So what’s a Kickstarter hopeful to do in order to win the trust of backers? It helps if you’re already an established company, and it can’t hurt to address backers’ fears right off the bat, admitting that you’re aware of recent Kickstarter disasters and providing reasons why your campaign won’t fall apart like the others. NiXTEK responded with several videos demonstrating the printer’s capabilities, easing backers’ fears enough to push the campaign past its fundraising goal. The growing hesitancy of Kickstarter supporters has been evident through campaigns like the NIX… from NiXTEK, which was only a few days away from completion when backers began to question whether the company really did have a patent as they claimed, and if the printer could truly do everything they said it could do. Understandably, would-be backers are becoming gun-shy (or fund-shy?). Those are only two examples of recent Kickstarter implosions – several other young companies, after raising sums far beyond their funding goals, have found themselves unable to deliver on their promises to backers. Barely a month before that, Kickstarter itself canceled the lucrative NexD1 3D printer campaign just before its end, as questions arose about the company’s integrity and whether it actually even possessed the machine it was promising to deliver. The now-infamous Tiko 3D printer campaign, which was launched in 2015, finally collapsed completely just last week after stringing backers along for two years. This year has already seen two initially successful Kickstarter campaigns fall apart after their creators realized their products weren’t yet ready to meet customer demand. Right now is a bit of a difficult time for Kickstarter, as well as for anyone who wants to launch a new product – particularly a 3D printer – on the crowdfunding platform.