I think the Kickstarter model also massively de-risked the process by introducing a pre-order model that gave you a sense of the potential revenue ahead of time before you went an invested $100k on tooling.
Quirky also derisked the process and took preorders.
Did they have any pre-order threshold for when a product would go into production?
Or a pre-order threshold below which they conclude the product has below average market potential and isn't worth investing any more time and money on actually getting it to market?