Kickstarter Vs. Venture Capitalists for 3D Printers

[Maggie]

Which do you think is the most effective way of building a new 3D printer brand? Kickstarter or the old fashioned way of raising money through Venture Capitalist and other investors?

Seems like there have been a ton of new 3D printers going to Kickstarter and Indiegogo to raise money. I however think there is a better future when you raise money from Venture capitalists. At least I think it's better for the printer in the long run as the investors will have a tendancy to get on the makers of the printer more than some Kickstarter backers would.

[KDog]

That's a good question. I'm a big Printrbot fan (mostly before they stopped making kits though) and Brook's story is very noteworthy. He did a Kickstarter in 2011. His goal was $25,000. Obviously he wanted to make a few 3d printers in his garage and pay for his hobby. $830,000 later he was "forced" to start a company that is still going strong. I wonder if he has ever even had a red month.

I think if your goal is to start a company, then your actions and design, wether on KS or to your investors, should convey that. At this point you will probably need to come out with something pretty unique to break into the field and be something other than a parts reseller.

[Wired1]

It seems like every month there is a new 3D printer on kickstarter and they all look the same to me. Good on them for having a go but I worry that a lot of people buying these "new" printers are new to the hobby and don't realise they could build themselves a Mendel Prusa for less than the cost of a lot of them on offer. It also irks me that there is little new in terms of 3D printing and the people raising the capital are effectively using open-source technology to line their pockets.
Kickstarter is well suited to small runs of printers by garage/cottage manufacturers and I'm guessing that your average venture-capitalist is going to be looking for something larger than a run of 100 printers so apart from the question of whether it is a genuinely "new" concept or design it is a very useful vehicle for funding small scale projects like ours.