Kickstarter

Has anyone ever contribute to a Kickstarter campaign?

I never did until about 2 yrs ago. I saw this cooler and I knew I needed to have this when on the boat, at the lake, or even just on our patio.
It would be a great thing to have for tailgating if I were ever to tailgate.
We did our contribution and with that money we were to get a new coolest cooler.

Over the years, these men who invented this kept us updated on trials and tribulations that they were encountering. Then after some were shipped to we donors there was a big strike at the plant making the batteries for the coolers.
That went on for a very very long time.  People began to scream and rant all over social media. Looked for new places for productions and they continued to tell us what was going on and the issues they were facing.

Rick and I were not thrilled by this but we felt they were doing all they could.
None of the issues they were dealing with were anything they could control.
They kept us up to date on the improved battery, the tests they did with these to ensure we'd have the power to make a blender drink while out for hours. There were production issues, battery issues, and an assortment of issues. Running my own business I understood these and felt most folks were being unreasonable.
But then I saw something that didn't make me happy.
You could go online to Amazon and buy a Coolest Cooler. I still didn't have mine yet, so I couldn't understand this.

But just as I saw this I got an email telling us they needed to sell some via retail so that they could resume production for us. Money was the issue. Okay, I got that with any start-up company. Money is such an issue when starting your own business and to keep it running. Marketing alone is astronomical especially on the web which everyone thinks is free. HA!  But telling us all this seemed to make everyone who hadn't received this info go bat shit crazy on social media and their website. A couple of weeks later they said if we were willing to fork out $97 they could get them out to us by July 4th, depending on how many were willing to do that. They understood if we didn't want to.

At this point, I figured it is still going to be at least $200 less than retail, I'm going for it. And they were telling us all the logistics, the legal, the production issues and the shipping issues, so I felt it was easy to understand how all this could happen for a startup. That is the point of Kickstarter. You are not contributing to a company, you are contributing to people who want to make a company and product not yet proven. You are taking your chances when you do this. This is just like Shark Tank and I couldn't understand why everyone was so pissed off. How couldn't they understand they were actually a "shark" and they needed to help a couple of guys make a business and a company. They needed to start with production after they had the patent on this product. That alone takes a very long time.

So I paid my 97 additional dollars and so did a great many other people thankfully.
We all were promised to that we'd receive our Coolest Cooler by the 4th. I got mine 2 weeks ago. I wish I had received it in time for my lake vacation but it's here now and for many more vacations. I can't wait to use it this holiday weekend. It is very sturdy, nothing is cheap or lacking. Strong battery, strong amazing blender, and everything is top notch as it should be.

Would I do Kickstarter again?  Probably if I found something I really believed in.
Have you ever contributed to a Kickstarter campaign? How'd it work for you?