Devin D. Thorpe - Utah Crowdfunding Conference

Devin D. Thorpe
@devindthorpe #letsdosomegood
Endless Computer
$176,538 raised!
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A little about me
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Teton Dam
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Treasurer/Investment Banker/CFO
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Champion of Social Good
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Types of Crowdfunding
Donations
Nothing but thanks
in return
Rewards
T-shirts, albums, games,
DVDs and technology
Investments
Debt and
equity issues
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Crowdfunding Potential
• $200 million for a skyscraper in
Bogota, Colombia (investments)
• $13 million for a cooler that will
charge your phone and blend
your drinks (rewards)
• $5+ million for Habitat for
Humanity (donations)
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What to Expect
• Crowdfunding for investments is
new, with average raises of about
$100,000 in the UK
• Crowdfunding for rewards and
donations average about $4,000
to $5,000
• Many campaigns fail to raise any
money at all
• Most campaigns raise less than
$5,000
• A few, big winners skew the
average
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Where The Money Comes From
• The “Crowd” is almost as
difficult to find as sasquatch
• The money will come
mostly from your own
network (about 75%)
• The most successful
campaigns get 75% or more
from the “crowd”
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SMAC! Monkeys
Trust
• Are you trying to cheat me?
– Use your real identity
– Connect to social media
accounts associated with
your real identity
• If not, are you capable of
being successful?
– Describe your qualifications
– Highlight past success
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Assessing Your Team
• How many partners?
• How many champions?
• How many boosters?
• Partners are worth an average of
$2,000 each.
• Champions are worth about
$1,000 each.
• Boosters are worth about $500
each.
Assessing Your Cause
Score your cause on a 5-point scale:
Face
Urgency
Politics
Geography
Community
Project or
event
Face
• The “Face” of your campaign: is it
appealing?
• Celebrity not required
• Beauty not required
• Authenticity required
• Person or critter
• Logos can’t be the face of your
campaign
• Objects can’t be the face
Urgency
• The urgency: is there a native
reason people must act now?
• Boston Bombing v. American
Cancer Society
Politics
• Is your cause potentially divisive?
• Cancer v. Marriage Equality
Geography
Local v. Global
• Where is the project?
• Who benefits?
• Who funds it?
• Are the backers and recipients in
the same place?
• The closer the better!
Community
• Is your cause tied to a larger
community, religion or club?
–
–
–
–
–
Veterans
Football fans
Online gamers
Methodists
Rotarians
• Can you reach the community?
Project or Event
• Is there a specific project or
event to be funded?
– Construction project
– Service trip
– 10K Run
LiveMoreAwesome
Assessing Your Project
• Rate your project on a 0 – 5 point scale
for each of the four areas:
–
–
–
–
–
–
Face:
__________
Urgency:
__________
Politics:
__________
Geography: __________
Community: __________
Event:
__________
• Total:
__________
• A score above 25 has high potential to
reach beyond your personal network.
• A score below 15 is unlikely to reach far
beyond your network.
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Going Viral
• Reaching way beyond your network requires:
– Marketing budget
– Celebrity
– Passion among your friends, fans and followers
– Media attention (blogs, newspapers, radio and
television)
– Luck
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Platforms
•Indiegogo/Generosity
Fundly
Razoo
Crowdrise
StartSomeGood
Many others
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Platform Considerations
• Hundreds of platforms to
choose among
• Remember, the money comes
from your network—not the
platform’s
• Few people are browsing the
sites looking for places to
drop money
• There are thousands of
projects on each site
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Preparation
• The activity you see in a
crowdfunding campaign is a
fraction of the total work
• Start preparing in earnest 30 to
60 days before you launch your
campaign
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What to Prepare
• Build and organize teams
• Train your team
• Design your rewards/recognition
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Partners
• Your business partners
should be your
crowdfunding partners
• Get them committed
• No one person can carry
the whole team
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Fanatics
• People who will campaign
on your behalf
• Your mom
• Customers who already
love what you are doing
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Train the Team
• Train Your Partners
• Have your partners help
you train the Fanatics
• Teach everyone what you
are learning here
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Rewards
• Nothing but thanks
• Incentives
• Products
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Creative Appreciation
• For small donors, a simple,
automated email expressing
appreciation
• For large donors, be creative
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–
–
–
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Social media
YouTube
Your website
Your product
Product features
• Be careful to ensure that the
biggest donors get special
recognition in addition to standard
recognition
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Premium Priced Rewards
• Works for:
–
–
–
–
Causes
With creative appreciation
Social entrepreneurs
Launching a business with a
compelling new technology
• Use cheap things:
–
–
–
–
–
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Tee shirts
Posters
Downloads
Your current products
Your future products
Products
• Consumer-ready
• Appealing
• Buy one – give one
Setting Records
•$2.2 million
49,000 backers
(Indiegogo record)
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Vivienne – Make a Stand