Kickstarter is a beautiful thing. It allows inventors and people with ideas to be connected to consumers/investors who may be interested in their ideas. But just as with any investment opportunity, and don’t kid yourself – that is exactly what Kickstarter is – the risk for projects failing is higher than success. The Triggertrap Ada is one such story.
As far as photography-related Kickstarter projects are concerned, the Triggertrap Ada was once thought as one of the most successful projects on the popular website. After starting their project with a goal of $50,000, 2,000 backers later, the company was able to say it collected close to $290,000.
All seemed well, and then the company missed the deadline for delivery of the Ada in May of 2014. Still, it seemed as if work was continuing and despite the original schedule being missed, things seemed to be on the right track. That was until recently, when the company posted a new update to their page announcing that the project would not be moving forward.
According to the company, they have a working prototype, but the process of getting to that point have cost them about 5x as much as they had planned for, leaving no money left for the manufacturing process, and thus, not enough money to take the project further. If there is any consolation to the backers of the project, it is that the company has enough remaining funds to refund 20% of what each backer invested. A pittance, I know – but it is something at least.
[REWIND: Triggertrap Releases New Flash Adapter for High Speed Photography]
It just goes as a huge reminder to those who like to buy things, that Kickstarter is not an online shopping mall. It is not a store where you are going to get what you paid for, in fact, more times than not, you will likely not get (at least, not fully) what you thought you would. Kickstarter is an investment, and should be treated as such.
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