Crowdfunding Without KickstarterA DIY crowdfunding app cuts out the middleman.
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WhenKickstarterrejected Lockitron, founders Cameron Robertson and Paul Gerhardt built their own website tocrowdfundtheir phone-enabled door-locking device. After 24 hours, they'd reached their goal of $150,000 in preorders. By the end of their 30-day campaign last November, nearly 15,000 people had reserved aLockitron, with advance orders totaling almost $2.3 million for the San Francisco-based startup.
Dozens of other entrepreneurs got in touch, wanting to know how they'd done it. Robertson and Gerhardt decided to share the code behind their crowdfunding site atSelfstarter.us, which anyone can download and customize for free. It's an attractive option for tech-savvy product designers who don't meet the project guidelines of Kickstarter and its brethren.
