> failing to achieve our crowdfunding target goal (we had ~40%)

Fwiw what I've heard regarding crowdfunding isn't so much that you put your product on a crowdfunding website to raise money, as much as you already have a marketing plan with enough people on your email lists etc who're willing to pay money, and once the Kickstarter/indigogo is live, these people come to the site. That's also how apparently those "2000% funded in 2 days!" stuff happens, which isn't surprising if you look at how shady some of them look.