Are you wondering what it takes to launch your project on Kickstarter and Indiegogo?
How is it that I raised $1.2 million in the last year while training for and completing a Half Ironman?
The answer may surprise you (and not at all flattering)….
Sheer terror.
Terror and threat of public ridicule.
As a Crowdfunding advisor, my results are public. The campaign succeeds or it fails and it is 100% on me.
Same goes for your launch.
When I get hired my ass is on the line.
If I don’t have a successful campaign then I am not much of a Crowdfunding advisor, am I?
But here’s the thing…
I have learned how my brain works and how to motivate myself through the utter lows that come with entrepreneurship.
If I put my neck on the line, then I get things done.
If I don’t then I end up sloppy and depressed on the couch covered in Cheetos (nom nom).
Do you know how to motivate yourself? If you do, then you are 95% of the way to the finish line!
If you don’t, then I might suggest figuring that out as Step 1.
In this episode, my great friend and business partner, Jay Wong, is interviewing ME!
We dive into mental models and setting deadlines.
We talk about how my very first campaign was an utter failure, raising $17k, and how we were able to turn around and raise $500k with the same product, just by changing our strategy and tactics.
And we go over the most important things I have learned, like…
I want to show you there is no magic to what I do. It takes work. And for me, I use fear to drive me rather than block me.
What is going to drive you to hit your funding goals?
Resources Mentioned
Cheat Sheet
About this Episode
If you have been preparing for your Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign then you are probably finding out just how much stuff you have to do:
Oh yeah! And design your product!
And if you are like most of the people I talk to, you are probably a rookie in most, if not ALL of these categories!
When you are researching any one of these tasks, you have probably realized that you can go REALLY DEEP into any one of them. There are awesome, in-depth products on each one of these fields.
So where do you start - other than with my Product Launch Checklist?
Your time is scarce.
It takes time to execute everything you want to execute...
It takes more time to learn how to execute what you want to execute…
And it takes the MOST TIME to sort through all the information out there just to decide WHAT to learn and who to learn from before getting down to the business of learning and then executing.
And because you may not have the financial resources to go on a mad hiring binge, nor have the experience to be able to properly vet the people you want to hire, you probably fall into what this week’s guest, Chris Ducker, calls....
SUPERHERO SYNDROME
Superhero syndrome is where we as entrepreneurs try to do everything ourselves.
And that is incredibly overwhelming. It is hard enough to learn one new task as opposed to 10, and to be able to complete the task to your own high standard, let alone your customer’s.
At some point, the only solution is to cut something or hire someone to do it.
Enter Chris Ducker.
Those of you who have been following me for a while will recognize this episode from my original podcast, Entrepreneur Uncut #19.
But I have been getting so many calls from overwhelmed project creators that I decided to repost it for you here.
This episode is a crash course on both how to decide what to outsource, and how to outsource. It applies as much, if not more, to crowdfunding Project Creators as it does to any other entrepreneur.
Chris explains in detail his concept of the 3 Lists Of Freedom that I have personally used to delegate tasks in my business.
When I got started advising entrepreneurs launch crowdfunding campaigns I was doing most of the work myself.
But now, I have a team of people that help me do the copywriting, customer support, and technical work, while I focus on strategy, media outreach, and quarterbacking the whole project.
Listen to this episode, go through the 3 Lists of Freedom exercise, outsource something small, and then get some sleep!
Your business will thank you for it.
Resources mentioned
Cheat Sheet
About This Episode
Most Project Creators, and Product Creators specifically, have crowdfunding backwards.
They think, “Money first, product second.” (M-F-P-S)
It makes sense.
If you are looking at a low bank account, and don’t have experiencing raising angel or VC money or don’t want to sell ownership of your idea, then Crowdfunding sounds like a Pot of Gold at the end of a rainbow.
And while M-F-P-S CAN work, the failure rate is SUPER high.
That’s because there are two major ways a campaign can fail:
1- Project Creators don’t truly understand the problem they are solving and haven’t actually hit “Product Market Fit”, so the campaign fails at launch. Note: building a pre-launch audience (my favorite topic as regular listeners will note) is easy once you have hit Product Market fit, and nearly impossible if you don’t.
2- Project Creators have achieved Product Market fit, but their “Product” is in reality only an “Idea”. They don’t understand the manufacturing process and they haven’t fleshed out their true manufacturing costs. Once they raise a ton of money, they quickly find out that they are LOSING money on each order.
So you have to get as much of the manufacturing and marketing legwork out of the way BEFORE your launch as you possibly can.
So how do you do that?
Enter Filip Valica.
Filip Valica is a mechanical engineer and experienced product developer. He has worked for mom and pop shops as well as large companies like IBM.
He has brought a number of products to market and worked on all parts of the value chain, all with experienced companies.
What Filip noticed was that the systems and processes experienced companies use to minimize risk in a traditional product launch were nearly identical between companies.
After reviewing his DIY Product Development Flow Chart (see link below!) I knew his processes, when executed in parallel to my Product Launch Checklist, can drastically increase your chances of success!
In this episode, we take a deep dive into the interplay between marketing, design, and manufacturing.
I learned a bunch in this interview and I know you will too.
Resources Mentioned
Cheat Sheet
About this episode
I get asked all the time what the difference is between Equity Crowdfunding and Rewards-Based Crowdfunding.
There are certainly a few major differences and a few key similarities.
But I am no expert on the equity side of things...
So for this episode, I invited Nathan Rose, the author of Equity Crowdfunding - The Complete Guide For Start-Ups and Companies (launching November 2016). He also advises companies on how to raise money on equity crowdfunding platforms.
Nathan’s journey into Equity Crowdfunding was quite serendipitous.
He was an investment banker in New Zealand when he, like many of us, was inspired by Tim Ferriss and the 4-Hour Work Week. He wanted location independence but didn’t see himself as a product or software creator.
Right around the time he read the book in 2014, New Zealand was one of the first countries to change its laws to allow equity crowdfunding.
And when Nathan was working in banking, he had a lot of fun working with early stage companies raising money the traditional way.
As he was looking into the budding market, he spoke with the Kickstarters and the Indiegogo’s of the Equity world and found out that most Project Creators on those platforms were not strong on the financial modeling side, which was his specialty.
The platforms didn’t want to advise the campaigns. They wanted to build their software. But the platforms need projects to be compliant with the local securities laws, so Nathan ended up being referred by the platform to advise projects!
And since then, Nathan has helped raise over $11 million on Equity platforms all over the world.
In this episode, Nathan and I take a broad look at the equity crowdfunding industry from all angles and compare it to rewards crowdfunding.
Resources Mentioned
