Discussion
Currently trying to do some crowdfunding for a community interest company that I'm setting up.
The current platform is US based and all it's doing is generating spammy offers to "make a great campaign even better" from parasites who will post on Facebook, Twitter etc. for a fee.
Two questions - does anyone have any tips for making the campaign actually generate some capital
and does anyone know of a UK or European based platform which would be suitable to raise initial capital for a CIC ?
There's no product involved, just a service.
The current platform is US based and all it's doing is generating spammy offers to "make a great campaign even better" from parasites who will post on Facebook, Twitter etc. for a fee.
Two questions - does anyone have any tips for making the campaign actually generate some capital
and does anyone know of a UK or European based platform which would be suitable to raise initial capital for a CIC ?
There's no product involved, just a service.
It's a long and complicated story, but in a nutshell - most digital evidence units are struggling to cope with the rate of change of technology and need an additional resource to do little bits of R&D for them. Currently, they can try to outsource to private sector or universities, but finding the right people to do the work, and getting it approved at the right price is causing delays and some work just isn't being done, or is being replicated - thus wasting time, effort and money. The projects are too small for normal funding, and applying for funding introduces extra delays (sometimes we need to know the answers within a week or two because of court requirements).
So, the plan is to set up a community interest company to act as the co-ordinator and to provide the funds for the bits of work that need to be done. We need some capital to set things up and then it will move to an annual subscription model until such time as we can eliminate that through IP licensing and product sales. It's a CIC to provide a guarantee that all profits go back into activities which benefit the community.
Ultimately, we'd like to see a network of these CICs (or equivalents) around the globe.
I've had many, many, meetings with the community, from law enforcement, private sector, academia etc. and had nothing but support from them. They agree that the problems are there and are keen to use this as a way to overcome them and improve the situation. We're actually running our first small proof-of-concept R&D project now (and that is being done on consultancy basis so we will get some cash in from it).
Cash needed is a bit of a guess, but I've set an initial target of around £10k as a sensible sum to let us get things up and running. Restricted as to which platform I can use due to the lack of an obvious end-product, but Indiegogo accepts projects of this type. Now I'm being spammed by parasitic "social media experts".
So, the plan is to set up a community interest company to act as the co-ordinator and to provide the funds for the bits of work that need to be done. We need some capital to set things up and then it will move to an annual subscription model until such time as we can eliminate that through IP licensing and product sales. It's a CIC to provide a guarantee that all profits go back into activities which benefit the community.
Ultimately, we'd like to see a network of these CICs (or equivalents) around the globe.
I've had many, many, meetings with the community, from law enforcement, private sector, academia etc. and had nothing but support from them. They agree that the problems are there and are keen to use this as a way to overcome them and improve the situation. We're actually running our first small proof-of-concept R&D project now (and that is being done on consultancy basis so we will get some cash in from it).
Cash needed is a bit of a guess, but I've set an initial target of around £10k as a sensible sum to let us get things up and running. Restricted as to which platform I can use due to the lack of an obvious end-product, but Indiegogo accepts projects of this type. Now I'm being spammed by parasitic "social media experts".
for £10K funding - I would consider a 'family and friends' round - i.e. private investors...
there are enough people who culd afford that as loose change - start by networking from those who have an interest in the end result...
I suspect that a big part of the issue is that those who believe in what you are trying to do are professionals who don't hang out with spare cash on crowd funding sites, and those who do don't understand what you are doing / would rather splash some cash on a sexy new electronic gizmo...
alternatively - consider whether you could find 10 potential future users to sign up £1k each giving them some benefit beyond the 1k and your results - you need to pull together the overlap between:
- an interest in your being successful
- some cash
- an understanding of what you are doing
those who see no personal benefit / have no understanding will not support any venture on any platform
there are enough people who culd afford that as loose change - start by networking from those who have an interest in the end result...
I suspect that a big part of the issue is that those who believe in what you are trying to do are professionals who don't hang out with spare cash on crowd funding sites, and those who do don't understand what you are doing / would rather splash some cash on a sexy new electronic gizmo...
alternatively - consider whether you could find 10 potential future users to sign up £1k each giving them some benefit beyond the 1k and your results - you need to pull together the overlap between:
- an interest in your being successful
- some cash
- an understanding of what you are doing
those who see no personal benefit / have no understanding will not support any venture on any platform
TooLateForAName said:
This does sound like something that would be best done as a collaborative effort from the likely service users.
How about running a small conference to get people together and try to thrash out details/requirements?
Already done that. We're at a stage now where we need a little cash to be able to run a "loss leader"/proof of concept to demonstrate the model works so that the service users can get the budget controllers to authorise expenditure. (chicken, egg, egg, chicken).How about running a small conference to get people together and try to thrash out details/requirements?
creationracing said:
EDIT - Apologies in advance for the thread hijack....
I'm also keen to get some thoughts on this topic. I know of a girl who's a very talented artist, used to work doing ceramic art for a swimming pool company, but lives in a s
t area, hasn't had work for 10 months and doesn't have two pennies to rub together.
She has, however, found out that her skills transfer over to cake baking very well. And I don't mean a dry victoria sponge. I mean things like sculptures that are 6ft high and look amazing. She's got herself a business mentor and wants to set up to do it for a living, but needs £2500 for some stock and a decent size oven.
Now, she's started a GoFundMe campaign, but has only managed to raise about £200 as I'd imagine most of her chums are in the same financial boat. I do some freelance copywriting so I've said I'll do her a free press release but she's had such a bad reaction to her funding campaign that she's not sure. She's had friends and friends-of-friends getting in touch giving her dreadful abuse saying that GoFundMe is for charity causes only and it's disgusting that she's trying to use it to better herself.
Christ, the poor girl's just looking forward to the day she can sign off the dole and do some work, she's not trying to raise money to go on holiday or buy a telly.
Thoughts? Will trying to attract attention to the campaign with a press release only lead to more abuse?
She should look to other forms of crowdfunding to see how much interest there is in the products and services she is offering.I'm also keen to get some thoughts on this topic. I know of a girl who's a very talented artist, used to work doing ceramic art for a swimming pool company, but lives in a s
t area, hasn't had work for 10 months and doesn't have two pennies to rub together.She has, however, found out that her skills transfer over to cake baking very well. And I don't mean a dry victoria sponge. I mean things like sculptures that are 6ft high and look amazing. She's got herself a business mentor and wants to set up to do it for a living, but needs £2500 for some stock and a decent size oven.
Now, she's started a GoFundMe campaign, but has only managed to raise about £200 as I'd imagine most of her chums are in the same financial boat. I do some freelance copywriting so I've said I'll do her a free press release but she's had such a bad reaction to her funding campaign that she's not sure. She's had friends and friends-of-friends getting in touch giving her dreadful abuse saying that GoFundMe is for charity causes only and it's disgusting that she's trying to use it to better herself.
Christ, the poor girl's just looking forward to the day she can sign off the dole and do some work, she's not trying to raise money to go on holiday or buy a telly.
Thoughts? Will trying to attract attention to the campaign with a press release only lead to more abuse?
Create a Kickstarter or Indiegogo page for her. Maybe even an Etsy account. List the services she wants to offer, if she can get some photos of work she's done before, etc even better. Once the page is set up, market it. Post on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, anywhere where her intended audience/customer might see it. She should use this Kickstarter/Indiegogo page as effectively a pre-order service.
If she can't get any pre-orders then she's failed at marketing herself and needs to think about either a different product/service or a different market, or both.
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