Speaker 1: People have many wonderful ideas, but no way to achieve them. With crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter, people can now make their ideas a reality.

Speaker 2: So many people, you know, you have that big plan, you got that big dream, and your main problem is what? Money. And this is just a way that it combines both of that, getting it known, getting it out there, plus giving you funding. So I think Kickstarter, you know, they're fulfilling dreams.

Speaker 3: You can reach more people than just one person who can fund it entirely. You can get, like, just a few people here and get what you need done instead of having to worry about one opinion.

Speaker 1: One OSU graduate student has been researching why these crowdfunding sites seem to be so successful and what draws people to donate to a stranger's project that may never see fruition.

Speaker 4: It's just crazy why would people actually give money to people through a website, right? Just like this, someone that they don't know, they can't really do any due diligence in terms of how legitimate is this company, things of that nature.

Speaker 1: Some ideas, like the Pebble smartwatch, can be practical. Other ideas could be used for recreational and entertainment purposes. The Coolest Cooler Kickstarter far surpassed the goal they wanted to achieve. With more than 62,000 people backing it, the Coolest Cooler reached the exceeded goal by earning an astounding $13 million out of the $50,000 goal that was set. You give money, and it makes you feel good.

Speaker 4: It gives you that warm, fuzzy feeling inside. With the Coolest Cooler, they kind of made this where it was like a fun thing. All their video is showing people smiling, being happy outside with this product.

Speaker 1: Through its success and word of mouth, the Coolest Cooler has been talked about with major media companies like ABC, NBC, CBS News, and People Magazine.

Speaker 5: There's such a broad selection of projects you can fund, so almost anyone can find something they'd be interested in.

Speaker 1: Shovel Knight is another product of Kickstarter success. The creators, Yacht Club Games, wanted to bring back the glories of the 8-bit era. But to do this, they needed help. Yacht Club took what gameplay footage they had and put out a demo level for people to try. Aside from the demo, Yacht Club had rewards for backing the game. They also had stretch goals that would add more features for players, showing that they were serious about bringing the game to life. With crowdfunding, there's limitless potential for someone's idea to become a reality. For Ostate TV, I'm Austin Reagan.