Oculus Grift: Kickstarter As Charity For Venture Capitalists

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By Joel Johnson

There is a standing presumption when one backs a Kickstarter project: you may lose your money. But there's a new—or at least now proven—angle to consider, in light of Facebook's acquisition of the virtual reality company Oculus: people may use your money to make a lot more money without ever properly starting a successful company in the first place.

I have a lot of emotion tied up in Oculus, I'll admit. As one of the first 9,500 backers of the original Kickstarter—not to mention the backer of the very first successful Kickstarter ever—I put up $300 of my own money to have access to one of the first development kits. I don't feel ripped off by that transaction, in and of itself. I've written publicly in various outlets about my ardor for the Rift and virtual reality. And I remain convinced that VR is going to be a huge new format for media and interactivity in general.

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