Marathons make me cry. Watching human excellence and people striding (seemingly) effortlessly towards the finish line is inspiring. The real meat of the emotion however comes not from the people who are finishing sub 3 or even sub 4 hours times but with the people who are really striving and suffering over the last miles later in the day. It is watching these people that makes me give pause and appreciate not only the human spirit but more the compassion of large groups of people.

This past Monday I stood watching the Boston                                                                              marathon with my wife and baby on an amazing sunny day. After watching the trickle of elite runners grow to a steady flow of humanity made up of every age and body shape, the crowd along the final mile changed from cheering with admiration to cheering in support. You could feel it when a runner would slow and walk, the crowd would redouble its volume and focus its energy to drive the runner to keep going. This support of the crowd was punctuated by moments of individual kindness, one such moment occurred when a marathoner who looked to be in his 50s stopped and put his hands on his knees as he crossed Newbury street, a moment later a woman running in a wonder woman costume stopped spoke to the man took his hand and they continued running together.

These moments continued to occur as we walked up Hereford Street and down Boylston towards the finish line where a few short moments later the energy of a very small number of individuals amplified by sickness and hate would tear through the joy and compassion of thousands and–through them–a nation.

In the aftermath of this horrible attack I, like many, have been left with all of the confusion and emotion that one would expect to experience having been near such an event: Relief that my family was unharmed and anguish over those that I rubbed shoulders with that were not so lucky. Through this one feeling has grown–my faith and appreciation for the compassion of large groups of people. Not only in the cheering crowds and the runner in the wonder woman outfit in the sun and subsequently the courageous bystanders and first responders in the smoke but of the 1000′s of people who are part of the online crowd helping to find the perpetrators.

The police and FBI have relied on the power of the crowd to provide them with video and images of the event to turn up evidence and beyond that people all over the world are using Reddit as a center for putting up pictures and analyzing them to try and turn up information or details that could help in the investigation. While there are concerns about this data gathering and analysis turning into a witch hunt I think that it is a hugely powerful tool that the public can use to support rather than hinder the authorities investigation. After all this is not a new phenomenon; in its 23 years on air America’s Most Wanted used the power of the crowd to capture 1203 fugitives. What is happening on Reddit is just the next generation of citizens seeing something and saying something.

There has been a lot of sentiment about the goodness of the citizens of Boston and beyond since the bombing but I think one of the best things said was by Patton Oswalt, an actor, who posted his feelings to Facebook which at its core said that human goodness

“is beyond religion or creed or nation. We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We’d have eaten ourselves alive long ago.
So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, “The good outnumber you, and we always will.”

It is for this reason that we here at Launcht will continue to create systems that support the wisdom, goodness and power of large groups of good people and help to foster the selfless goodness shown by the runner in the wonder woman outfit on that beautiful and horrible Monday morning.

This is the second in a series of posts on the topic of how to start a successful crowdfunding platform. Launcht is in the unique position of powering more crowdfunding platforms than any other company in the industry. From our 60+ clients we have learned a few things that we would like to share with any startup portals, nonprofits, or universities starting their own crowdfunding or crowdvoting platform. This post will focus on initial outreach and marketing strategies.

The importance of outreach for crowdfunding success is stressed by writers, bloggers, and crowdfunding afficianados across the internet, but always in the context of crowdfunding campaigns. It is clear that the secret sauce in campaign success is not so secret–campaign managers need a social media presence and a plan for driving as much traffic to their project as quickly as possible to engage the crowd and reach their goal. Campaign managers need to build hype even before their campaign launches. What is often not stated is that this is equally important for new platforms. To rise above the noise of Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, new platforms must reach out to those in their target vertical and prove their value before they launch. There are two reasons outreach is incredibly important for platforms, especially in their initial stages: building buzz in the community and attracting campaigns.

Building buzz in the community

Kickstarter and IndieGoGo are household names for anyone who knows anything about crowdfunding, but they are not the only platforms out there and they do not serve every market. To get people to your site, think about what you do differently–are you targeting a specific niche, supporting a specific region, or offering a special twist on an old model? Go back to your business model and consider your goals; these should affect the way you market your platform. If you are offering Value-Added Services, think about how to best use them to leverage your platform. If you are running a business plan competition, think about who should apply to be on the site and what you will offer the winners.

Most importantly, think about what distinguishes you and makes your site a better option for campaigns and for funders. Be able to explain the need your platform addresses in 30 seconds or less. This is your elevator pitch. Now you can construct your marketing approach by building upon your mission. Take some time to consider your target audience, and be as narrow as possible, as this will help you reach out to specific people.

Once you have established your mission and target audience, consider how to best approach that target group. If you are well connected in the community you are trying to attract, plan ways to do personal outreach. Beginning with personal outreach is important, both to prove the viability of your model to people face-to-face and to get great feedback and ensure engagement. Once you have started doing personal outreach and generating buzz, you can expand your marketing focus. Reach out to bloggers on sites that target your community; find LinkedIn groups and Facebook groups that attract the people you are looking to bring together; send out Tweets with relevant hashtags to let people know you’re joining the space; throw a party for potential supporters and campaigns; go directly to businesses where supporters might be patrons and ask them to spread the word or put up fliers. Combine personal outreach with a well-strategized social media campaign as you lead up to your platform launch.

