Crowdfunding darling Dot lands on Indiegogo after being suspended from Kickstarter

Did you back Dot, the “world’s smallest bluetooth headset” that made a big splash on Kickstarter not long ago? If so, you may have noticed the campaign is suspended, but the team has turned up on Indiegogo with a new crowdfunding campaign and an explanation.

It seems Dot isn’t so unique after all. Launched on Kickstarter July 7, Dot raised nearly $300,000 — or 10 times its goal — before being sidelined. Though Kickstarter doesn’t detail why it suspended the account, the site’s terms of use state that users can’t “post information you know is false, misleading, or inaccurate,” and says account holders shouldn’t “do anything deceptive or fraudulent.”

So Special Labs, the team behind Dot’s campaign, explained it “never claims to be the original creators behind Dot,” and assumed setting a $30,000 campaign goal satisfied that position.

Dot is not a new product; it’s available via a Chinese exporter for bulk orders of 1,000 units or better.

So Special Labs said it wanted the $30,000 “for tooling the mono and the stereo units, and setting up quality controls for manufacturing.” That reads like the team wanted to crowdfund a distributorship, not get funding for any kind of new product.

Dot is still on Indiegogo — and fully funded after two days. There’s clearly a market for the product, but crowdfunding is always a risk. Backers beware.

➤ Dot – World’s Smallest Bluetooth Headset [Indiegogo]