They offer promises of tomorrow’s technology today. So impressive is the blueprint (at least to the unsuspecting eye) of the soon to be launched gadget, that you go ahead and empty your wallet for one of the future!

A total act of leap of faith into uncharted technology waters by benefactors to get a glimpse of the device once it rolls out. Others have reaped rewards for their investment while others have ended up burning their fingers.

Kickstarter, as the name suggest, is an online crowd funding site that gives budding ventures the much needed financial muscles to turn their dream into a reality. All factors held constant such projects should come to fruition.

However, more often than not, many projects have come short of the initial promise leaving backers with a bad taste in the mouth and an empty pocket as fruits of their investment. “No more woof” and “The Lily Drone” are some of the well-documented Kickstarter Projects that failed in a spectacular fashion.

Failed Kickstarter Projects: The Tale of “No More Woof”

Conceived by Scandinavian engineers in 2013, the invention to be sounded brilliant. The engineers had the vision to tap into the electric impulses generated by the dog’s brain and transcribe the impulses into a language that you and I could comprehend.

From this invention, you could tell if your dog was tired or in cloud 9! As fascinating as it sounds, the wearable gadget never lived to see the light of day and has made it to our list of failed kickstarter projects.

The writing on the wall

The writing was on the wall. It was destined to have a false start. From the demonstration videos that failed to actualize the concept to a poor communication channel between the benefactors and  The Nordic Society for Invention and Discovery (the inventors) all were tell-tale signs of an ambitious project that won’t materialize.

It all come crumbling down last week after years of false promises punctuated with deafening silence. Refunds were offered and the site pulled down.

Why did it fail? According to Dr. Bruce Luber, a specialist of Brain Stimulation and Therapeutic Modulation, the entire project was over simplified. He waters down the explanations advanced by the NSID sighting challenges of getting a perfect fit head gear as the biggest obstacle to the “no more woof” project.

He authoritatively states that the current technology doesn’t allow scientist to retrieve hunger signals in the brains using electroencephalogram application. A feature that reigned supreme in the promotional video! In short, the headset was a farce.

The Lily Drone botched flight

The botched flight of the hyped Lily Drone follows a familiar script to some of the failed Kickstarter drone projects. A case in point is the 3.5 million dollars backed autonomous drone: zano.

The story begins with a fascinating promotional video demonstrating an automated drone that would follow you wherever you go (which later prove to be a fabricated video).With the euphoria generated, consumer are funding and making pre-orders to a non–existing technology to the tune of $34 million in the case of lily drone!

The launch dates start to mutate. Deadlines are not met. Then comes the bombshell of winding up! With a snap of your fingers, your money is washed down the drain.

A fraud indeed

For Lily Drone, refunds have been pledged. Only time will tell if backers will get their refunds. Currently, the Lily Drone developers have fraud case contend with in San Francisco. The case is hinged on the misleading and false information generated by the promotional video on the capabilities of the drone.

Though the aforementioned stories paint a gloomy picture of Kickstarter projects, it’s worth noting that numerous other projects have gained a foothold thanks to crowdfunding.

And in the words of CJ Cornell, a scholar crowdfunding and entrepreneurship, backers ought to embrace crowdfunding as an investment rather than a ‘pretail’ (buying products at conception stage.)