Dalton Caldwell is pushing an innovative new model to the real-time social graph taking inspiration from “failed” business models of the Web 2.0 era.

Rather than building an ad-supported product, he’s proposing app.net – a paid-service designed for the customers not the advertisers. This lends well towards a customer-focused product with a long-term business plan.

The project is adopting the Kickstarter system asking for funding up front with the rather ambitious target of $500,000 in 30 days. We know this can happen from other Kickstarter success stories but whether developers will invest at this early stage is another question. I’m cautiously optimistic.