Backers of the Coolest Cooler were expecting a "portable party ." Instead what they got was a lesson in how crowdfunding really works.
- The Coolest Cooler launched on Kickstarter in 2014 and raised over $13 million from backers.
- The idea was to sell a "portable party disguised as a cooler," complete with Bluetooth speakers, a blender, and storage for dishes and utensils.
- The project struggled to actually launch for years, and now the company is officially going out of business before all backers even received the product.
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The Coolest Cooler had a promising start on Kickstarter five years ago, but things have been rocky since.
Though it was once the most-funded project on Kickstarter, it went on to become somewhat infamous for failure to deliver and constant updates from the creator about pushing back shipping dates. The Verge calls Coolest Cooler "the biggest disaster on Kickstarter."
To date, there have been 56 updates posted on the page.
Here's how the project went from $13 million in funding to shutting down 5 years later, with one-third of customers never receiving the cooler they were promised.