Today's podcast guest was able to raise over $400,000 with two successful product-based Kickstarter campaigns, and guess what? He's not an engineer!

In our interview, Jake shared how crowdfunding has transformed his business and the exact steps that he took to get backers. You'll even discover why email list segmentation translated into a surge of pledges!

Get the full episode for free (with resources) on my website!

Sponsors

• The Gadget Flow: Their product discovery platform reaches 22 million people per month! They’ve helped more than 5,000 crowdfunding campaigns and have a social media following of more than 700,000 followers. 
• Fulfillrite: Kickstarter and crowdfunding reward fulfillment services. They come highly recommended!
• BackerKit helps crowdfunders with the survey and order fulfillment process. Don’t buried in spreadsheets and manual data entry!

You can get the original episode of the show here, along with the show notes.

Sponsors

• The Gadget Flow: Their product discovery platform reaches 22 million people per month! They’ve helped more than 5,000 crowdfunding campaigns and have a social media following of more than 700,000 followers. 
• Fulfillrite: Kickstarter and crowdfunding reward fulfillment services. They come highly recommended!
• BackerKit helps crowdfunders with the survey and order fulfillment process. Don’t buried in spreadsheets and manual data entry!

This team is defying the odds!

Straight out of college, they raised $82,207 with their first Kickstarter campaign, despite having ZERO social media followers.

Then, they went on to raise $314,54 with their second Kickstarter campaign, even though they only had a 2 week pre-launch period.

Believe it or not, but they hit their goal in the first 2 hours!

You can get the show notes for this episode here.

Sponsors

• Fulfillrite: Kickstarter and crowdfunding reward fulfillment services. They come highly recommended!
• The Gadget Flow: Their product discovery platform reaches 22 million people per month! They’ve helped more than 5,000 crowdfunding campaigns and have a social media following of more than 700,000 followers. 
• BackerKit helps crowdfunders with the survey and order fulfillment process. Don’t buried in spreadsheets and manual data entry!

Get the show notes from this episode of the Crowdfunding Demystified Podcast here!

This episode's sponsors:

• Fulfillrite: Kickstarter and crowdfunding reward fulfillment services. They come highly recommended!
• BackerKit helps crowdfunders with the survey and order fulfillment process. Don’t buried in spreadsheets and manual data entry!

On Episode #138 of the Crowdfunding Demystified Podcast, I've answered a question that was submitted by Seccad of the Frasuli Books Kickstarter campaign.

Get the full show notes here.

Today's episode of the Crowdfunding Demystified podcast is an Ask Sal episode where listeners submit their questions and I answer them.

You can gain access to the complete episode here.

This episode first appeared on CrowdCrux. Get the full episode here. If you enjoyed the episode, be sure to rate the show on iTunes! 

You're about to listen to a historic interview! Today, I spoke with a crowdfunding wizard, who has raised $7.3 million on Indiegogo with two campaigns, and $1.3 million on Kickstarter. You can get the full episode here. 

Let's talk about equity crowdfunding for video games! Get the full episode on CrowdCrux here.

On episode #133 of the Crowdfunding Demystified podcast, I brought on Nathan Rose, the director of Assemble Advisory and the author of the new book, Equity Crowdfunding: The Complete Guide for Startups and Growing Companies.

You can listen to the entire episode with all of the show notes on CrowdCrux.com here. 

You can check out the full podcast and blog post here. You'll get access to the show notes and more!

If you enjoyed this episode, take a sec to rate the podcast on iTunes and subscribe!

You can get the entire episode here on CrowdCrux. 

If you enjoyed it, can you take a sec to subscribe to the podcast OR rate it on iTunes? 

You can get the show with the show notes and resources here on CrowdCrux.

Would you mind leaving an iTunes review? 

That would mean a lot :)

Thank you,

Sal

Get the full episode on CrowdCrux here. 

Can you take a sec to rate the show on iTUnes? 

- Sal

I always love getting emails from readers and listeners who say that CrowdCrux was a big help as they’ve been preparing for their Kickstarter launch.

