I'm sorry that you've lost money, I hope that the fact that the company is canadian will mean that you will be able to get (some of?) your money back.

I'd think that nowadays if you want to build a niche product and need financing from early buyers you should be doing it through something that evidentely looks like a crowdfunding platform: the risk for the customer is just as high (or higher, since there are usually no refunds), but at least you're being open up front on what is the actual product status.