The Pledgecamp Platform: Part 4
In this final part of our platform overview, we explore the larger Pledgecamp Ecosystem and how we support creators beyond just crowdfunding.
The Pledgecamp Ecosystem comprises three major branches that include fundraising, education, and a marketplace for services. We call the latter two branches the Knowledge Center and the Vendor Network.
As we’ve seen in the previous posts, fundraising covers traditional crowdfunding campaigns, that have specific funding goals and time limits, as well as pre-order and traditional E-commerce stores. This flexibility unique to Pledgecamp allows creators to seek whatever funding option (or options, plural) that fits their individual needs.
However, we know that raising money is just one part of the overall equation in order for creators to succeed and make their customers happy. They must have the proper knowledge to adequately fund their missions and deliver on their promises. They must find the right partners to fill in their weaknesses and properly execute the tasks. On other platforms, creators are left to fend for themselves while backers assume they have things handled. On Pledgecamp, we make sure creators have what they need all in the same place.
The Knowledge Center
The Knowledge Center comprises educational materials provided for free by the platform, as well as a Creators Forum where users can leverage a previously untapped resource by other platforms — the crowd itself.
On the front page of the Creators Forum, users can see a feed of user-generated questions and answers similar to sites like Reddit or Stack Overflow. These posts can be filtered by Popular, Tags, Answered, or Payment Offered. Posts with payments offered are just like they sound — the best answers for these questions have the chance to earn income in the form of Pledge Coins.
Posts are ranked by an algorithm that combines recency and “upvotes” that indicate current popularity. In addition, users may search for question topics directly. Searches will look for subject tags or question titles that match.
For example, a creator may check if their question has already been answered by someone else. In another case, an expert in a certain subject matter could search that subject to provide high-quality answers and earn payment rewards. This could allow people to earn income by sharing knowledge around the world, with payments facilitated by Pledge Coins.
Posting a new question is easy. A project creator simply fills out a form with a question title, description, subject tags, and answers whether or not there is a payment offered. Offering a larger payment is a way to incentivize faster, higher quality answers from real experts. It could be the only way to get a highly technical answer on a niche subject matter on short notice.
Alternatively, creators can post questions that require no technical knowledge yet would still provide valuable information to their projects. They could be survey questions about opinions on product style, branding, or other key market research. Creators can recruit answers from their target audience and even build some awareness around their product this way. Pledge Coins allows this to happen all over the world securely without conversion fees.
The final step if payment is offered is to pre-purchase the Pledge Coins that are to be offered as rewards. This way users know that the creator is able to and serious about paying for their answers, and ensures the Pledge Coin will be on hand to immediately distribute as needed without any issues.
Once a question is posted, users may begin providing answers. Users can post new answers directly to the main question, and they may also reply to other users and start conversations directly. The original poster of the question is free to reply and get involved in the discussions as well.
Best answers receive upvotes and rise to the top, but ultimately the poster must choose the best answer that helps them. Once this happens, the question will be closed for payments although conversations can still continue. This system may be familiar to those familiar with sites like Quora or Stack Overflow.
The Vendor Network
The idea behind the Vendor Network is that more often than not, success in delivering a product depends on having the right people working together to make it happen. For many entrepreneurs, finding the right people and learning to fill in weaknesses with collaboration is one of the hardest tasks to accomplish.
It can be especially hard for a new entrepreneur to go on a site like Upwork and know what to look for and how to communicate with a consultant. Requesting quotes can be a complicated process that requires an entrepreneur “speaks the language” and knows what information to include to get an accurate quote. It can also be hard to find vendors who understand the needs of new startups and are willing to help entrepreneurs through the learning process of doing this for the first time.
It can also be difficult for vendors to trust a new startup if they have doubts about the creator’s professional experience or ability to pay. Many manufacturers, especially in China, will outright reject cold inquiries from first-time entrepreneurs due to the complexities involved.
In the Vendor Network, these issues are addressed because it is a marketplace of professionals who are specifically there to help entrepreneurs who are crowdfunding often small operations. Request-For-Quote (RFQ) templates and a robust chat and file upload system are provided to make sure communication is smooth, organized, and collaborative. Users are vetted and perform KYC verification, and payments are made securely through the platform. There will also be an option for payment to be taken directly from the funds raised through their crowdfunding campaign, which guarantees to vendors that they will be paid as promised once it is done.
Searching through job types or search terms will bring up results of vendors that match a creator’s needs. Similar to other job sites, the creator can then filter by hourly rate, location, jobs completed, success rate, and more.