Recently, I got an email from Ben, the cofounder of the Koala Hoodie. He said, “I hope you’re very well and your September has got off to a great start! My name is Ben and I’ve been listening to your podcast for around a year now and I wanted to really thank you for putting so much useful information out there for crowdfunders – you’ve helped me out a lot!”

Get the rest of the story here.

You can find the full episode with show notes at CrowdCrux.com here.

I hope you enjoy the episode! If you do, can you take a sec to rate the podcast on iTunes? Thanks!

- Sal

This podcast episode originally appeared on CrowdCrux.com here. Don't forget to rate the podcast in iTunes if you enjoyed it!

Get the show notes for this episode here. Don't forget to rate and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes!

This podcast first appeared on CrowdCrux.com as part of 'The Future of Equity Crowdfunding" post.

If you enjoyed this episode, take a sec to rate it on iTunes or Stitcher!

Rita Tapia asked a great question on the Crowdfunding Demystified podcast! She recently launched a crowdfunding campaign and is wondering how she can get more funding and backers for her creative project.

Get the episode here. Crowdfunding tips on YouTube. CrowdCrux blog. 

This podcast first appeared here on the CrowdCrux blog. Don't forget to subscribe and rate us on iTunes!

This podcast episode first appeared here as part of the CrowdCrux blog. Don't forget to rate us on iTunes!

This podcast first appeared on Crowdcrux.com. You can check it out here. 

This podcast first appeared on CrowdCrux.com. You can listen to the podcast and see the show notes here. 

Launching a comic book Kickstarter campaign isn't as easy as it looks. In fact, Einar Petersen, a member of the CrowdCrux community has been struggling with his campaign and asked my advice as to how to improve it.

This article first appeared on CrowdCrux as part of the CrowdCrux blog. My name's Sal and can't wait for you to listen to it!

This post originally appeared on CrowdCrux.com

Jchon Perkins is a fan of CrowdCrux and the Crowdfunding Demystified podcast. He submitted a question asking how I and other consultants can help his upcoming crowdfunding campaign.

"Hi! My name is Jchon and I had an idea that I'm working on. I listened to an interview that you did with Rose Spinelli, which was a great interview and I'm trying to hire her, but one thing I noticed is that she doesn't manage campaigns. That is one of the things that I'm looking for, so I was going to see if you did anything like this and if I can send you over the idea."

This episode first appeared on CrowdCrux.com

Martin Kocher is a member of the CrowdCrux community and listener of the Crowdfunding Demystified podcast. He's preparing for the launch of a crowdfunding campaign and wants to learn more about Facebook. Here's his question:

"Is promoting your Facebook page worth it, or is there any other services that I can use to maximize the traffic that I get to my Facebook pag

This post first appeared on CrowdCrux here.

This podcast originally appeared on CrowdCrux.com.

Today, Daniele asked how I can help with his crowdfunding campaign. Daniele is a member of the CrowdCrux community and has been working on his Kickstarter campaign.

"Hello. I'm Daniele. I'm very curious about how you can help me with my campaign Carbon SUV e-bike on Kickstarter. We have a very limited budget. We are in the middle of the campaign and are not sure if we're going to reach our goal."

This podcast episode first appeared on CrowdCrux.com.

Today’s question was submitted by Erika Hanna, a member of the growing CrowdCrux community!

“Hi Sal. I’m a little concerned about my Kickstarter. I launched it yesterday at 1pm and so far we are at $600 and my goal is set to $20,000.

I was wondering if you think it has anything to do with the market. Do you think that Kickstarter is a good platform to launch a fashion conscious brand?”

This show first appeared on CrowdCrux.com. You can access the show notes and mentioned resources there!

"Hi Sal, my name is Bart and I'd like to know how you go about educating people about crowdfunding on Facebook or Twitter. The other day I asked people on my Facebook wall if they had any experience with crowdfunding and out of 1,900 friends, I got just a couple of responses. I'd be curious to hear what your answer is."

Full episode with links: http://wp.me/p2TAu9-2OZ

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• What it’s like as a female entrepreneur in Silicon Valley.
• The exact strategy they used to get on the Huffington Post, Vanity Fair, and more.
• Why email and Facebook were the MOST important sources of pledges.
• How the team got people on their email list (4,000 people).
• A SECRET goal the team had for the campaign.

