Christie Street has been thoughtfully named after the world’s first street on this planet to receive light from Thomas Edison’s electric lights. The naming has been apt since Christie Street is a crowdfunding platform for hardware products. Crowdfunding sites are in plenty. But the problem still lies in customer focus. James Smirnoff, the mind behind this platform says that Christie Street is a place where ideas are born and turned into reality. As it supports inventors of products, it also protects the buyer’s interest. The model is simple. An inventor of a product wants to book pre-releases. So he goes through the filtration on Christie Street and is then allowed to go live. James says that all products must undergo an auditing and make users feel safe that they are supporting a viable product. Sometime back Kickstarter had some issues when their much acclaimed Pebble had a delay. This was because Kickstarter had reminded the audience that it is not a typical store. If it crowdfunding as James says end users need not be involved in judging a product’s design targets but rather given enough reasons to buy.
Christie Street is an unique approach to crowdfunding and gives importance to hardware products. They support products that affect people’s lives day to day. James who is the inventor was in a mission to solve the real world’s problems. He pursued this vision while he was running Your First Step International, Inc., where he helped entrepreneurs to execute ideas. He was also behind the merging of YFS into Noble Ltd which is now global leader in online calling card. He also founded other ventures like PhoneTag and Unsubscribed.com.
Christie Street helps inventors with a guarantee on price along with escrowed funds. All products will have a stipulated delivery date and properly insured. The audit areas as their Press Release states will have:
- Manufacturing ability
- Design’s feasibility for manufacturing
- Production cost analysis so that the maker is never at a loss
The first project aboard Christie Street ship is “Doorbot” and the inventor is James himself. Doorbot is a wireless doorbell, streaming live video of the door front step on your smartphone to see who is at the door. This also allows the inmates to communicate with the guest. Doorbot is on this platform to raise $250,000, available at a price of $169 and $319 with the special Lockitron. Those who are interested to buy Doorbot will also a get a theft guarantee, where they will get a free replacement! Here are the product specifications as released by Christie Street:
- Low voltage Wi-Fi PCB that runs off 4 AA size batteries.
- Camera uses infrared emitters, which allow for daytime and nighttime vision.
- ABS plastic housing
- Brushed aluminum faceplate
- Dimensions: 47x74x183 millimeters (based off of prototype)
- Blue LED lit ring
- Speaker and microphone
- Outdoor camera
- Proprietary key for secure mounting
- Integration with existing doorbell
James vented out,
“There is a fundamental problem with crowdfunding platforms today,“In using other platforms I’ve noticed a lack of support, leaving inventors more susceptible to failure. With Christie Street, we have created a trusted platform where buyers can feel confident in pre-ordering products, and we look forward to seeing its success with Edison Junior’s DoorBot”
