coffees. Never saw anything wrong with the offerings but still can't see where it's appropriate to appeal to your customers to pay for your capital infrastructure. No obligation, get your equipment paid for sell the business 3 months later increase your profit margin greatly and no come back on what you sponsored your idea on. Again, go figure. Chester

Brett_H

A blend named after you.... What if it tastes really horrible.... ? Better yet, what if your name is Gonhorrea Hemoroids... What then...?? Free coffees, beans.... Boring! Noidea, that's the ticket... A bag of lawn clippings... Why didn't our kickstarter friends at least think of something unique.