Attracting Campaigns

Sometimes people begin platforms with great intentions, but forget to find campaigns to populate their site. Do not assume that people will come upon your platform on their own. Before you launch, line up campaigns who will jump on the platform as soon as it goes live. These will not only make your site look attractive and populated, they will spread word about your platform to all of their networks, building the hype about what you are doing. Campaigns are the lifeblood of a successful platform, so it is important to constantly put effort into courting new campaigns to go live on your site. Provide them with success guides and advice along with the support they need to get up and running. The benefit of running a new platform is similar to that of running a small business– you can provide personal support that new campaigns want but cannot get from the bigger names in the space. If you can build a good rapport with your campaigns, word will likely spread about your service, bringing more applicants to your site.

The bottom line is that as you put your platform together, you must think about not only the technology, but also the marketing. Consider offline and online marketing strategies. You should feel fully confident in your business model and your “crowd” before you go live.

To Summarize, plan to loosely follow these steps to find success when you launch:

• Step One: Define the problem your platform is addressing
• Step Two: Define your target audience for campaigns
• Step Three: Define your target audience for funders
• Step Four: Create a multifaceted marketing strategy that will get word out to these specific groups about what your platform is going to do to drive interest; the more personal you can get the better
• Step Five: (optional) Have a soft launch to test your platform with a small group and get feedback
• Step Six: Have a big final push and go live!

On Tuesday, March 12, Daily Dot posed the question, “Can crowdfunding kickstart struggling cities?” The article discussed the adverse funding conditions local governments face today; it posits that crowdfunding allows citizens to fund public projects themselves, thereby bypassing government funding woes. Already, some local campaigns have proven highly successful, such as BikeShareKC’s Kansas City B-Cycle program, which raised over $400,000 on neighbor.ly to institute a bike-share program in the city. Campaigns like these show that even without the JOBS Act people are willing to invest in their communities. The reasons that civic crowdfunding will work–and will be good for communities and for the country–abound:

• These projects are already vetted: people are likely to know someone associated with a project if they fund projects within their communities, which greatly decreases any concerns about fraud. Fraud is unlikely when community ties are close and when projects are run by community leaders rather than outside investors.
• Civic projects allow invested citizens to start projects, rally support, and get things done without having to wait for votes on tax increases or for local governments to find–often nonexistent–spare funds. It decreases political pressures and stress around taxation and allows the people affected by the project to invest and those who aren’t interested to feel free from any pressure.
• Crowdfunding allows communities to pinpoint their needs and then immediately address them; in the process it also encourages communities to come together around solutions rather than arguing about problems.
• Communities are great spaces for experimentation. Community projects can test big ideas on a small scale to see if they are viable; once proven, projects can continually be scaled up and adopted more widely while still be individualized to the needs of each community.
• Civic engagement and projects can improve communities and make citizens and businesses more invested in them. This can potentially lead to an increase in small businesses coming into the community. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses (<500 employees) generated 65% of new jobs in the United States over about the last 20 years. Forbes contents that startup businesses are particularly important in this statistic. Using crowdfunding to support new and local businesses can help spur job creation within those communities and improve local economies.
• Civic crowdfunding also allows businesses to give back to the communities that have supported them. In the case of the Kansas City B-Cycle program, they raised over $400,000 from only 28 donors, some of which were businesses.

In the future we expect to see community crowdfunding expand on two fronts: civic projects and local businesses, and we expect both of these sectors will particularly take off after the SEC releases the JOBS Act regulations and equity crowdfunding becomes legal. In the meantime, it is already clear that crowdfunding has a lot to offer communities that want to invest in local improvements and new businesses. For more information on the state of crowdfunding for civic projects, click here.

This is the first in a series of posts on the topic of how to start a successful crowdfunding platform. Launcht is in the unique position of powering more new crowdfunding platforms than anyone else in the field of crowdfunding platform software. From our 45+ clients we have learned a few things that we would like to share with anyone starting their own crowdfunding or crowdvoting platform. This post will focus on refining your business model.

Business Model
First, honestly, decide if you are trying to start a viable business. Many people who create crowdfunding platforms don’t intend to make money from them, they are quite happy to simply be the go-to destination for a specific community, competition, or niche. That’s their goal. Others have big dreams and are reaching for big impact with big dollar signs ahead of them. Search yourself and figure out where you are on this continuum.

Not about the money
If you’re focused on becoming a go-to destination, then don’t charge extra fees on top of the required credit card transaction fees. Don’t charge an application fee. Focus instead on building buzz and getting a handful of quality projects on your platform to begin building momentum. Use each story told in those first campaigns to garner earned media attention from the most relevant bloggers and reporters in your market. Consider offline events and services to complement your platform and get your name heard by the people who should be using your platform. For what it’s worth, aside from the fees part, this focus on earned media and getting heard in your market goes for the financially motivated platforms as well.

About the money
If you want to make money, then you need to be sober about the facts. Do some back of the Continue reading →