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What Kickstarter is, and why we’re launching Dory there
How the platform works, and what happens when you decide to back something that doesn’t exist yet.
Written by Lorenzo Gumiero
Contents6 sections
Kickstarter is the platform where projects raise the money they need to exist. People who believe in an idea back it before it goes on sale: if enough of them do, the project goes ahead, and if not, nobody pays anything. Dory will launch there in February 2027.
What Kickstarter is
Kickstarter is an American crowdfunding platform founded in 2009. Someone with a project presents it, says how much they need to get it started, and asks the people who believe in it to back it in advance.
More than a store or a fundraiser, it’s a way to find out whether enough people want something to make it worth building, before building it.
How Kickstarter works
Whoever launches a project sets two things: a funding goal and a duration.
Throughout that period, people can back it by choosing a reward. When the project is an object, the reward is usually the object itself, at a price reserved for the people who were there from the start.
At the end, there are two possible outcomes. If the goal is met, payments go through and the project begins. If it isn’t, nobody pays. It’s called all or nothing, and it’s both the platform’s most important rule and the strongest guarantee for backers.
What happens if a project misses its goal
The campaign closes and nobody is charged anything.
For the creator it’s a clear no, one that arrives before any money goes into molds, components, and production. For backers, it’s the reason a bet on an idea is worth making instead of waiting for it to show up in a store.
What happens when you back a project
You choose a reward and enter your payment details. The charge only comes when the campaign closes, and only if the goal was met.
From then on you get updates from the people building the thing. That’s what makes Kickstarter different from a pre-order: instead of buying and waiting in silence, you follow the object as it takes shape and sometimes help change it. Many of a product’s final decisions come from its backers’ comments.
How Kickstarter is different from a pre-order
A pre-order is the early sale of something already decided. Kickstarter is a public test that happens before everything is decided. You can withdraw your pledge while the campaign is open, and for months you get updates from the people building it, with decisions still on the table.
Why we chose Kickstarter for Dory
Dory is a smart key tray, which makes it a physical object. And a physical object has a problem software doesn’t: to make one, you have to make many.
You need molds, components bought in volume, and a minimum production run. It’s an investment you have to make before knowing whether anyone really wants the thing.
Kickstarter flips the order: first you find out whether people want it, then you produce it. For a new kind of object like Dory, it’s the most sensible way to start without betting everything on a hunch.
There’s a second reason, less technical. Someone who backs a project on Kickstarter isn’t just any customer, they’re someone who decided the thing should exist. The first people to use Dory will also be the ones who help shape it. To us, that’s worth as much as the money.
If you want to understand what Dory does first, we explain it in the guide to smart key trays. Or you can take a closer look at Dory on our site.
Frequently Asked Questions
The all-or-nothing rule protects you where it matters. If a project doesn’t reach its goal, you’re not charged anything. The charge only ever happens when the campaign closes, never before.
When the campaign closes, and only if the goal was reached. Nothing is charged while the campaign is running. Until then your pledge is a reservation.
Yes, any time before the campaign closes. Your pledge stays reserved and reversible right up until the project ends.
Yes. You can back a project from almost any country, with a credit card or the other payment methods Kickstarter accepts.
Every campaign page shows an estimated delivery date. In hardware, timelines can stretch. The people who do this properly tell you about it in their updates while it’s happening.
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