In the past six years crowdfunding has become a popular, if not the most popular, form of financing for hardware startups, potato salad distractions notwithstanding. Over the years we’ve seen a variety of successful crowdfunding campaigns translate early crowd love into great venture capital rounds. We’ve even seen a few, like Oculus VR, manage to use successful campaigns to catalyze massive exits. Crowdfunding has changed the face of hardware investing, giving startups a chance to prove product-market-fit without the massive costs of going into mass production.