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Not all projects on crowdfunding are successful. Kreyos wanted to raise $100,000 USD to make a smartwatch with voice and gesture control in 2013 states Indiegogo.com,. (2015), and raised $1,502,533 USD in one month. The attraction was the price, $100 USD for the smartwatch. Of note was the choice of funding model. Indiegogo Help Center,. (2015) states there are two funding types on Indiegogo, Flexible Funding, and Fixed Funding. With Fixed Funding if the funding goal is not reached by the timeframe, all the money is refunded. With Flexible Funding, all money is received regardless of whether the funding goal was met. Kreyos therefore received all funding regardless of goal amount. However, Limer, E. (2015) points out the signs why this project wasn’t successful “Absurdly low budget goal, unrealistic promises, too-good-to-be-true price tag, all from an untested manufacturer”.

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KREYOS: The ONLY Smartwatch With Voice & Gesture Control

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Mobilize Your Life with the Kreyos Meteor! Works with iPhone, Android and Windows Phone 8 | Crowdfunding is a democratic way to support the fundraising needs of your community. Make a contribution today!

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Rewards and products are the largest category of crowdfunding platforms, however, equity raising is also popular. Snowball Effect is a New Zealand equity crowdfunding platform which featured the wine company Invivo. The funding target was $500,000 NZD for 5.9% of equity, and a cap of $2,000,000 NZD for 20% equity states Snowballeffect.co.nz,. (2015). The $2,000,000 NZD cap was enforced by the crowdfunding platform Snowball Effect. This was the largest equity raising in New Zealand using a crowdfunding platform to date states Idealog,. (2015).

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The team at Invivo have never been big fans of convention and this opportunity means people who love to drink their wine, or just love the way they do business can get directly involved in the company and share in the success.

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Not all crowdfunding platforms are American. Each country appears to have its own crowdfunding platform, Camp Fire being the popular one in Japan. CAMPFIRE（キャンプファイヤー）,. (2015) lists the most popular campaign as the Petzval 58 camera lens. This raised $121,494 USD in Japan. However, the Petzval 58 lens was originally a Kickstarter campaign raising $966,312 USD as stated in Kickstarter,. (2015). The company behind both campaigns, Lomography, used multiple geographical crowdfunding platforms to raise money, and used these geographical crowdfunding platforms as sales and marketing platforms. This would improve fundraising by targeting local crowdfunding platforms that I believe people feel more comfortable with.

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CAMPFIRE（キャンプファイヤー）

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ソーシャルファンディング

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伝説のポートレイトレンズ・Petzvalをボケ調節機能を備えた58mmレンズに！ - CAMPFIRE（キャンプファイヤー）

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CAMPFIRE史上最高支援額を誇る2年前のPetzval 85mmプロジェクトの大記録を塗り替え、数あるCAMPFIREプロジェクトの中で 最も支援金額を集めたプロジェクト になりました！ □　□　□　□　□　□　□　□　□　□　□　□　□　□　□　□　□　□　□　□ 最後のゴール 14,500,...

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JIBO is a social robot that was partially funded through Indiegogo, raising $3,710,560 USD states Indiegogo.com,. (2015). The original funding target was $100,000 USD notes Suleman, K. (2015). The credentials of the founder, Cynthia Breazeal, Director of the Personal Robots Group at the MIT Media Laboratory I believe contributed to the success of the project. It’s important to note that once traction was shown in the market, $25.3 million USD of Series A funding was received by the company states Gannes, L. (2015). This shows that crowdfunding can be combined with other funding types.

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JIBO, The World's First Social Robot for the Home

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Friendly, helpful and intelligent. From social robotics pioneer Dr. Cynthia Breazeal. | Check out 'JIBO, The World's First Social Robot for the Home' on Indiegogo.

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Pebble Time is the most funded project on Kickstarter,

requesting $500,000 USD, and receiving $20,338,986 USD. The key to success was delivering a successful previous project, the Pebble. This gives confidence to backers of the project. This time Pebble had the capital it needed to make the watches, and was using this launch more of a marketing campaign, which attracted criticism. However, Spence, E. (2015) notes “There is nothing that says crowdfunding is not to be used when you have capital in the bank, there is nothing that says when you pass a certain level of sales you should be banned from these sites.”

