The team at Bonaverde Coffee Changers and founder Hans Stier have a vision. Their plan is to change how coffee makes its way to consumers by cutting out the middle men. They are currently working to produce the first ever coffee machine that roasts, grinds, and brews fresh coffee beans. The problem? They are doing something that hasn’t been done before, and are going about it in some questionable ways that have made many backers frustrated and left feeling deceived.
Bonaverde first launched a campaign for its revolutionary coffee machine on Kickstarter. The projecct closed in December 2013 raising over $681K (meeting all of their stretch goals). Rewards were supposed to ship the same month. Just after that campaign ended, Bonaverde launched a second campaign on Indiegogo. This one, which ended in February 2014, raised a total of over $124K with rewards supposed to ship between January and May 2014. Later in the year they raised nearly $1.5M on a European crowdfunding site, Seedmatch.
Most backers (with the exception of some lower reward levels) have still not received their rewards, with the company refusing requests for full refunds until they are profitable.
One dubious aspect of these campaigns is that they kept on trying to raise money after running into production difficulties, instead of prioritizing their first set of backers. While the company has posted a number of updates on Kickstarter, they appear to have been communicating inconsistently across their 3 projects. Backers on Indiegogo have commented saying they are not sure if updates posted on Kickstarter apply to them also.
The company’s failure to deliver on the vision that they first introduced to coffee lovers has earned them quite a bit of media attention, especially since much of the design and concept for the project has changed from the original plans since it ended. While some backers are considering a class-action lawsuit they would have to prove that they were purposely mislead since the company is still taking accountability for its actions and plans to start sending out rewards in 2015. As a Gizmodo article pointed out:
“Now, Kickstarter isn’t a place to buy things. It’s not an investment opportunity. It’s a place to gamble on helping creators bring their visions for future projects into reality, and sometimes those visions can shift dramatically. That is something everyone should know going into crowdfunding.”
Some things that have changed are the machine’s design – which is more modern than the original and has been compared to a computer tower – and the addition of RFID tags that use proprietary coffee beans (although creators assure Kickstarter backers that they will have the option to use their own beans as promised). No stretch goals have been incorporated into the current design either.
Kickstarter’s refusal to comment on projects like these, their recently lowered standards for accepting campaigns, and a lack of safety options for backers (like the insurance Indiegogo is currently testing) could drive many users away from its platform if projects like this keep on disappointing. It is up to creators, platforms, and backers to stay accountable and aware of the risks associated with crowdfunding. Sometimes crowdfunding leads to amazing things, but other times they turn out to be good ideas that don’t work out as anticipated, and occasionally are clearly scams.