Get the full episode: http://wp.me/p2TAu9-2OQ

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How the changing equity crowdfunding landscape is changing
• What the team did to attract $6 million in test-the-waters reservations
• How David built a hyper growth company.
• Where to start if you’re a beginning entrepreneur

Listen to the podcast with bonus resources: http://wp.me/p2TAu9-2OK

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How Evan’s helped make self-made millionaires on Indiegogo
• The highest converting source of pledges
• How to build an email list
• How much funding should a creator expect from the Indiegogo marketplace
• The secret of gogofactor
• Insights from over $45 million worth of crowdfunding

Get the full episode with links here: http://wp.me/p2TAu9-2Op

Today's question was asked by HamiltonPerkins.com:

"We have a mailing list of 700 people that we've accumulated prior to launch. Our question is now that we're live, what is your advice for maximizing the pledges with the list and our own network." 

“Hi Salvador. This is Hannah with Sublicious Farms. We’re a mushroom farm in Florida and we’re preparing our Kickstarter campaign right now. We’re trying to set up a distribution center so that we can set up local mushroom farms all over the country.

We’re trying to figure out when’s the best time to launch, how much we need to have prepared, the posts that we’ll need on social media, and what you have to do right then and there after you launch.”

Hope you enjoy my answer and don’t forget to leave your feedback on iTunes!

Recently, Kyle Koster reached out to me about a proven strategy that he developed to launch several successful Kickstarter campaigns.

His email read, "I've enjoyed following CrowdCrux and some of the articles you've posted over the past few years. I started a guitar accessory company called Hogjim: Music Imports on Kickstarter a while back and we were in contact...

I have a bunch of experience from my guitar accessory company and living in Hong Kong for a few years as well as now handcrafting products in the USA!"

Long story short, I invited him on the podcast to talk about his approach to raising money on Kickstarter. Remember, he didn't just do this once. He did it FOUR times with different campaigns in different industries.

Anddd it's another "Ask Sal" podcast episode!! Since I don't really do consulting, this section of the podcast gives me an opportunity to directly answer reader and listener questions.

Tony Lialin asked:

"Hi Sal. I have a software product. I'll be on Kickstarter in 20 days and I'm curious if there are any tactics in particular for software that worked better on a Kickstarter vs a tangible product. I'm curious what your advice might be."

This is an Ask Sal podcast episode, where you submit your questions and I answer them!

Today’s question is about IP (intellectual property). How much time should you spend worrying about IP? How should you market your product when you don’t yet have a patent?

I cover this and more in today’s reply.

Let me preface this by saying that I’m not a lawyer and this reply is just my opinion. I recommend consulting a lawyer if you want accurate answers to questions about IP.

Yesss! It's another "Ask Sal" episode, where you submit your questions and I answer them! Todays question was asked by Lisa from TurtleMoonPress.com:

"I have a Kickstarter question. I recently published a coloring book and I then donated 50 copies to a hospital where one of my students is currently staying. I'd like to replicate this with other hospitals or charity organizations. Can I use Kickstarter for this?"

I'm about to reveal whether or not you can use Kickstarter to raise money and donate books or other products. I'll also talk a bit about nonprofit crowdfunding and how it differs from rewards-based crowdfunding.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How long it took the team to prototype and test the product
• What they did to get funded in 4 days and 4 hours
• Why cross-promotion with like-minded campaigns is powerful
• The importance of launching a blog
• How the team earned media attention

If you have 0 social media followers and don't want to promote your Kickstarter campaign, you're in the right place.

I know I talk a lot about building up your crowd before crowdfunding, but there are always exceptions to the rule. Today, I talked with BJ Minson, who has raised over $400k on Kickstarter with three different campaigns.

He breaks down exactly what he did to get funding from regular Kickstarter backers and smash his goal. Not only that, but he shares how he did this ethically, with strong company values that promote American manufacturing.

Guess what!? This is an "Ask Sal" podcast episode where listeners submit their questions, and I answer them! The question today is a little bit different, because it focuses on personal crowdfunding. Katie Schwabline asked:

"How can I help finance my son's medical expenses with crowdfunding?"

