Researchers Know Within 4 Hours if Your Kickstarter Will Succeed

It's been a big year for Kickstarter. At the end of 2012, the crowdfunding site announced it had seen a 50% increase in new campaign launches over a six-month period. And the record-setting success of projects like the Veronica Mars movie earlier this year helped push the site further into the mainstream

But these glowing headlines conceal the fact that most Kickstarter campaigns — 56%, by the site's own admission — never reach their goals. Kickstarter is no surefire path to success. And for those who try and fail, the whole process can end up seeming like a big waste of time.

That's why researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne decided to look at the numbers and see if there was a better way for Kickstarter campaign creators to predict the likelihood of their success earlier on in the process Read more...