New crowdfunding service raises money before development even begins

App.net, the social platform by Dalten Caldwell has launched a new crowdfunding service called Backer that allows companies to ask users for money before committing to build software features. The idea behind Backer is that when a company wants to add a new feature to its software, it should be able to test just how much users desire a hypothetical feature by asking them to commit money to the functionality being built before development even begins.