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[Echelon Coverage] Crowd funding tips on how to fundraise from sites like Kickstarter

document Crowdfunding

[Echelon Coverage] Crowd funding tips on how to fundraise from sites like Kickstarter
by Joanna Yeo

Sourabh Sharman, Co-founder of Milaap, shares tips and advices for startups looking to do a business that involves crowdfunding. Milaap is an online platform that helps India’s working poor to crowd source for loans that will be used for gaining access to education, clean water, energy, etc.,

This post is part of the live coverage of Echelon 2012, Asia’s leading tech startup event happening on June 11 – 12. If you spot typos, slight inaccuracies or need more clarification, do leave a comment in the post and we’ll address it in the next edit.

Sourabh began the topic of crowd funding platforms by relating to two very popular crowd funding platform that we are all too familiar withKickstarter and Indiegogo. These are crowd funding websites that allow anyone with a project (creative or not) to display to the public for fund raising. Some of the successful stories include Pebble, the E-paper watch for iPhone and Android that has raised more than 10 million dollars. Also, Gtar, a fully digital guitar that makes it easy for anyone to play music has raised more than 300,000 thousand dollars. Both are projects on Kickstarter. Sourabh adds on that for every fully funded startup that emerges from such sites, at least nine other projects do not make it. If you have missed Sourabh’s keynote on crowd funding essentials, here’s a recap on his advices and tips for startups looking to crowd fund. Checklist for raising funds from the crowd: Make sure you are building a consumer product or service. Build something that users can touch, feel or use. Have a product that solves a common pain or is for a good cause. You should be really sure that you want to raise money from the crowd because this requires a lot of time, energy and effort. Before starting on a crowd funding campaign: Set a specific target and timeline for the campaign. Break the timeline down into how your consumers are going to get it, the minmum amount needed to be raised, etc. Create an awesome kickass video. Sourabh stresses that startups should not discount on this as videos can capture the essence of

the product that you are building and have higher engagement with the audience as compared to still images. Give tangible rewards to people. This includes giving beta invites, customised products, meet and greet with a celebrity etc. Seed the idea early to people before starting on the campaign. This can be done by getting your friends or family to support the campaign. It is important to have at least 50 people who are already committed at the start of the campaign. Once this is achieved, it will be easier to get the 51st, 52nd etc. person to contribute. During the crowd funding campaign: Keep talking to your supporters on your campaign page. E.g. post updates, videos, thank them. Once you start an online campaign, your private company has gone public. There is a need to be more social and connected to your fans. The main idea is to make them into evangelists so that they can spread how awesome your product is. Get the buzz going. This can be done by starting small from having media interviews to getting bloggers to write about your product. After the product is more ready, get the ‘big guys’ (e.g. print media) to feature the product. Nevertheless, even after achieving all the above discussed points, Sourabh added that up till here, there is still no confirmation that your product is a good one.

Summary
Sourabh Sharman, Co-founder of Milaap, shares tips and advices for startups looking to do a business that involves crowdfunding. Milaap is an online platform that helps India’s working poor to crowdsource for loans that will be used for gaining access to education, clean water, energy, etc.,

Description
Here are Sourabh Sharman's advices and tips for startups looking to crowdfund:

Checklist for raising funds from the crowd:

-Make sure you are building a consumer product or service.
-Build something that users can touch,feel or use.
-Have a product that solves a common pain or is for a good cause.
-You should be really sure that you want to raise money from the crowd because this requires a lot of time,energy and effort.

Before starting on a crowdfunding campaign:

-Set a specific target and timeline for the campaign.
-Create an awesome kickass video.
-Give tangible rewards to people.

Tags: Crowdfunding, Crowdsource, Crowdsourcing, joanna yeo, Kickstarter, milaap, Sourabh Sharman

Posted by Pablo Braccini

Jun 13, 2012 12:57 pm GMT Viewed 901 times

Author: Joanna Yeo Source

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[Echelon Coverage] Crowd funding tips on how to fundraise from sites like Kickstarter

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