Crowdfunding Tips for Newbies
What I WISH I Knew Before Launching a Crowdfunding Campaign
Like with most new projects, there’s always complications in the beginning, and unfortunately my fiance and I have encountered just about all of them — especially in the crowd-funding arena. We did the research, put in the time to build in the campaign, and yet there were still a variety of factors that were completely unexpected. So we figured that we might as well share some information on what we WISH we knew before putting our project out there.
Our project:
About 6 months ago, we decided that we wanted to start an inspirational web-series that shines a spotlight on everyday entrepreneurs. We’ve always been really fascinated by individuals who dedicate themselves to their passion, and we had a strong desire to provide raw, honest content that average individuals could relate to — something that seems to be missing from the entrepreneur community. We also wanted to make a statement that addresses the massive infestation of clutter that’s taking over the online world. Enter: Quality Thrives, a multi-year long journey that involves us traveling across the country documenting the passion, struggle, and dedication of 250 everyday entrepreneurs (officially launching on October 10th, 2014).
Bryndan Thomas, Co-founder of Quality Thrives (and also my fiance) grabbing footage of Jackie Venson, an up-and-coming Austin musician.
We knew the concept would work, just for the fact that average entrepreneurs would appreciate the opportunity to share their story. We also knew that it was pretty rare to see millennials who were willing to give up everything they own for a good cause, and that people would respect the fearless nature of the whole thing.
On the other side — we also knew that pulling it off would be both extremely difficult and financially draining, so we started thinking of ways that we could pursue the project without ending up homeless.
Our first initial thought was to find sponsors, which I felt decently confident about. I have experience as an event director so I’m familiar with the process, and I also do the design for Entrepreneur on Fire, one of the #1 downloaded podcasts on Itunes, so I’ve got at least a little credibility in the entrepreneur community. However with sponsorships also comes commitments and restraints, so we determined that it would be best to get the ball rolling on our own and consider sponsorships as a future path.
So —back to square one. We had our savings (which was pretty meager to say the least), we would have the money from selling everything we have, and we would have income from continuing to work as freelancers while on the road. Would that REALLY be enough though?
Just to be safe, we decided to launch a crowdfunding campaign. We had done about 15 interviews by this point, made some really wonderful connections, and had very supportive family members so we assumed that getting funding wouldn’t be that big of deal……………
Tip #1: Never Make Assumptions
Being hopeful or optimistic is one thing, but assuming that things will “work themselves out” is a dangerous road to walk. We assumed that our interviewees would all be willing to donate, we assumed that announcing our campaign at Podcast Movement would trigger people to donate, and we assumed that we could raise $9,500 within 30 days using a fixed-funding format, even though we have absolutely no experience with crowd-funding and HATE asking people for help. Needless to say, those assumptions haven’t really panned out, and we feel like naive idiots for thinking they would.
Tip #2: Go with Flexible Funding for Your First Campaign
Note: I’m specifically directing this tip at average people like us — those who have friends and family with average incomes, and don’t have an amazing life-changing product to offer.
There’s two different types of crowdfunding campaigns out there — fixed funding, which is all-or-nothing, meaning that if you don’t meet your goal, you don’t get any of it — or flexible funding, which means that you get what ever you make, regardless of whether or not you meet your goal. After doing way too much research, the majority recommendation was to go with a fixed funding campaign on Kickstarter, so that’s what we did. We spent months building our campaign and gathering footage to make the promo video.. pulling all-nighters to balance our freelance work + putting everything into place. And seeing as we’re not getting paid to pursue this project, it’s obviously caused a pretty huge dent in our income, which we were desperately hoping we’d make back with our Kickstarter funds…. Embarrassingly enough, we didn’t make it past the 4th day. It may seem like a cop out, or that we quit too soon, but it was more-so that we realized how seriously stupid and naive it was to expect a successful outcome on our first go-around. We also realized how silly it was to risk ending up 100% empty-handed with fixed-funding, rather than make at least something using flexible funding on Indiegogo. So we cut our losses, canceled our Kickstarter, and re-launched the same day on Indiegogo.
Tip #3: Don’t Get Caught Up In Advice Articles
This tip applies to this article as well. The fact of the matter is, every project is different, and everyone’s circumstances are different. If our advice doesn’t apply to your situation, then PLEASE don’t follow it! This was probably the biggest mistake we made starting out — and a very common mistake for entrepreneurs. We obviously wanted to be prepared for our campaign, and we didn’t personally know anyone who had launched a campaign, so we had to rely on online advice. Some of it was legitimate, but based on the tips that we’ve actually tried (and wasted time with), we’re assuming that most of the articles were was written for affiliate commission.
Quality Thrives interviewee, Mike Schmidt with Event Driven LLC — a startup IT company, smiling as we get b-roll before conducting the interview.
What’s worked for our campaign?
- Working our butts off — we specifically went above and beyond with the information that we provided in our campaign, as well as creating a presence for our project in every online space possible. We’ve got a Quality Thrives Facebook account, Twitter, Youtube, and website, all which has added to the campaigns credibility and has allowed us to develop some really great partnerships/promoters. So much in fact that we were contacted by NPR for a potential interview (still pending).
2. The Barter System — If you have a skill-set that you use to make an income, such as design, programming, etc.. use it for promotional purposes, but be smart about it. I started contacting entrepreneurial friends a few months ago and helping them with design projects in exchange for campaign promotion. Some of it, specifically our partnership with Chris Cerrone and Laci Urcioli, hosts of the Cerrone Show, has worked out really well. However some of the exchanges have also been a big waste of time, which is pretty hard to predict starting out. Make sure that you’re bartering with someone who frequently helps others out, who has a decently big audience within your niche, and who is a genuinely good person.
3. Press Releases — Coincidentally, we were told by someone at Podcast Movement that press releases were a thing of the past and that they NEVER worked. Hearing that worried me a bit, but I also have friends who work in PR, so I knew that they had to do at least something. So far, they’ve gotten us a decent amount of traffic, and added to our credibility even further.
More to Come
The campaign is set to run until September 16th, and we’ll have more definite information in terms of what works/doesn’t work once it’s all said and done(follow-up article coming soon). However overall, gaining this experience in launching a crowdfunding campaign has been invaluable for us. It’s allowed us to see that we DO have the ability to start something that matters, and that we ARE capable of putting together a fully legitimate project that people are actually interested in. We don’t expect to change the world, or to make a dent in the universe, or even become super successful. As long as we can make average, everyday entrepreneurs feel like they’re not alone in the “startup struggle”, that’s more than good enough for us.
If you’d like to support the mission of Quality Thrives, or felt that this article provided some helpful insight, we would greatly appreciate a contribution on our Indiegogo campaign and will absolutely return the favor as much as we can.
For questions regarding the Quality Thrives project, please visit our website or contact brandy@qualitythrives.org
