By John Tozzi

Harnessing the Crowd to Raise Capital

Kickstarter.com helps creative people fund art, films, music, and quirky businesses. Users post fund-raising targets online and ask friends and strangers to pledge money in exchange for CDs, T-shirts, or free products (almost anything but equity). More than $1.5 million has been pledged to the 5,000 projects on the site. The following are some of the businesses that have received backing.