Is your product/idea a candidate for crowd funding? Part II

By PATSY STODDARD Editor

What exactly is crowd funding? Brian Meece from RocketHub attended the Utah State University Business Conference to familiarize people with the process. He currently lives in New York and jokes he left the sticks for the stones. He’s been in New York for 10 years now.
Crowd funding can be used to raise money in communities to make projects happen.
One project successfully funded was a first film for an individual and $60,000 was raised to make it happen. A singer raised $100,000 to make her first CD.
Meece launched his company RocketHub in February of 2010 and they were acquired by the Efactor Group in April of 2015. His company helps get the word out about your product, service or project. Crowd funding is a powerful tool to make your project happen. It harnesses networks for funds, awareness and feedback.
Crowd funding is a new spin on an old idea. It’s an awareness and a brand builder. It relies on communities that will support things that are important to them.
Meece said public broadcasting has a number of sponsorship drives. Crowd funding is similar to this. People get involved in these pledge drives. “The world has never been more connected, for better or worse, that laid the network for crowd funding. Being in the right place at the right time,” said Meece.
“The press loves RocketHub and crowd funding projects. They make interesting stories. In 2012, I had an interesting phone call. We were partnering to fund a documentary for A&E. We met them and helped them start-up. Crowd funding makes dreams happen for creative entrepreneurs.”
Meece said letting the media tell your story increases your leverage in getting your name and brand out there. The secret sauce of crowd funding is a project/network/goods. The pattern is the same, the core components are the same for every project. For your project, be great, make a statement, tell why. You can get up and running on crowd funding without a lot of cost. There’s so much content coming out. We are bombarded with info, how can we cut through the wall of info overload? You need to shift people to an emotional state.
You need to get them excited about your product or project and excited about what you’re doing.
There are some university students who want to land a lunar rover on the moon and to be the first non-super power to do that. Lunar Lion from earth to the moon, they have raised over $170,000 so far. They came out swinging.
Meece told of his own first experiences with crowd funding. He wanted to have a band. He’s a ukulele player. He wanted to do a video to show everyone how it’s done and share it. His mom and brother donated.
But, he received valuable feed back. An old school mate said, “Hey Brian, I saw you play music in the senior talent show, you still play music, that’s cool. Best of luck, here’s $20.”
I was blasting it out, check out how cool my music is, but the feedback was, “I saw you play music in Flora-bama, I can’t believe you’re still doing it, Here’s $50 keep me posted.”
They weren’t interested in my music, they were interested in my story, not my music. Why am I doing this? It’s the why. I grew up with music. My wife is a musician, my kids are into music. It’s a fun outlet. “Tell people what it means, the relationship. I shifted it off of me. Here’s what it means for the community, then I started getting funding. I was picked up by ukulele blogs. I was picked up by a British magazine that did a story, CEO by day and Rock-n-Roll by night. It began to gain traction. It makes a good story, why you’re doing it.
Networking is like an online event. Look at crowd funding as an event, you’re trying to get more people to. Get people to say yes. Network and reach out to folks.
Andy Krafsur founded Spira Shoe Company and needed a half million to bring his new shoe design to reality. The story was picked up by the Wall Street Journal and Footlocker saw it and wanted to feature his product in their stores. “It’s about awareness, too, not just funding, getting recognized. You don’t have to raise the big bucks to do it. Get a network of supporters and reach out through grassroots efforts.
In crowd funding you need to give supporters some type of reward. Give them the ability to pick their level of support, anywhere between $20 to $100. You can do presales of products, presale albums, books, etc.
My friend, Ariel Hyatt, teaches entrepreneurs to use social media. She raised over $60,000 to begin an online course. For a $20 donation, she gave a digital version of her new book. A $50 donation was a signed copy of the book. For a $5,000 donation, you got a one on one session in New York. Goods and rewards.
For a $10 donation, I would send a CD and for a $20 donation, I would send a CD signed by the band and delivered to your door step with extra love and a Haiku poem, for $50, faces on the album cover like Sgt. Pepper’s, $100 a ukulele lesson and for $250 you could come and we would take you surfing with the band, $600 you could record a song, and $1,000 you could come and watch the magic happen in studio, for $5,000 you could be star of our video.
“We learned a lot. Have small, medium and large rewards. But, have more smalls than any other category.
For your funding page you need a catchy title. You need a financial goal and a time frame to reach that goal and a video. Include images, audio and a written description of what you’re doing and rewards. Most donations are between $5 to $50.
The video is mandatory. It doesn’t have to be super. Authenticity trumps slickness. Include images and the video should be one-three minutes long. Make sure the images are awesome, crisp and clean. Make sure the audio is relevant. Some people won’t watch the video. Tell the story and the facts. Some people won’t watch a video, so have some text with the same message.
After you have all that done, get people to commit, win your first followers, build dialogues, spiral out from there and tell the story, listen to feed back, meet the press and finish strong. Get people in the door, thank them for their support.
My friend at Spira listened to feedback which said to make plain white springpowered shoes and he did and it’s sold very well.
Ovation is working to build support for their art and the sponsorship of budding artists in all mediums. Build an audience.
My guitar player wanted to do an acoustic Armenian album, he raised $3,500. He played the guitar in his launch campaign and it was eclectic and cool. He got a call from the management for Lou Reed that was looking for a guitar player and he went to audition for them .
He called me on his way to the audition and said he was on his way there, then he calls back and says ‘I’m not going to play with the band this year, I’m going on tour with Lou Reed.’ Discoveries can happen, doors open, this type of marketing is real and the opportunities are real and wonderful.
RocketHub offers free resources on their website to get people started.
After you build a fan base you are off and running. It’s not a one and done process. Hopefully you’re gaining lifetime supporters and customers. Everyone has brands they love and support. Keep in touch with your supporters and keep them updated on your project. Check Efactor.com for help.
The fee charged to get on RocketHub and get your page and start your crowdfunding is a commission based model. The fees are in the 4-8 percent range. It’s free to launch, but fees are involved as the project begins to be funded.
There is a support line. supportrockethub.com
There are approximately 2,000 crowdfunding sites, many of them lack credibility. RocketHub is the third largest and most respected crowd funding on the planet said Meece.
The monies raised are taxable and you should consult a tax professional for help with that. It depends on what type of company you are, how much you raise, how much you giveaway.
Meece encouraged each business to have a newsletter and to pick a couple of social media sites to be involved with, you don’t have to be everywhere, but be somewhere. FaceBook, Linked In, Twitter, You-Tube channel. Be consistent and keep info updated. Keep posting so it doesn’t get stale.