I remember when I started my business my dad said the best investors are the first customers. Well, Travail Kitchen has taken that idea and expanded it using Kickstarter, the “new way to fund creative ideas.” People post their ideas, request funds and offer rewards for anyone who pledges money. (Minnesota music fans may have followed the Suburbs and their Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for a new album.)

Minneapolis St Paul Business Journal reports on Travail’s success, I mention it because it seems like such a smart use of the technology. I’m happy to see it work in Robbinsdale, but it seems to be that it might also work very well in smaller communities – communities that need coffee shops or restaurants or other establishments and who might have current and past residents who might support an initiative. (In fact this summer, I wrote about a business in Southwest Minnesota doing a similar fund raising campaign using Kiva.)

Travail Kitchen and Amusements quickly grew too big for its first location, and on Tuesday it quickly went beyond its Kickstarter campaign goal after just a few hours.

The Robbinsdale restaurant raised $84,602 as of 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, eclipsing its $75,000 target. The campaign, launched early Tuesday, had initially been set to run through Oct. 11.

Update: As of early Wednesday, the campaign had raised $137,218.

Travail plans to use the money to open a larger space, just a few doors down from the original restaurant, which has been repurposed as Pig Ate My Pizza by the same owners.