Clicking on a vendor will bring up their profile page which includes basic details and a bio. The vendor can also fill out their profile with a website, professional skills, and examples of previous work if applicable. If all looks in order, you can request a quote from this vendor by messaging them directly. You can request quotes from an unlimited number of different vendors in order to find the perfect match for your job. As always, if you ever need guidance on how to most effectively request quotes and find a vendor for your job type, you can consult the Knowledge Center or ask a question in the Creators Forum.
Conversations between vendors will be saved in one place in the Message Center. Tabs separate conversations that are messages for quotes, active collaboration on hired tasks, and archives for finished tasks.
A completed Task Form (quote form) will be contained within the conversation before a vendor is officially hired. This will allow both parties to discuss conditions and edit the form if needed, for example if a delivery date or payment amount needs to be changed. Once changes are made and accepted, the vendor will be officially hired and the task will begin.
Once a task is underway, the vendor will be tasked with communicating progress and sharing updates to show the work being done. The creator can ask questions at any time and ask for edits, bearing in mind that the agreed-upon Task Form will define what deliverables should be expected and how much back and forth will be allowed.
Examples of communication could be the vendor sharing image or video uploads to the creator of work in progress. These files can be just previews, as the final deliverables in full quality can be held until after payment is received.
As the task goes on, the conversation will be recorded in an easy-to-follow chronological thread. Additional members can be added from the creator’s team to encourage collaboration, and basic privacy and last-resort tools like blocking and cancelling the task are available as well.
If the task proceeds to a successful conclusion, the creator can mark the task as “Complete” and proceed with payment. If desired, the creator can include a tip as well.
The successful task will be preserved in their profile as well as the vendor’s, and future or current backers will be able to see that the project is making real progress and publicly visible work is being completed. In this way and by hiring on the Vendor Network, the creator can demonstrate their milestones and inspire confidence for their backers.
Once a task is complete, the conversation will be archived and the creator will have access to downloading the file uploads that were previously view-only. This way, they can download the final deliverables if applicable and come back to them at any time with the vendor unable to delete or edit them.
The creator is free to open a new task with the same vendor or work with new ones, as many times as they want. The Vendor Network is simply there to serve as a resource to them, and ultimately benefit everyone on the platform!
Fans of the multi-billion dollar messaging app Slack may see some similarities in the platform’s emphasis on collaboration and easy communication. If so it would be no accident, as the design firm responsible for the creation of Slack worked closely with our team on the design of the Pledgecamp platform as well!
Final Thoughts
Over the past several weeks, we’ve shown you in-depth descriptions of the platform from multiple points of view:
First, we showed you what a backer will see browsing the platform and supporting projects, all the way from setting up an account to backing a project and voting on Backer Protection. (https://medium.com/pledgecamp/introducing-the-pledgecamp-platform-4befdd5420b7)
Next, we dove into the creator’s point of view and saw how easy it is to create and list a new project with confidence. (https://medium.com/pledgecamp/the-pledgecamp-platform-part-2-535aae067ef1)
Last week, we saw the advanced analytics and campaign management tools available to only our creators for free. (https://medium.com/pledgecamp/the-pledgecamp-platform-part-3-61e24a50310e)
And today, we saw how we go beyond crowdfunding to support creators with the Knowledge Center and Vendor Network, so that our users can be more successful with their projects and ultimately leave their backers happy and coming back for more.
These features are the culmination of years of first-hand crowdfunding experience, design work with Metalab.co and other major partners, and intense development work. We are proud of what this platform has become and we are excited to present the first batch of projects open for backing soon.
Please stay tuned for developments every week, including a major one before the end of this year :)
Thank you for reading!
Have a project you want to list? Contact us at hello@pledgecamp.com. For news and updates on when you can begin backing live projects, follow us on one of several options below.
Be sure to follow us here on Medium, as well as:
Twitter: twitter.com/pledgecamp
Telegram: t.me/pledgecamp
Facebook: facebook.com/pledgecamp
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Pledgecamp_Official/
Instagram: instagram.com/pledgecamp
Telegram (한국어): t.me/pledgecampkorea
Telegram ANN: t.me/pledgecamp_announcements
For more details about the Pledgecamp platform, refer to our white paper accessible at https://pledgecamp.com/whitepaper.
This post may contain forward-looking statements about the future functionality of the platform. The platform is currently in development, and we reserve the right to make changes to the design, names, or functionality of features in the interests of making the platform successful. For full risk factors, see white paper.
