Browsing Category
Crowdfunding
17 posts
10 Tips on Running a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign for New Entrepreneurs
Over the past decade, crowdfunding has revolutionized the way startups generate capital and secure investment. In fact, in 2019, the global crowdfunding market reached a massive $13.93 billion, with this figure estimated to triple to $39 billion by 2026. It’s no surprise then that everyone wants to get in on the action, and today, there...
14 Funding Tips From Entrepreneurs Who’ve Been There
As an entrepreneur, what is your best tip to secure funding for a startup? To help you with securing funding for your startup, we asked small business owners and entrepreneurs this question for their best strategies. From using commercial finance brokers to finding value-aligned investors, here's advice that may help you fund your startup. Here...
Crowdfunding is on the Rise: Here’s What That Means for Entrepreneurs
It's fair to say that starting a business is bittersweet, especially in 2021. On one hand, it's exciting to realize your entrepreneurial dream, but on the other hand, common challenges like raising business capital can discourage entrepreneurs from progressing a business venture. However, even during the pandemic, new business applications were at an all-time high. By...
Ask the Experts: Armando Ojeda, Angela Barbash, and Marcia Dawood on StartupNation Radio
On this week's episode of StartupNation Radio, Jeff speaks with StartupNation's subject matter experts from SCORE Mentors: Armando Ojeda, Angela Barbash, and Marcia Dawood. Tune in to the full StartupNation Radio show with Ojeda, Barbash and Dawood to learn about the SCORE Mentors program and hear about each mentor's unique experiences: This episode is co-hosted...
WJR Business Beat with Jeff Sloan: Angel Funding In Our Local Startup Ecosystem (Episode 273)
On today's Business Beat, Jeff explains the importance of angel investors, featuring a few words from Dan Bober, a successful local angel investor in the Detroit and Southeastern Michigan area. Tune in to the Business Beat, below, to learn more about the why you should source angel investors for your startup: Tune in to News/Talk...
Female Founders, Get Funding Now with These 4 Alternatives to VC
In 2019, venture capital investment into U.S. startups nearly doubled from $88 billion to $144 billion. So, while it comes as no surprise that 2019 was also a record year for female founders securing these dollars, many would be shocked to learn this funding amounted to a mere 3.4% at its all-time high. It would...
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Crowdfunding for Entrepreneurs
If you need capital to get your business started, you might turn to crowdfunding to raise those funds. Reaching out to venture capitalists and angel investors is stressful; you’ll need a pitch deck, there’s no guarantee you’ll get the funding you want, and even if you do, you may have to give up a portion...
5 Ways That a Kickstarter Campaign Can Launch You Into Retail
Seven months. That's how long it took from the day our Kickstarter campaign ended until we were delivering a purchase order to Toys R Us. And soon after came Bed Bath & Beyond, Hobby Lobby and Michaels, distributing our invention called Walkie Chalk, a standup sidewalk chalk holder that allows you to “Stand Up and...
Perfect Your Pitch to Exceed Your Crowdfunding Campaign Goal
SunPort is a solar startup that blew its crowdfunding goal out of the water by promising to deliver solar energy to anyone with access to an outlet. SunPort’s Kickstarter campaign exceeded its goal by more than $45,000. This precipitated attention from Forbes, earned the company the Consumer Electronics Startup Award and placed it in Best...
How to Calculate Crowdfunding Shipping and Fulfillment Costs
In recent years, crowdfunding has become one of the most common methods of funding startups. According to CrowdExpert, global crowdfunding is a $34 billion industry with peer-to-peer lending of $25 billion, reward-and-donation crowdfunding of $5.5 billion and equity crowdfunding of $2.5 billion. When startups choose reward-and-donation crowdfunding, a well-planned backer reward shipping and fulfillment system...
What to Do When Your Startup’s Crowdfunding Campaign Fails
Did you try but fail to raise money through crowdfunding? While crowdfunding is a great idea in theory, in execution, only 35 percent of Kickstarter projects earn the requested amount of money. If your campaign is unsuccessful the first time around, you still have plenty of great options to raise the money that your startup...
How to Make a Killer Crowdfunding Campaign Video [Book Excerpt]
The following is excerpted from "The Crowdsourceress: Get Smart, Get Funded and Kickstart Your Next Big Idea," by Alex Daly. Copyright © 2017. Available from PublicAffairs, an imprint of Perseus Books, LLC, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group, Inc. At our core, humans are storytelling machines. We connect best to an idea when it has...
How to Create a Viral Crowdfunding Video Campaign in 8 Steps
Numbers don’t lie. Statistics at Kickstarter show that crowdfunding video campaigns have a higher than average success rate of getting funded. According to Kickstarter’s numbers, campaigns that have videos are 85 percent more likely to hit their funding goals. In short, to ensure your video campaign goes viral, it must be interesting and engaging enough to...
Social Finance and Retirement Account Loans
The world of finance for entrepreneurs and startups has gradually been changing since the last recession with alternative lending platforms and programs that illustrate the potential beyond the traditional funding sources. Now that new government regulations are recognizing the economic benefits that the startup boom is bringing, there is more space for new ways to get...
Fintech, Venture Capital and Your Company
Venture capitalists have moved on from social media apps and photo filters. The new interest is financial services, especially lending. This may create new options for small businesses looking for new sources of funding. The PwC/NVCA MoneyTree Report of Venture Capital shows that financial services investments are a strong part of the overall venture capital...
How to Engage Your Community in a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign
Connecting with an engaged online community is key to a successful crowdfunding campaign. But it’s not enough to just gather followers and share your campaign. Once you’ve identified your community, it’s helpful to fine-tune your message by sorting your fans into one of three communities as outlined below. Each of these communities is looking for...
What Small Businesses Should Know About Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding is the most exciting area of business fundraising these days. Instead of presenting financials to bankers, companies bring their product ideas to potential customers and ask for commitments. Kickstarter, the largest crowdfunding platform, had 101,010 projects funded between the company’s founding on April 28, 2009 and February 29, 2016. The site represented 285,277 projects...