Update, April 20, 2017, 15.05pm (See bottom of article for updates): Gabriel Wong, the founder of WOLO Life Clock Kickstarter campaign, has published a post on his personal Facebook page following the publication of this article.

Kickstarter is a platform for entrepreneurs to entice the masses to give money so funds can be raised and projects can materialise, all in a bid to make products for people.

Since its entry into the Singapore market on Aug. 31, 2016, local entrepreneurs have been making their mark with ingenious products and surpassing funding goals.

However, as with everything that has to do with money, sometimes things are not all rosy on the crowdfunding scene as it seems.

WOLO Life Clock project

According to a tip-off sent to Mothership.sg, the WOLO Life Clock Kickstarter project has gone silent after raising more than S$30,000 from 118 backers of the project.

The WOLO Life Clock is a reverse clock that counts down the seconds to remind individuals of their life span and the urgency to live to the fullest as the next big event draws near.

Their funding period ran from Jan. 6, 2016, to Feb. 10, 2016, -- a total of 35 days -- and the product was supposed to be delivered in May 2016.

But May 2016 came and went with no products delivered. Worse, the last update provided by makers for the backers was in April 26, 2016:

The update informed the backers of a two to three-month delay on the delivery of the product due to new partners.

For the uninitiated, products from Kickstarter do not always come to fruition despite the best efforts of entrepreneurs and manufacturers. High-profile failures have happened.

Just that with high-profile failures, there is no running away from the publicity and being accountable to people who have put money into the project.

WOLO has gone quietly

But since no WOLO product was eventually delivered, multiple backers have been asking for their products, or even just updates from the company:

They are also understandably furious, and spoke of legal action:

One of the backers noted that the founder's last login was on Nov. 9, 2016:

At this time of writing, the WOLO website has been taken down, while their Facebook page remains, but with no updates. (Update, April 20, 2017: It appears the WOLO Facebook page has also been removed after publication of this article.)

Who are the founders of WOLO?

Acting on information provided by the tip-off, two people believed to be involved with WOLO have been identified.

This is a photo posted on the Kickstarter page of four people who claim to be friends and who started the WOLO campaign:

The most recognisable person from the group is one Gabriel Wong:

The second person involved in the project, is apparently the current founder of DamnWorthIt, a lifestyle site thing: