Stuff I like: Kickstarter

This thing is an absolute goldmine of good ideas and people who exemplify this:

The idea is simple: Give entrepreneurs a venue to crowdsource capital. In return, the "backers" (not investors) will (usually) receive something from the entrepreneur. This means that the entrepreneurs retain control over their creations, would-be investors get something in return (a product pre-order, essentially)

Of particular interest are things like the Pebble Smartwatch (from the makers of the InPulse), the PrintrBot (just a really neat 3D printer), and the ScanBox (turns your smartphone into a document scanner).

And those are just things I'm interested in: design- and technology-related products. Kickstarter also has startups for art, films, fashion, games, photography, and more.

You occasionally need to trawl for the little gems... but sometimes you can't help but take notice - the Pebble, for instance, was well beyond funded in less than twenty-four hours. They made the news - they wanted a meager $100,000 in initial funding - and they've been pledged more than $10,000,000 (more like $9,000,000 after Amazon and Kickstarter take their cuts for enabling the project).

This, of course, means they need to deliver a bunch of product - but it means they suddenly have a bunch of buzz and initial profit... to jump-start a business or create something valuable.