I have to admit that this is a bit of a depressing and heart-wrenching episode. Katie is going through a very difficult time. I'm going to try to help her by providing actionable advice and setting realistic expectations for an online medical fundraising campaign.

This is an Ask Sal episode of the podcast, where you submit your questions and I answer them! Thomas Setteducato asked:

“How do I use real estate crowdfunding for my property?”

I’m about to talk about how you can use RE crowdfunding to finance a commercial or residential property. This is a very new sector of the industry and I’m excited about the possibility for investors to earn passive income from cash-producing properties.

I’ll also be linking to a website that I set up that’s specific to real estate crowdfunding. I’ve filtered out some of my best podcast episodes, along with my new ebook, which is getting some great reviews!

This is an “Ask Sal” episode where listeners submit their questions and I answer them! Navid asked:

“How can we spend our time and money to ensure that we get eyeballs on this campaign and that it gets before viewers and gets pledges on Kickstarter?”

In my answer, I’ll talk about a few ways that you can promote your Kickstarter campaign, get more exposure on the website itself, and some tools and resources that you can use.

http://www.crowdcrux.com/sevenfigurefunding

In this episode of the Crowdfunding Demystified podcast, I spoke with Brian Dally, the CEO and Co-Founder of GROUNDFLOOR, a real estate crowdfunding platform that is open to non-accredited investors.

The website has funded more than $8 million of real estate loans across 98 projects and has repaid investors more than $2 million of principal and interest!

http://www.realestatecrowdfundingexplained.com

This is an Ask Sal podcast, where you submit your questions and I answer them! Andrew Cross asked:

“This is the second time I’m launching a campaign. What are the best ways to get external traffic to your Kickstarter page?”

While some crowdfunding campaigns will receive 90% of their backers and pledges from the Kickstarter ecosystem, the majority of campaigns tend to see a 50/50 or 60/40 breakdown. There are even some projects that drive 90-100% of their own traffic!

Ron Miller, the CEO of Start Engine came on the podcast to talk about some of the key differences between Reg A+ and Regulation CF.

In case you haven't heard of them, Start Engine is the company that Elio Motors used to raise $46 million in non-binding indications of interest during their test the waters campaign and nearly $17 million from 6,500 unique investors in their Reg A+ raise (96% were non-accredited investors).

This is need-to-know information if you're an entrepreneur or investor interested in equity crowdfunding! This is the episode you must listen to. Ron shares a lot of great advice, tips, and pitfalls to avoid.

Today's question on "Ask Sal" was asked by Ali Sadat. He asked:

"How do I make the best possible crowdfunding campaign?" 

Oh boy, I could write an entire book on this topic (well...I did...an ebook). Joking aside, I wanted to address this listener on the podcast.

In my answer, I'm going to reveal a lot of crowdfunding best practices and strategies. I'll talk about things like how to nail down your ideal customer and get the word out about your Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign.

I just got the chance to interview a researcher at the University at Buffalo School of Management on the factors that impact crowdfunding success.

The study's co-author, Christopher Courtney, is a Western New York Prosperity Fellow and doctoral student at UB School of Management. He brought a lot of great insights to the podcast.

In this study, the team tracked and analyzed 170,000 Kickstarter campaigns to uncover the factors that affect crowdfunding success. Specifically, they looked at the impact of your images, video, and the comments on your campaign. 

This is an "Ask Sal" podcast episode, where listeners submit their questions and I answer them. Akosua Agyeman, a member of the CrowdCrux community, asked:

"Who can I rely on to help me set up a good website and cohesive social media profiles if I'm on a shoestring budget?"

Akosua is in the preparation stages of a crowdfunding campaign and she, like many other entrepreneurs, wants a professional web presence without breaking the bank.

You're about to discover some key resources that YOU can use to set up your site and social media profiles. Hope you enjoy!

If you only listen to one podcast episode, listen to this one. Yes, it’s that good.

Joseph May, who created The Modern Day Briefcase, raised $242,014 on Kickstarter from 1,287 backers. But, the campaign wasn’t always a success.

In the first week of the launch, Joseph realized that his campaign was stalling and he needed to do something fast if he was going to hit his goal.

