Take a look at the Glif project on Kickstarter.
Synopsis: Two guys put together a 3d printed prototype of an iPhone tripod mount and stand, make a clever video, post it on kickstarter to raise $10,000, and send a note to John Gruber, and watched their pledges blow up. When I pledged a little earlier in the day they were up to 3285 backers and $82,921 in pledges.
When cleverly applied, Kickstarter can be a great customer development tool for startups. You can test your idea and your pitch, presell product and engage with earlyvangelists at the same time.
And it also shows that this type of approach isn’t just for software startups, but can be used for physical product startups as well.
Hat tip to the Economist for a nice article on the whole thing – worth a read.
