Unique edges…
The number of unique edges your crowdfunding campaign starts with is almost directly proportional to the number of backers you will achieve. Wow, so simple but so important! What are edges? In simple terms they are promoters generating organic content about your product… i.e. co-founders and vested collaborators.
• Edges are founders generating organic content
• Promoters are “retweeters” and “likers”
• Backers are those who give $ to your campaign
• Each unique edge equates to 100 backers
About a month ago I was a mentor at a crowdfunding “super huddle”. A well-dressed lady sat down across from me and said her campaign was failing miserably. She did everything right, she even selected a co-founder to help. As she went on she talked about her cofounder coming back home for thanksgiving, and I realized it was her daughter, in college, a unique edge, but substantially in the same social network. Contrast that with cofounders living on different coasts with only 5% overlap in their social network…
Realization: You need unique edges with diverse social networks… NOT JUST UNIQUE EDGES! (pivot, change definition…)
So how do we stack the deck for successful crowd funding campaigns? We crowdsource our team in advance of the crowdfunding campaign. Imagine a team that starts with one founder, he crowd sources a co-founder, not because he is his college roommate (and shares a social network), but rather because he shares the same passion and complements his skills. Then the two of them, through their diverse social networks, go on to add ten collaborators to the project, and they all hold equity position (aka have super motivation).
Here we go… you have 12 unique edges to start your campaign, you will likely pick up at least one super evangelist per collaborator and per the research 2000 backers will follow!
This is why Designbook.com is here… to crowdsource your team, create unique edges with diverse social networks and stack the deck for successful follow-on crowdfunding.
