Is there any reason to not just put up all of my random project ideas on indiegogo and see if they get funded? If I'm having trouble financing the development new features for my SaaS application, should I just create a funding project for it?
Because I'm really not seeing the difference between that and this...I wish someone could explain this phenomenon to me.
If you have a SaaS app that's not open source and you're making money off then it's probably not going to be so successful in the crowd-funding arena - but you're still welcome to try.
Sure, why not? No one is stopping you.
> I wish someone could explain this phenomenon to me.
Many people invest small amounts of money in a person or group of people. There are risks, like any investment, and the payoff is a product which the investors will find useful or entertaining.
They tell you beforehand exactly what the payoff will be. If that doesn't sound economical to you, you don't pay in. There's absolutely no deception here. There's no promise of riches. There's just a promise of a product that is worth what you paid for it.
> and you have a risk of loosing it all.
...which is exactly like every other investment in the history of commerce.