"A Crowd-Driven Platform That Lets People Vote
Hi everyone,
I want to share a concept for a new type of product launch platform — one that flips traditional crowdfunding on its head and builds a direct connection between communities, inventors, and manufacturers.
What is it? At its core, this is a democratic, crowd-driven product launcher platform. Instead of creators launching finished products for funding, this platform lets the community choose which ideas deserve to be turned into real, physical products — and then connects those ideas directly with producers who are ready to make them.
How does it work? The platform involves three main groups:
Idea contributors: Anyone can submit product concepts, prototypes, or modular technology ideas. These don’t have to be finished products — even early-stage concepts are welcome.
Community voters: Users browse all submitted ideas and vote on what they want to see made first. Voting isn’t just a like button — it can involve prioritizing features, suggesting improvements, or pledging future support.
Producers and manufacturers: Once ideas gain enough community interest, manufacturers and makers on the platform can claim them and commit to producing the product. They might be small factories, makerspaces, or independent engineers.
The feedback loop: Ideas rise or fall based on community demand.
Producers choose projects aligned with their capabilities and capacity.
Once a producer commits, backers can pre-order or fund the production run.
Feedback from early customers helps iterate improvements on the next batch or related products.
Why is this better than traditional crowdfunding? More democratic: The community shapes the product roadmap before production starts.
Less risk: Producers pick projects with proven demand, reducing wasted resources.
Faster market fit: Early voting and feedback ensure products reflect real needs.
Stronger collaboration: Inventors, communities, and manufacturers work transparently together.
Who benefits? Inventors and makers get clear market signals and direct access to production partners.
Communities get products that truly reflect their needs and priorities.
I’m looking for feedback, potential collaborators, or people interested in exploring this idea further. If you’re a maker, inventor, or someone interested in democratizing product development, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
I see your thinking here. Lots of people have ideas, or desires, and if they want the same thing they can validate a market. People looking to make things can pick a known market.
Logically it makes sense. Practically though it won't work, there are too many hurdles to overcome.
Firstly, you need a large group of consumers, and a large group of producers. It's hard to build things that need one large group - building 2 is very difficult.
Of course most ideas will be between nonsense and very niche. Because "good" ideas are fewer anyway, but also more obviously marketable. As in that every product ever made exists without your portal, so you'll provide an outlet for every other daft idea. Yes there'll be good in there. But it'll be drowned in noise from the bad.
It's not clear how you fund this sort of thing. You can't charge consumers. And producers can read the site for free. And of course given that it's public if you like an idea, chances are 10 others do to. So plenty of clones.
Companies that make things already have large, effective, market research teams. This sort of "random collection of people" isn't terribly appealing.
Product development is a complex dance. Having a random community "drive" product development, is basically "built my committee ". That never ends well.
In short. I'm not your target market. I don't think you have a target market. I think your product idea has problems... now if only there was a website where you could post ideas and get this sort of feedback ... :)
Keep thinking, and keep asking. You have a good idea in there, and you're smart enough to get some feedback before building. So you're on the right track.
https://www.halfbakery.com