Quite interesting - though I heard Kickstarter is only available to U.S. citizens? And, I might have missed it, but - what was the "Kiss of Death" you talked about?
Yeah, if you have a project that needs funding you need to be a US Resident.
If you wan't to help fund a project you don't have to be a US Resident.
Payments are done through Amazon, so I think that is a big reason why the recipient needs to be a US Resident. (they gladly process money from you, just don't like to process money to you if your outside of US).
I've helped fund one project. And as the article alludes to, the best thing is to already have a crowd (youtube channel, forum community, etc). I don't think most funding comes from people already on Kickstart looking to fund 'something' but instead people who already follow the fundee and already want to chip in. Kickstarter is simply an easy way to allow funders to help the fundee and in addition giving rewards for the help as well as keeping the fundee on his toes about how he spends it (one can let people donate to you by paypal directly but then it's not really geared to a particular project, also I don't think you can use paypal 'donate' to something you later can buy).
It also helps if the person who is asking for funding has already entertained many people with free content.
1. It gives the followers a feeling they can give something back (although not alway neccesary because the 'free' content can be provided with ads), or help them make something bigger than they usual could do.
2. That previous free-content gives the funders the feeling the fundee actually has the skills to bring the project to a succesfull close.
PS: I know fundee is probably not a real word, but I couldn't think of a quick way to say what I meant.
