Sometimes, all we need in order to achieve our goals is a little bit of green. This philosophy has been the core behind the website Kickstarter, an outreach for entrepreneurs and activists alike to generate financing for their goals, aspirations and dreams. According to the Kickstarter site, nearly a billion dollars has come in from five million backers to fifty thousand projects in order to fund everything from technology to infrastructure and academic studies. What projects can be an inspiration for your business?

Pebble

Whenever you need to get connected to your mobile device without your mobile device, Pebble makes it possible to browse apps, email or the Internet simply by looking at your wrist. The first e-watch put into production, Pebble started out as a humble Kickstarter project in May of 2012, asking for one hundred thousand dollars in order to build a customizable watch. The prompt proved so popular that no less than $10 million (100 times the asking goal) flowed into Pebble’s coffers. Today, the watch retails for $150, and the Pebble marketing team suggests the product can do everything from track your heart rate for exercise statistics to get updates whenever your favorite band launches a concert tour. The takeaway of Pebble is clear: our mobile world no longer need be confined to phones and tablets, and people are excited for the next trend.

Ouya

Ask any video game player about the biggest drawback of their hobby, and most times you’ll hear the price of modern gaming coming into play. Consoles that retail for $400 and games that sell for $60 more have pushed many gamers to the brink. Ouya capitalized on the frustration of the gaming environment by launching a new console via Kickstarter on July of 2012. Asking for a million dollars to develop a video game console that features nothing but free games, the story proved so powerful that the company raised $8.5 million. Today, Ouya retails for only $100 and offers a complete library of free games, along with an interactive controller they call a “love letter” to console gamers.

Form 1

Three-dimensional printers have only recently hit the scene, and few people still understand their complexity or practicality. Wanting to be one of the first companies into the breach, Form 1 launched a Kickstarter Project in September of 2012, to develop an affordable 3-D printer that could create much more intricate designs. After asking for $100 thousand, Form 1 brought in $3 million. The company describes the product as an end-to-end package, so that a user hoping to set up their own 3-D printing operation need only open up the box, plug in the printer and begin feeding the plastic bits into the processor. Companies looking for sizable resources to launch their own product, especially one with high production costs, will need credit as well as liquidity to get the job done, making small business credit cards a crucial tool. A small business that enjoys credit card rewards, like using air miles to create new contacts and partnerships, will be better able to extend their market share or purchasing power.