So lets be honest though - these companies are probably not that large - and I doubt have have huge coffers of resources behind them. Manufacturing at these small scales ( this is not apple or nvidia here - just a niche product for coffee ppl) will be costly and probably a easy way to end up with endless unsold stock if they create the wrong product.
So kickstarter is a way to get x items sold - which means they can plan to build X thousand items - and then schedule a build run with whichever factories are contracted for the work.
Weber had the right idea - a 2k grinder if the market did not want it then the kickstarter would not have been funded.
Its certainly a “safer” way for the firms as correctly the risk is passed to us the early backers who want a discount.
At least with all the hype/videos produced on youtube we do get a chance to eyeball the product - and then we can make out own decision whether to back a project - or not and wait for a retail product. I am happy to back a milk frother or the 064s - but not something like meticulous….