5. PART 1 – THE BIG PICTURE
Crowdfund Workshop – Basic Level
mercredi 15 mai 13
6. The rise of Crowdfunding
Crowdfund Workshop – Basic Level
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7. • DefiniMon
• Born from the rise of internet technologies (social
networks, web payment, video sharing, …)
• Statue of Liberty’s Story
• Part of the crowdsourcing movement
What’s crowdfunding?
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12. • Pebble watch
• First campaign to raise $10 million (link)
• Jobs Act in the US
• Signed by Obama in April 2012.
• Equity Crowdfunding in Canada
• Ontario (OSC), Québec (AMF) & New Brunswick
• In Canada
• Indiegogo expanded their business to Canada
• Crowdfunded Montreal film project get Oscar nominated
Remarkable events in 2012
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13. Who should consider
Crowdfunding and when?
Crowdfund Workshop – Basic Level
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15. Most funded project by category
Spiegel Sohmer Internal MeeMng
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16. • Individuals
• Inventors, Designers, ArMsts
• Peer to peer lending is booming
• AssociaMons
• ChariMes already used to raised money from the crowd
• Indiegogo partnership with organisaMons
• SMEs
• DonaMon/Reward: used as a way to pre-‐sale a product
• Equity: new innovaMve access to funding
What type of project owner
Crowdfund Workshop – Basic Level
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17. • 1. How good is your idea – really? Are you certain that people will be
interested in it?
• 2. Can you express your idea simply and at the same Mme get people
excited about it? If not, it may be that the idea isn’t all that compelling, or
that you may not be the right person to present it.
• 3. Do you have something tangible to show when presenMng your
venture – some visual aspect of your project that can help other people
visualize it?
• 4. Do you have some great rewards in mind to give backers and fans
incenMve to donate?
7 quesMons to ask yourself
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18. • 5. Do you understand all the personal and professional demands that the
process of running a crowdfunding campaign demands from creators? Are
you prepared to put 110% effort into making your crowdfunding project a
success?
• 6. Are you ready and able to take a big personal risk?
• 7. Who can you turn to for help, whether in terms of assistance with asset
creaMon, financial backing, raising awareness or just help spreading the
word?
7 quesMons to ask yourself (cont.)
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20. • Check if your assumpMons were correct.
• First step to convince further investor later on.
• Assessing the market size and popularity.
Proof of concept
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See example
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22. • Get early feedbacks.
• Let you adapt the product/service/concept in real
Mme.
• Find people willing to work with you and then
established valuable connexions.
CollaboraMon
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See example
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23. Example: A year of adventure
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24. • Every contributor become an evangelist
• Good to build a community around your project.
• You’ll gain highly valuable knowledge about how to
market your product/service/project
MarkeMng army
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25. • Replace a product/project launch
• The sMll innovaMve aspect of crowdfunding will help
you get more press coverage
• Social networks help mulMply the outreach
A PR booster
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27. • ApplicaMon is free.
• If you don’t manage to raised your goal money is
returned to each contributor.
• If you fail once it’s easy to try again
• On the contrary it’s Mme consuming
It’s free
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29. Time & money loss
Crowdfund Workshop – Basic Level
• Crowdfunding is a full-‐Mme occupaMon
• 2 weeks preparaMon (min) x 5 weeks crowdfunding
(average) = 280 hours. What’s your hourly rate? +
video + markeMng costs
• All-‐or-‐nothing risk on kickstarter
mercredi 15 mai 13
30. Burnout risk
Crowdfund Workshop – Basic Level
• Crowdfunding is a roller-‐coaster
• Necessity to have fall-‐back plans
• Reaching out to friends, family, and someMmes
personal savings
• Can you afford it?
mercredi 15 mai 13
31. LogisMcs risk
Crowdfund Workshop – Basic Level
• LogisMcs are hard to scale
• If you have 10,000 backers instead of 100 backers,
ordering, producing, fulfilling and shipping are hard.
• Missing out on announced schedule
mercredi 15 mai 13
32. AccounMng & Legal risk
Crowdfund Workshop – Basic Level
• Crowdfunding are fun if you are asking for donaMon
with no return, and for a small amount.
• If there’s an expectaMon of return = taxes.
• What’s the best structure if you are aiming for $30k?
mercredi 15 mai 13
34. Pros
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• Needed funding to design, develop, launch a product
• build a community of early adopters
• get market validaMon
• press
• Team morale
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35. Cons
Crowdfund Workshop – Basic Level
• Being on a popular plaWorm doesn’t mean you will
get contribuMons from the site’s traffic. You need to
promote yourself the campaign
• difficult to crowdfund a non-‐tangible product. Need
to pre-‐sale the product
• failure > 50% of campaigns
mercredi 15 mai 13
36. Cons
Crowdfund Workshop – Basic Level
• You need to show personal vulnerability
• Preparing and managing a crowdfunding campaign is
as difficult as tradiMonal fundraising. It’s not free
money!
mercredi 15 mai 13
38. Pre-‐Campaign
Crowdfund Workshop – Basic Level
• Website to showcase your product and it’s tangible
• Need an acMve community on twiser and facebook
• A video takes 1 to 2 weeks to produce
• Have several brainstorming sessions to find inspiring
perks
mercredi 15 mai 13
39. Pre-‐Campaign
Crowdfund Workshop – Basic Level
• PR: contact journalists to tell them about the
campaign
• Community acMvaMon: contact bloggers and
organizaMons, plus potenMal partners
• Build buzz for the launch with smart content
markeMng
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40. During the campaign
Crowdfund Workshop – Basic Level
• ConMnue outreach
• Thank contributors and upsell
• Content markeMng on the website/twiser/facebook
• Respond to emails/skype/meeMng requests
mercredi 15 mai 13
41. PART 2 – BE PREPARED
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43. AcMvity : Do a benchmark on Kickstarter & Indiegogo.
