For those who are unfamiliar with Kickstarter, here's how Wikipedia defines it:
Kickstarter is an online crowdfunding website for creative projects. Kickstarter has crowdfunded a diverse array of endeavors,[1]ranging from indie film and music to journalism, solar energy technology and food-related projects.[2]
Basically, this means that you, or anyone, can create a project on Kickstarter, and hope that everyday people from around the world will "back" up the project's development. The idea is that small amounts from a large "crowd" can generate sufficient funding, thus reducing the dependency on traditional investors (VC, banks...). Backers are usually compensated with the first production samples, a limited edition item or a behind the scenes look at development. Kickstarter takes 5% of projects that reach their fund raising goals (projects that don't reach their goal receive no money) and Amazon Payments takes an additional 3-5%.
