I think you're conflating two stories. Eric from Pebble originally went on Kickstarter because of investor interest. We created our own crowd funding platform because Kickstarter changed their policies. Both stories are detailed here: http://www.foundersatwork.com/1/post/2012/10/what-goes-wrong...

In both cases, investor interest is a barrier but the core problem seems to be 1) making something people want, 2) finding a platform to tell them it exists, and 3) being able to deliver it. Kickstarter is wonderful for 2).