Hasta La Ideas

With a name as idealistic and tenacious as ideacious, it better be good: besides containing every vowel, “ideacious” is a new crowdfunding platform that sounds something like Kickstarter meets Quirky. They’ve added a handful of mechanics to the age-old equation of ‘inventor + buyer(s) = product,’ offering a more structured e-commerce ecosystem than, say, Kickstarter by focusing on products instead of projects. And like Quirky, ideacious came about in response to the traditional product design and development process:

The founder of ideacious, Joshua Brassé, is a professional product designer. For him, it was never an issue to find new ideas; ideas are everywhere. The issue was trying to bring the idea to fruition. Too many times he went up against the same obstacles: funding, sourcing, protection, legal and safety considerations, plus a number of other hurdles. Often these issues were too large and the idea was thrown into the black void of ‘later.’

… so he came up with was a community-based venue that determines demand before supply—an option for anyone with an idea. And he called it ideacious.

Just as the arithmetic of the transaction is intended to create value for both parties, the Toronto-based company caters to two distinct audiences:

As a buyer you can shop like you would at any other store, or you can buy products before they’re made. When you do that you not only do your part to bring awesome products into being, you could also make some coin along the way.

As a creator you’ve got a full-service network at your fingertips to help get your idea to market. Plus, you’ll pre-sell all your products before you manufacture the whole lot.

We’re particularly curious about ideacious’s offerings to the latter half: fees for development, consulting and use of their platform&mdash a “network,” as they call it—start at $100. “You don’t have to be a designer, a patent lawyer, or have any special connections to have the chance to bring an idea to market; whatever your skill set, our service network will pick up where you leave off.”

The creator retains creative control and the rights to his or her work.

Jet Set Prototype by Rob Southcott

Alternately, ideacious introduces a product to target audience—insofar as the site attracts a self-selecting group of forward-looking buyers—a step or two before actual production, where would-be customers actually become investors.

[When you preorder a product,] you’ll also get a percentage of future sales, as specified by the seller, on every production run after the initial one for the next 10 years. And all you had to do was flex your shopping muscle.

The first person to preorder a product will get the highest percentage of future sales. The second person will get the second most, and so on down the line…

Putting $5 down saves you a spot in line. Once that product has enough buyers to go forward with manufacturing, you will confirm your order and pay the remaining balance. If you change your mind you can transfer your full $5 to another product. If you back out completely and don’t want to transfer your money, you will be charged a $1 processing fee and get $4 back.

The added incentive of equity raises interesting questions about the economics of crowdfunding as a DIY, especially during lean times. As for the answers, only time will tell: Ideacious is still in Beta, so its potential still remains to be seen…

Throne by Jacob Brassé

(more…)