[johnfactorial]

> If you gave $700 to a company who promised to deliver you a scooter a few years down the line if all of the dominoes fell exactly as planned... I would argue that you got what you paid for even if it amounts to nothing tangible in the long run.

Is that what happened with this company? That's the model of kickstarters and the like, but this story sounds like it was a real company offering a product for sale. If a company can form, offer a product, sell 350 units, pay employees & expenses, then fold without delivering product or refund, nor facing any legal repercussions, what's to stop the same employees and founders from following that method ad infinitum? Form company #2, offer a different vapor, take in money from sales of the never-to-be product, spend it on salaries, declare that the product won't be delivered nor refunds given, and move on to company #3. If that's what this company has done, and the court systems are never burdened with tackling such an issue, it is a viable if entirely unethical model for the people involved.

[ghshephard]

You don't really "sell" products on kickstarter, you try and convince people that you'll actually follow through on your vision.

I've backed a dozen or so, and I've got about a 50% hit rate of anything coming through. The failures are always interesting. Trying to guess, ahead of time, which ones are failures (or scams) - is an education into itself. They always seem so earnest in the beginning.

But, yeah - go into kickstarters with your eyes open. Particularly with people who don't have a track record of deliverying - that, in my mind, is the best signal around. If they've come through more then 3 or 4 times in the past, that's a good indication they may come through on this one.

[alistairSH]

You don't really "sell" products on kickstarter,

The link doesn't mention Kickstarter at all - I assumed Unicorn was selling through their own website?

[noonespecial]

I consider kickstarter an entertainment product. You pay to watch and participate a bit. The physical product/non-product at the end is part of the "story".

[braindeath]

> real company

This is a bit nebulous. Every consumer, especially where the expense is a lot of money for them would do well to give this idea more thought.

A pretty website, a few employees and some prototypes doesn’t hit a meaningful bar, let alone millions of dollars in capital (which this joint didn’t even have), TBH. Too bad fuckedcompany is no longer around, it did a great service.

[jascii]

Prototypes? This company was essentially selling a rebranded Segway ES2.

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2018/06/25/segway-n...

[jberm123]

>what's to stop the same employees and founders from following that method ad infinitum?

Informed consumers

[TeMPOraL]

Part of the task of marketing is to disinform customers. Companies existing to scam people are necessarily marketing-heavy.

[sieabahlpark]

I didn't realize scamming was a legal business venture.

[johnfactorial]

Informing all consumers in the market is not a legitimately accomplishable solution to the problem. As long as there are 350 consumers unaware that these people have done this before, and they never have a day in court over it, this story can repeat itself forever.

Maybe informed lenders is a solution, though.

[mcbuilder]

"There is a sucker born every minute"