Backers with Benefits: Why Companies Are Outsourcing to Kickstarter

(MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW): Besides raising cash, crowdfunding can be a way to test product ideas and build relationships with future customers…Semiconductor startup Adapteva, a five-person company in an industry where it is usually hard to get funding, has not been able to raise more capital since its initial $1.5 million financing from a small strategic investor, even though it has already brought in more than $1 million by selling its powerful, high-end mobile chips to military customers. Now the tiny company hopes to bring its technology to a more mainstream market. But to do that, it needs enough money to place a manufacturing order large enough to bring down production costs. FULL ARTICLE