How a Kickstarter garden app turned to weed
Did this dude raise money on Kickstarter for a garden app then bail on the project to set up a completely different business?
Michael Alt
HarvestGeek was the brainchild of Michael Alt of Charlotte, NC.
Here’s Mike
HarvestGeek
“An open-source, wireless, Internet of Things Greenhouse monitoring and automation system for your farm or garden.”
Feb 2013:Â HarvestGeek raised $47k on Kickstarter breaking its target of $25k. Woo hoo! First delivery was due in July.
Mar 2014:Â @Michael_Alt makes his last twitter update.
Sep 2013:Â Mike’s FB profile goes quiet.
Jun 2014:Â HarvestGeek announces they are moving to Santa Monica
Jan 2015:Â HarvestGeek makes its last update on Kickstarter.
Nov 2015: Backers are fed up and getting no joy from reporting to Kickstarter
Meanwhile
There is a Michael Alt listed in LinkedIn. He is previously of Charlotte, NC now resides in Santa Monica CA… but there is with no mention of HarvestGeek.
And if you are not convinced it is the same dude, note that the google snippet of his LinkedIn profile still includes the reference to HarvestGeek.
Now why would he remove the reference to HarvestGeek with the project still awaiting completion in Kickstarter?!
WoahStork
So what is Mike doing these days? WoahStork.
And what is WoahStork?
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a garden app going to weed.
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31 March, 2016 @ 1:44 pm
Michael Alt has a pretty unfortunate history with fraud dating back to his days popping Oxys in Syracuse, NY. Given the disappointing nature of Mr. Alt’s behavior and the fact that he has used the remaining $28,000 (of the original $47,053 initially provided by backers) to fund development for his latest endeavor WoahStork, we feel like he deserves to be exposed. Below you will find his working cell phone number, email account, and home address in Santa Monica, CA (where he has used approximately $10k for rent since he was laid off from Intuit). I hope you find this information helpful in your attempts to recoup either your money or some form of retribution.
[redacted – this blog will not publish personal details]
Best of luck!