Ever since the Pebble Watch raised $10 million a few years ago, I’ve been a big fan of Kickstarter.
I love spending time on the site looking for creative new ideas. Not only does Kickstarter give you a chance to buy a new product at what is usually a discounted price, it gives you the opportunity to help get a new business funded and off the ground.
I will say that I loved my Pebble Watch. It let me know when I had a text. It worked with my running apps on my phone. And I used it as a range finder when I played golf. It was simple and easy to use paving the way for new and better wearable technology to come.
Here’s another interesting Kickstarter technology project made by goTenna that I think may have promise.
According to the company, “goTenna Mesh is the first 100% off-grid, mobile, long-range consumer-ready mesh network. The device pairs with your smartphone to enable communication even when you don’t have service. Absolutely no towers, routers and satellites required! Create people-powered connectivity absolutely anytime, anywhere.”
Living in New Mexico, I actually do still find places without cellular or wifi service. On some of the roads out in the middle of nowhere and especially when we go camping in the mountains. It’s nice to get away from it all, but I still like being able to connect with the world of if needed
While I think the concept of peer-to-peer networks is a great idea, I’m not convinced that this product will solve the problem entirely. The biggest drawback that I see is that it needs other goTenna Mesh devices within a three-mile range to work. If somehow the company could get their technology embedded in new phones, you would have worldwide internet coverage without spending the money to build new cellular networks.
Financial Slackers, what do you think of the goTenna Mesh? Have you funded any Kickstarter projects? Have you used Kickstarter to fund anything you developed?
[do_widget id=text-8]
Sounds like an interesting idea. I see the same challenges as you: everyone needs one and to cover far away places, you need people there.
In 2014, I was somehow kick-started addicted and supported too much. I went to the opposite site: I ignore the site now fully. All in all, I am only waiting for one more item. Sadly, I also only use one item…
I had the same addiction to Amazon a while back. I was ordering (and returning) stuff all the time. Luckily, I broke that habit.
We have the issue, here in Australia, where there are vast tracts of this country that have no coverage and satellite phones are the only way to go but they are expensive and call costs are very steep to. Ironically, the cell phone networks market the fact that they have coverage to something like 99% of the population. Unfortunately, 99% of the population live in about 5% of the country. The rest is wide-open space. Having reliable, affordable cell phone coverage will come through technology advances one day but still a long way off I think until the providers can find a way for it to pay for itself and make a profit.
It won’t be the cell phone providers that will pay for it. Google, Facebook, and Netflix will fund the expansion.