Joshua Lifton is one of the founders of Crowd Supply, a company that crowdfunds around products. They take a very different approach to preparation, funding, and follow-up than Kickstarter. Kickstarter just announced that it had crossed $1bn in pledges in its five-year lifetime. Of that, it's disbursed nearly $850m. It's on track to facilitate perhaps half a billion in 2014 alone.

This episode is sponsored by:

Mailchimp helps more than five million people and businesses around the world send email newsletters. Mailchimp sent 70 billion messages on their behalf in 2013! They also have hats for cats and small dogs.

Media Temple: Web hosting for artists, designers, and Web developers since 1998. World-class support available 24x7 through phone and chat—and even Twitter. Sign up with coupon code "tnd" to get 25% off your first month of hosting.

What do the Nikola Tesla Museum, the film that won this year's Sundance Film Festival, and a baby have in common? They've all been crowdfunded on Indiegogo! Choose Flexible Funding to keep all the funds you raise even if you don’t meet your goal. Listeners visit tnd.indiegogo.com to receive a 25% discount on fees.