Crowdfunding began as a way for amateurs to fund their projects. When professional projects like the Veronica Mars movie [1] started using it, many people complained. Today, however, the combination of crowdfunding and free software has made open hardware a reality and is starting to create a new niche of small businesses. Prominent among those promoting this trend is Crowd Supply [2], a crowdfunding site that carries the approval of the Free Software Foundation [3].

Josh Lifton, Crowd Supply's CEO, sees a natural connection between crowdfunding and free software. "Both rely on a distributed group of people," Lifton observes, "most of whom have never met. Participants in both often get their start because of their own interests, and both, too, are motivated by a degree of idealism," he continues. "[They] involve looking at the value of a product beyond its profit margin. It's more about how does this makes life better – and not end up as just another piece of landfill."

Crowd Supply was founded two and a half years ago by a collection of engineers and designers. Already developing a modern stenotype [4], Lifton and his team essentially created a site for the kinds of assistance that they would appreciate themselves. "We saw that people were starting to use Kickstarter and Indiegogo as product launch programs instead of just pure art patronage or charity," Lifton says. "We intentionally started Crowd Supply as a product launch platform" – a set of services and expertise that first-time product producers could use to increase their chances of success.

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