Remember how we said earlier this week that the venture capital system was in decline? This is a potent example of how companies can bypass it: the startup Pebble Smartwatch went to Kickstarter a couple weeks ago hoping to raise $100,000. $10.1 million later, they're cutting off the drive ahead of schedule, so much money having now flowed into their pockets. First priority: get their e-paper, smartphone-connecting watches into production and get them out to their early investors on Kickstarter. Then, the world.

One question, though: Did people really want to invest? Or did they just want a watch?

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/11/pebble-smartwatch-tops-out-at-10-million-on-kickstarter/