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The crowdfunding industry is growing, and Sarasota entrepreneur John Montelione wants area entrepreneurs to consider how crowdfunding might help them launch a product.
Montelione led a Manasota SCORE workshop June 27 about crowdfunding, which he defined as “the practice of raising small amounts of money from a large number of people.” He focused on rewards-based crowdfunding platforms, such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo.
Montelione says it's important to pick the right platform — some specialize in certain types of crowdfunding projects. He suggests reading the mission statements of various crowdfunding platforms to determine which one might be the best fit.
But don't expect a get-rich-quick scenario, Montelione cautions. He says 60 to 31 days out before the launch of a crowdfunding campaign, an organizer should expect to spend two to four hours a day on the project. The time intensifies as the project gets closer to launch.
Each crowdfunding campaign has an online page with details for potential funders. That can include a funding goal, a mission statement, a story about how the project developed, a video, specific rewards related to the project for people who contribute and a credit card processing setup.
Every good crowdfunding campaign needs a team, Montelione says. He suggests recruiting friends and family members as team members. “Reach out to a core group of individuals and get them to reach out to their friends and families and on and on,” he says. “You're creating a movement, creating a tribe.”
He also recommends signing up for an online project management tool such as Basecamp to organize the initiative. “Don't have people involved in something that's not organized,” he says.
Another key to a good crowdfunding project is to temper expectations. While there are some big success stories of people who've raised millions of dollars through crowdfunding campaigns, those, for the most part, are outliers. “People aren't raising lots of money, they're raising some money to get their project going,” Montelione says.
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