He shared exactly what he did to turn everything around, along with the techniques he used to get 1,500 email subscribers, 6,000 Instagram followers, and connect with influencers.

Guess what!? This is an Ask Sal podcast episode, where you submit your questions and I answer them! Jeannette Goldberg, a member of the CrowdCrux community, asked: "How can I finance my degree program with crowdfunding?"

I decided to tackle this question because I think that a lot of other people are wondering this also. I'm about to go through the different ways to get donors to give to an education-related crowdfunding campaign. We'll also set some realistic expectations when it comes to online fundraising.

This episode of the podcast is a little bit different. Conor Rees of 99 Percent Lifestyle wanted to interview me about the founding story of CrowdCrux and some of the best practices when launching a crowdfunding campaign.

We were just gonna do a phone interview, but I really thought it would make a great podcast episode. He doesn't have a podcast yet, so I published this episode on my podcast!

Although I share how I started CrowdCrux, I also share a lot of actionable tips if you're preparing to launch a Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign.

In episode #58 of the podcast, Bryce shared his experiencing launching a Kickstarter campaign that ended up raising $1.3 million from over 6,000 backers.

He’s come back to reveal exactly what he did to make this campaign such a huge success. Believe it or not, Bryce took notes throughout the entire launch process and has decided to share them with you!

This is another “Ask Sal” episode of the podcast where you submit your questions and I answer them! Today, I answered a question from Matthew King who is a Senior Artist with Mindpipe. He asked:

“We have a Kickstarter running at the moment and we’re having trouble getting people to trust our company, even though we have amazing rewards. Do you have any tips?”

On this episode of the podcast, I talked about getting funding for a veteran event and whether or not crowdfunding is always an appropriate way to raise funds. 

Ronnie Terry submitted the question "I own a military cap and t-shirt store. I want to contribute products and funding to veteran events. How can I use crowdfunding to do that?"

Not only do I answer the question, but I also give some advice for growing his online store!

In this episode of the podcast, I talked about about crowdfunding for personal causes with Sarah Margulis, the cofounder and CEO of Plumfund, a newer crowdfunding site. She also runs HoneyFund, a honeymoon registry website.

We discuss some of the strategies that you can use to raise money for personal causes. She also shares a great way to launch a personal crowdfunding campaign that I hadn't considered beforehand.

If you don't know where to begin, this is the episode for you.

You'll also hear about Sarah's Shark Tank story and how she got an investment from Kevin O'Leary!

In this episode of the podcast, Franz Widmaier submitted a question for his upcoming Kickstarter campaign for Battle Kids, armor and weapons that keep kids safer while they play!

He asked, “Should I run a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for armor of different sizes or should I focus on one size?”

Having hit his goal in the first three days, Ollie Aplin has had a wild ride on Kickstarter.

The launch of his new journal for men, Mind Journal, tested his abilities as a designer and serial entrepreneur. But, he prevailed!

In this interview, I got him to share a lot of behind the scenes material, including, how he was able to raise $10,000 on the first day of his campaign launch.

Sharon, with MyCanPlan.com, submitted a question on Ask Sal that I decided to address today. She asked:

“How should you promote your crowdfunding campaign when you have a small budget?”

Her product is a planner made to help cancer patients and caregivers with the daily battles of the horrible disease.

I’m about to share my advice for marketing your campaign and getting attention when you have limited resources.

Keep in mind that money is just a TOOL that you can use to purchase attention or labor. Yes, you can buy attention with ads, but YOU have to convert that attention into action.

Yes, you can hire employees or a marketing company to get the word out about your campaign, but you can also do it yourself. You just have to be willing to work.

I hope this answer helps others out there with the same question!

I'm speaking directly to YOU in this podcast episode. Think of this as a one on one consulting session, except it's free!

Believe it or not, I'm about to reveal my methods for generating product ideas and competing with established industry leaders.

I'll even go into why the majority of creators fail, even though they might mean well and be smart people.

This is a must-listen to episode if you're wondering how to go about crafting compelling copywriting for your product and get your backers, customers, and website visitors excited about your product.

Enjoy!