1. Type in keywords relaMng to your project.
2. Choose 3 successfully funded campaign on KS &
IGG
3. Check Funding Goals, Common & Original Perks,
Creators (origin, legiMmity, exisMng networks), Video,
Pitch.
Fill in the Seeding Factory Canvas
Benchmark
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45. Kickstarter
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• Advantages:
• The most famous plaWorm
• Huge trafic
• Drawbacks
• Only for US ciMzens (need a US partner)
• All-‐or-‐nothing model
• Exclusively in English
• Fees
• 8-‐10%
• Comments
• It’s the best opMon if you’re targeMng the US market.
• Most populat projects are Video Games and Films
mercredi 15 mai 13
46. Indiegogo
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• Advantages
• Available in Canada (CAD and in French)
• Flexible AND All-‐or-‐nothing plans
• No selecMon
• Drawbacks
• Less popular than Kickstarter
• Fees
• 8 to 13%
• Comments
• Great for canadian projects, community and social projects.
mercredi 15 mai 13
47. Fundrazr
Crowdfund Workshop – Basic Level
• Advantages
• It’s the biggest Canadian plaWorm (based in BC)
• Available in lots of different languages
• Drawbacks
• Small plaWorm
• DonaMon model (not made to offer rewards/perks)
• Fees
• 8%
• Comments
• Perfect for community and charity projects
• Spectacular Facebook integraMon tools
mercredi 15 mai 13
48. • Fundo
• La Plebe
• Haricot
• Yoyomolo
• Tax deducMon system included
• La Ruche Québec
• Only for Quebec City ‘project
• Ecloid
• Based and backed by Outaouais region
Quebecer plaWorms
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3 Montreal Platforms
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49. • MulMplying Mme
• DiluMng the contribuMon effort
• It’s confusing for potenMal backers
Never run parallel campaigns
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50. Comparison
Crowdfund Workshop – Basic Level
PlaKorm Fees Comments
Kickstarter 8%-‐10% Perfect for product pre-‐selling.
Target the US market
Indiegogo 8%-‐13% The « creaMve » compeMtor of Kickstarter.
Global accessibility and presence
FundRazr 8% A leading Canadian plaWorm perfect for charity
projects.
Local
PlaWorms
5%-‐12% For smaller project (<$5000)
They usually provide a lot of support
Own plaWorm 0 Technically harder.
Good for brands and organisaMons with an exisMng
comunity.
mercredi 15 mai 13
51. • Selfstarter.us
• Wordpress plugin
• Others
Create your own plaWorm
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53. • Who’s your project is dedicated to?
• What’s their purchasing power
• Are they comfortable with web technologies (online
payment, social network acMvity)
Contributor prototype
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54. • How many of your friends and familly are willing to
back your project?
• Defining what kind of networks could be reached
• Start to pitch your project to some of your relaMves/
friends & use those early feedback.
Different level of backers
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55. • Collect external rewards such as an acknowledgment,
a tangible arMfact, or an experience.
• Help others and “give.”
• Be part of a community of like-‐minded people.
• Support causes analogous with their personal beliefs.
Backers moMvaMons
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56. • Waste money: worry that their money will not be
used as effecMvely (NA on all-‐or-‐nothing plaWorms).
• Worry about waiMng for or not receiving rewards.
• Don’t want to be pestered for support. There’s a risk
of saturaMon
Backers unmoMvaMons
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58. • The outreach person is responsible for “business
development”
• Finds, qualifies, and then proposes winning
partnerships to exisMng organizaMons and companies
• Mostly email
Outreach person
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59. • The markeMng person gets thousands of people
excited about the campaign
• Ideas: content markeMng, social media, PR, blogger
outreach
• O|en the outreach person
MarkeMng person
Crowdfund Workshop – Basic Level
mercredi 15 mai 13
60. • Find a videographer who can put together a good
2mn video
• A video inspires and makes people dream...
• Cinema students, freelancers, friends of friends
• Test ideas with your target customers
Video team
Crowdfund Workshop – Basic Level
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62. • Good: get people to be inspired by your project
• Bad: Ask for a lot of work, and send 50 emails a day.
They will burn out and you will finish the project
alone.
• Best: Inspire. Delegate. Have a calendar and a list of
todos to coordinate.
Tips
Crowdfund Workshop – Basic Level
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64. • Go through similar campaigns, Google Image search
• Klout, Followerwonk
• Google Doc spreadsheet, Excel
• Rank by infuence and relevancy
Research
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65. • Read their twiser feed or blog
• Find a hook to asract their asenMon
• If no response, it’s ok. Wait for another hook on
twiser to come back
• A|er a first yes, it’s easy to ask for more
commitment. Goal: a skype, then coverage
AcMon
Crowdfund Workshop – Basic Level
mercredi 15 mai 13
67. • Wharton Business School professor Ethan Mollick
study:
– 10 friends on facebook = 9% success rate
– 100 friends = 20% success rate
– 1000 friends = 40% success rate
Social Mes are important
Crowdfund Workshop – Basic Level
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68. • Join the online communiMes of your audience:
Facebook, twiser, Pinterest, google+ (Youtube,
Instagram...)
• Interact with your audience and get to know what
they like and how to communicate
Join in the acMon
Crowdfund Workshop – Basic Level
mercredi 15 mai 13
69. • Be interested in opinion leaders and help them share
and promote what they are doing. Be genuinely
interested. Show them what you’ve done for them.
• When the campaign launches, ask opinion leaders to
help share the campaign. A thank you goes a long
way
• If you have Mme: Find or create content that your
audience will like.
Join in the acMon
Crowdfund Workshop – Basic Level
mercredi 15 mai 13
