Tips on Crowdfunding

The Clown Man

Hi Folks,

Has anyone successfully raised funding through crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter?

I'm closing in on the launch of my business (1.5yrs in the making!) and I need cash to expand our management team. I can't go into the details of the business yet but it's social and based on goodwill - i.e. people helping each other. There is an organic viral socialisation element to it and so I think crowdfunding could work.

I suppose I'm wondering has anyone any tips or tricks on crowdfunding? If you have had experience raising funds yourself, are there any key dos/don'ts or any online resources that you found particularly helpful?

Anything you can share that you think might be useful would be sincerely appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Sean.

Nika Bolokov

From seeing whats been really successful on Kickstarter over the last 12 months a few things spring to mind:

1) Hardware is popular. High tech hardware is very popular, in particular anything to do with 3D printing or additional functionality to iphones. If you can give this kind of a spin on it do. Social media, intangible stuff is less so. Because of the popularity of hardware and giving money to build things I would steer well clear of saying its to expand your management team rather then for building something.

2) Your pitch has to have high production values. Check out the one for dropshades. Thats what people now expect and that was put together by three college students ( Again hardware)

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dropshades/dropshades-sound-reactive-technology

3) Make sure your rewards are good. Put a bit of thought into them.

4) Remember your audience on this site (Tech nerds :-) aged 18 - 30 ) tailor your pitch to that market.

Compare that dropshades one to this one:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/clevercall/clevercall-0

A great product but you have to remember the people on this site. Dont wear a suit etc

5) Promote your campaign. Have a separate website, use social media. If you just throw it up there and leave it your facing a tough time. Google any of the successful ones they all ran campaigns off kickstarter to push their kickstarter campaign.

6) U.S. projects are way more successful. Give a U.S. slant to your product or pitch if you can.

Bandara

Nika Bolokov wrote: »

From seeing whats been really successful on Kickstarter over the last 12 months a few things spring to mind:

1) Hardware is popular. High tech hardware is very popular, in particular anything to do with 3D printing or additional functionality to iphones. If you can give this kind of a spin on it do. Social media, intangible stuff is less so. Because of the popularity of hardware and giving money to build things I would steer well clear of saying its to expand your management team rather then for building something.

2) Your pitch has to have high production values. Check out the one for dropshades. Thats what people now expect and that was put together by three college students ( Again hardware)

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dropshades/dropshades-sound-reactive-technology

3) Make sure your rewards are good. Put a bit of thought into them.

4) Remember your audience on this site (Tech nerds :-) aged 18 - 30 ) tailor your pitch to that market.

Compare that dropshades one to this one:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/clevercall/clevercall-0

A great product but you have to remember the people on this site. Dont wear a suit etc

5) Promote your campaign. Have a separate website, use social media. If you just throw it up there and leave it your facing a tough time. Google any of the successful ones they all ran campaigns off kickstarter to push their kickstarter campaign.

6) U.S. projects are way more successful. Give a U.S. slant to your product or pitch if you can.

Great post

dbran

Hi

You could also take a look at www.linkedfinance.ie


Best Regards


Dbran

Cianos

One very clever approach to the rewards I saw done before was the more money that was raised, the better the product got. I can't remember now what the product was, but the campaign was structured so that if they reached X amount it would be made out of aluminium instead of plastic. This is a good incentive for people to invite their friends as it means a better finished piece for them and their backing goes up in value.

The Clown Man

Thanks for the replies so far.

Nika, a very helpful post and thanks for putting it together!

dban, that's a fantastic site - one which I'll definitely come back to but I wonder since I'm a new company who has not yet traded, why would anyone risk loaning me money unless I can tell the story? - something that kickstarter allows me do effectively.

Cianos, I was planning on doing this alright - to a limited degree for the following reason:

Something I was considering was offering discounts equivalent to the amount donated, which can be redeemed when the site goes live, along with bonus goodies depending on the amount donated. What I'd essentially be doing is getting cheap credit but leaving myself liable for the full amount raised plus the cost of the goodies - cheaper credit than I can get anywhere at this stage and market validation to boot.

The site is based on goodwill and feeding back to the customer, so I'd like to start as I mean to go on - this way I'm simply borrowing money from future customers rather than taking it from them. I'm trying to make donating as much of a win-win for everyone as I can manage. When I'm live I can borrow from the banks to cover the liability, showing that I have ready demand for the service, and ticking all their damn boxes. Failing that I can negotiate a better deal on VC before going live, having validated market demand.

It's aspirational I know, but I think if executed right, it might work. As long as I don't open myself up to more liability than I can manage - but I can cross that bridge with a big smile on my face if I get to it!

Any thoughts on how or why this approach might not work?



Oh, and I should have mentioned the money is not to pay the management team - it's to lure them in! That is my own immediate focus for now, but any money raised will be used to build a final module for an almost complete prototype which we'll use for beta - this money will get us there. We'll beta in Ireland, but, with more money we'll be able to bring it to the US faster and add some features earlier.