There you have it—your complete, step-by-step planner for creating and executing a successful crowdfunding campaign. You’re ready to raise money online!
I hope these crowdfunding tips have helped you see all the different possibilities for raising money online for your startup.
In this e-book, you’ve learned:
- What crowdfunding is and how it works
- How to raise money online—the legal ins and outs of what’s possible
- The three main types of online fundraising for business—rewards-based, equity crowdinvesting, and P2P lending a/k/a crowdlending
- The top 20 platforms and what makes each unique
- How crowdfunding works for startups (and doesn’t)
- Ways to know if your startup is ready to raise money
- How to plan for, market, and execute your successful campaign
- Strategies to build on success after your fundraising campaign is over
There it is—your A-to-Z guide to online fundraising for your startup.
Leveraging Your Successful Crowdfunding Campaign
Finally, once you’ve delivered, it’s time to decide what’s next. How can you parlay your success to take your startup to the next level?
Moves you might try include:
- Return for a bigger round, perhaps switching to equity, as Hardbacon did after its successful rewards round
- Seek individual investors or traditional venture capital
- Research and develop new products or services
- Beef up the team
- Add inventory
- Plan a round of media interviews
- Surprise and delight backers with unexpected goodies
- Court bigger companies that might acquire your startup
Consider one successful campaign just the beginning of your company’s journey raising money online, gaining more visibility, and growing more sales. Many startups return to crowdfunding multiple times if they find success.
Keep Learning
The big thing to remember is that online fundraising is still in its early days. Equity crowdfunding only became legal in the U.S. in 2016, for instance!
The sector keeps growing, and new platforms spring up all the time, with new twists on raising money for startups. This e-book shows you a snapshot in time, and best practices circa 2018.
New, record-breaking campaigns will emerge in the future, to blow away the old ones. Guaranteed.
How can you stay on top of the evolution of crowdfunding, to spot your startup’s best opportunity for raising money?
If you’d like more tips on crowdfunding in the future, here are some of the resources I used to collect sector news for this e-book:
- Crowdfund Insider (which also covers cryptocurrency in-depth)
- Entrepreneur.com, which has a good equity crowdfunding section
- The Independent, which covers how to raise money on the UK scene
- Wired’s coverage of sector developments is compiled here
Begin Planning Now For Future Crowdfunding Success
If you think your startup isn’t ready for crowdfunding yet, that’s okay! That means you can begin building your credibility and audience now, for a future campaign.
[highlight]Spend the next year or two building your audience, getting mentioned in the press, and winning influencers over to your cause. Start thinking about what crowdfunding for business growth could do to transform your startup and skyrocket your revenue.[/highlight]
When you feel confident you know how to raise money for your startup, you’ll have all the elements in place that make it easy to meet your fundraising goal on day one.
I hope this e-book helps you to raise money online!