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Chapter 6  Supply chain management

year. Although the funding was a success, the challenges of such a project are shown by the product first 

shipping in 2013, several months after the original shipping date, which led to many complaints on the forum 

since refunds are not possible in the Kickstarter funding model. Orders shipped to American addresses were 

initially shipped from a US distribution centre using USPS and orders for other addresses will be sent from 

the Hong Kong distribution centre using Singapore Post and Sweden Post.

Launched in April 2009, Kickstarter is an innovative online brand that provides a forum to help creative 

start‑up projects harness ‘crowd power’; crowdsourcing, concept testing and benefit. The approach builds 

communities and generates funding to potentially help new creative businesses move forward quickly with‑

out external funding rounds. In its own words, the projects have been ‘successfully funded by awesome 

people from around the world ’. Pebble failed to gain initial venture capital funding, but shortly after the prod‑

uct shipped it gained $15 million backing.