Fundit.ie

BrookieD

Hi Guys
Myself and a business partner are starting to develop a business idea we have been planning for a year into a product.

I am starting to build the site but the main driver will be a mobile app for iphone and android - windows phone 8 down the road.

I was looking at funding the app dev and was looking at kickstarter but you cannot be based in Ireland and so found Fundit.ie

Has anybody experience here using that site as a fundraiser. We would be looking to use the monies raised to fund app development so we can get the app running sooner rather than later.

Any thoughts or feedback would be great.

The app we are looking at is heavily linked with the travel industry and would provide a service to Irish, British and later European travellers.

Buttercake

There's another one called linkedfinance?

Are you looking for 100% financing of the project or have you/both already invested money to date?

Looks like there is a lot of artistic stuff on fundit and its also quite small levels of funding. Great name they have though!

BrookieD

Buttercake wrote: »

There's another one called linkedfinance?

Are you looking for 100% financing of the project or have you/both already invested money to date?

We are putting in some monies in order to set the thing up but would need funding nearly exclusively for the app dev, while we can do some I think paying for a dev to work on the project is the best way to go in order to give us the best available application that we can bring to the market.

Peterdalkey

Have you looked at CEB or EI early stage grants. Seems like a classic model for some feasabilty study etc money to me!!

BrookieD

Peterdalkey wrote: »

Have you looked at CEB or EI early stage grants. Seems like a classic model for some feasabilty study etc money to me!!

Hi Peter
Thats the next stage I am looking into. Need to grab some application forms and submit for end of Feb -

We have a business model, Time frame to dev the site and collect all information needed to get phase 1 of the app off the ground. and have a project plan in place.

Buttercake

BrookieD wrote: »

We are putting in some monies in order to set the thing up but would need funding nearly exclusively for the app dev, while we can do some I think paying for a dev to work on the project is the best way to go in order to give us the best available application that we can bring to the market.

fundit seems to be more art, music, community and cause related projects and your project could sit there for a while.

You may qualify for an innovation voucher (€5k) with your enterprise board

building apps are like building a websites there are dozens of ways of approaching it, there might be a framework out there that already does 70% of what you need and then you could hire a developer to bring it to a testing model

BrookieD

Hi Buttercake,
We are looking at a few frameworks now. the app is not a graphic heavy game or anything like it so we estimate minimum dev time needed in order to have a app call on a dbase of information and draw down information.

No in app purchase or payment gateways are needed so again it takes this aspect away.

Cianos

If you're going to use Fundit or something similar, don't skimp out on the creative content of the campaign. In my experience, successful campaigns always have a really nicely shot video and a high level of design input in to the product. These are the things that people latch on to and get excited about rather than the technical benefits or problem solving elements. Or rather, the design elements make people way more excited about the practical elements.

Peterdalkey

Perhaps slightly off topic but if you are not doing the App developemnt work yourselves, you will find some pretty decent specialist talent among the regular boards.ie posters. I have recently hired two regular posters to carry out specific techie type assignments at very fair prices for very good quality work and importantly communications.
By checking back on their posting history via their avatars, the cream soon rises to the top

BrookieD

Many thanks for the tips guys.... valuable stuff

Axwell

I have friends who ran a campaign on there for development of an ipad game. One of the issues with fundit it is that its known to a small group of people and unless your app is of real interest and extremely novel then randomers arent going to really go on and fund it. You pretty much have to drive your own followers to the campaign and as them to fund it to push the project forward. So unless you have a Facebook page where you have a lot of people interested in the app and seeing it reach completion then I don't think fundit will help you get to where you want to be.

If you feel the app is a good business idea then an innovation voucher is probably the best way to go to at least get a decent alpha build ready that you could use in applying for further funding, it depends how technical it is, the innovation voucher might be enough to get you up and running.

lego101

Hi,
I would recommend Indiegogo.com myself for crowd funding, really isn't far behind kickstarter on audience! Those Irish funding sites dont appear to have much traffic to me, while Indiegogo is hitting the million dollar mark on a lot of projects. I also agree with cianos, you really have to make it attractive to the eye at first site, something colorful and snappy, attention spans these days are tiny :P goodluck