As you can see below, the very first steps of Thin Ice on the crowd funding platform Indiegogo were made bij Adam Paulin at the side of Khierstyn Ross, a crowd funding specialist who is still bragging about the succes of Thin Ice on Indiegogo on her site. Strange thing, that someone involved with Adam Paulin and Thin Ice only talks about the success of the crowd funding, not about the failure of the product funded.

With the professional help of Khierstyn, a whole lot of effort and money has been put into persuading people to invest in the development of  beautifully designed sleek cooling vest and cooling insoles. But the final product (only the vest, the insoles never made it to market) has been slapped together at minimum cost. The succes of Adam Paulin and Khierstyn Ross is the funding itself. But without the ensuing effort of actually designing and building the product, what is that worth?

Let’s get one thing clear. The thin ice vest is a pile of badly digested shit that made one guy very rich and thousands unhappy and angry. Was it worth it, Khierstyn Ross? Is it still worth bragging about? Maybe you should take a step back and add some information about the dangers of crowd funding on your crowdfunding podcast and blog. Because the danger of getting swindled by the likes of Adam Paulin is very real. Being a self-proclaimed ‘Awesome human’ (WTF?) isn’t enough. You have to act like it.

To be clear, I don’t blame Khierstyn Ross for the Thin Ice swindle. But I do think someone who endorses a product and helps it get funded should not just brag about her succes getting it funded, but also take the responsibility to keep the world informed about the meagre results. Thin Ice has dealt a serious blow to peoples’ trust in crowd funding and we need specialists like Khierstyn Ross to help restore that trust.