Bill from PetLiquids.com is preparing for an upcoming Kickstarter campaign and he's working on fine tuning his Facebook video ads. He submitted a question on how to get better results from his advertising efforts.

I broke down a few elements of a successful advertisement, along with where your advertisement might fail.

You're about to learn how to improve your conversions rate, click through percentage, and the number of visitors that buy your product or pledge to your crowdfunding campaign. Hope it helps!

This is THE episode to listen to if you want to learn how to create your first prototype, find a manufacturer, and scale the business with crowdfunding.

Josh Lifton, the Founder and CEO of Crowd Supply, shared the step-by-step process for taking your first product from the idea phase to the initial prototype, and finally, how you mass produce the product.

You don't need to be an engineer to make a new product from scratch, but you do need to take several crucial steps if if you want to successfully crowdfund your business.

This episode demystifies the product development process and after listening, you'll see how to actually raise money from the crowd!

Download the show notes: http://wp.me/p2TAu9-2CR 

I personally have been surprised at the enormous growth of the real estate crowdfunding industry.

I think that there’s a lot of opportunity to get in on the ground floor of this exploding new sector and really re-define what’s now considered to be an ancient way of doing business.

But, I don’t have all the answers. That’s why I brought Jason Fritton on the podcast to demystify the real estate crowdfunding industry. As the cofounder and CEO of Patch of Land, he has a unique view on this growing marketplace.

Not only will you learn how Patch of Land works and how you can use it finance properties, but you’ll also get an idea of just where this industry is heading.

I hope you get a lot out of this interview!

Get the show notes here: http://wp.me/p2TAu9-2Cf

After launching two successful crowdfunding campaigns, Hendra from the mod-3 team came on to share his secrets for manufacturing a product, getting backers, and building a successful online store.

Believe it or not, we also talk about a challenge that Hendra faced with regards to rewards fulfillment and how he overcame the problem(one that you might face too). No one said Kickstarter was easy!

Although this is one of my longer episodes, it’s definitely worth sticking around until the end. There’s lots of great insights and tips as we explore Hendra’s entrepreneurial journey in-depth.

Get the show notes on CrowdCrux.com

After launching two successful crowdfunding campaigns, Hendra from the mod-3 team came on to share his secrets for manufacturing a product, getting backers, and building a successful online store.

Believe it or not, we also talk about a challenge that Hendra faced with regards to rewards fulfillment and how he overcame the problem(one that you might face too). No one said Kickstarter was easy!

Although this is one of my longer episodes, it's definitely worth sticking around until the end. There's lots of great insights and tips as we explore Hendra's entrepreneurial journey in-depth.

The show notes: http://wp.me/p2TAu9-2AY

In this episode of the "Ask Sal" segment of the podcast, I address Elizabeth's question as to how to launch a science themed crowdfunding campaign to raise money for a research study. 

Getting a grant to fund scientific research is harder than ever before. Wouldn't it be cool to go directly to science supporters and raise money for a research study? 

But, what do you need to know and, more importantly, what do you need to do if you want to introduce your study to the world through crowdfunding? 

Get the show notes here: http://wp.me/p2TAu9-2A5

Treat this podcast episode like a free consulting call!

I recorded my call with Jesse, an entrepreneur and creator who is thinking of doing a crowdfunding or Kickstarter campaign.

We go through the preparation that he's done up until this point and I answer all of the questions he has about crowdfunding.

My serious advice starts at the 16 minute mark.

P.S. I actually don't do individual consulting, but I do have an online course that you can access here.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• How another creator prototyped his initial product
• The pre-launch stages of a crowdfunding campaign
• The tools he used to set up his business
• How to fine tune your prototype into a real product
• Ways that you can create an effective sales pitch
• Whether or not you should launch a crowdfunding campaign 
• Where his backers are likely to come from for this campaign
• Differences between Kickstarter and Indiegogo

In this episode you'll learn:

• Ideas to engage viewers throughout the pitch video
• One thing you absolutely must do when filming
• Where to see what a great pitch looks like
• Something counterintuitive about online video
• How to divide up your "ask" and structure it

Get the free show notes: http://wp.me/p2TAu9-2yD