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Pebble Time - Awesome Smartwatch, No Compromises

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Pebble Technology is raising funds for Pebble Time - Awesome Smartwatch, No Compromises on Kickstarter! Color e-paper smartwatch with up to 7 days of battery and a new timeline interface that highlights what's important in your day.

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SnowballEffect has equity funding for NZ businesses

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NZ's leading online investment marketplace

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New Zealand's leading equity investment marketplace. We simplify investment into high growth Kiwi companies.

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PledgeMe is a popular New Zealand crowdfunding platform

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PledgeMe - New Zealand's Crowdfunding Platform

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Make the projects you believe in happen. Be part of a bigger cause. You are the missing piece in this history.

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Link to Japan's largest crowfunding platform

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CAMPFIRE（キャンプファイヤー）

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ソーシャルファンディング

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支援総額が多いプロジェクト - CAMPFIRE（キャンプファイヤー）

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安心と愛情たっぷりのクラウドファンディングを。充実のサポート体制で、だれでもあんしんしてクラウドファンディングを始められます。プロジェクト掲載数・PV数も国内No.1。

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Link to one of the other largest crowdfunding platforms

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Indiegogo is where entrepreneurial projects come to life - amplified by a community of backers who believe the world benefits when every idea gets an equal shot at success.

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Link to the largest crowdfunding platform

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Projects highlighted by our staff, and what's popular right now. Start exploring! Passion, ideas, and ambition abound on Kickstarter.

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Diallo, A. (2015) states a tip for success is "As with any sales venture, the first key to success is creating a product that people want to buy".

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Crowdfunding has quickly moved from trendy buzzword to a mainstream fundraising model. In less than five years, Kickstarter has attracted more than five million contributors pledging close to $1 billion, funding more than 55,000 individual projects. Rival fundraising platform Indiegogo can boast of a campaign that single-handedly generated $12 million in pledges. Numbers like these make crowdfunding an attractive option for first-time entrepreneurs and established businesses alike. But what, exactly, does it take to successfully fund a project?

To find out, I've asked creators of some of the most highly successful crowdfunding technology projects - each raised more than $300,000 - to discuss their experiences using Kickstarter and Indiegogo, and share the secrets of their success. Whether you're looking to raise a few thousand, or a few hundred thousand dollars to bring your product to market, here's some hard-earned wisdom to consider well before launching your own crowdfunding campaign.
1. Solve a real problem
As with any sales venture, the first key to success is creating a product that people want to buy. "Your responsibility is to produce a solution to a problem," advises Adam Sager, whose home security device, Canary, raised more than $1.9 million on Indiegogo. "You need to be able to tell people right away how the product is going to solve a real problem that they have." If you can't communicate the essence of your product and what it does in a sentence or two, you're not going to attract significant interest from backers.

Many entrepreneurs have looked to their own personal experiences in identifying a problem to solve. Peter Dering, an avid traveler and photography buff, came up with the idea for his original Capture Camera Clip - an updated version garnered more than $800,000 on Kickstarter - because he got tired of having his DSLR hang precariously from his neck, swinging into things while backpacking through Asia. "I thought this was a problem enough people had," he says, "and that my idea for a product could solve it. Identifying a problem, and designing a solution that is solid, equals success."

It's great if your product can ride the wave of an emerging trend, but make sure you're not too far ahead of the curve. "If your idea is too far ahead of its time, you'll have to spend resources telling people why they need it," says John Van Den Nieuwenhuizen, whose second version of the Hidden Radio, a wireless portable speaker, has raised more than $500,000 on Kickstarter. "When we came up with the idea for Hidden Radio back in 2008, we didn't invent the category," he says. "There were Bluetooth speakers already on the market, but they weren't attractive and didn't sound good. We felt we could make a beautiful design that had better sound."
2. Do your homework
The success of any crowdfunding effort is inextricably linked to the amount of hard work you put into testing and refining your idea long before launching the campaign. "Every hour of planning you do before the campaign saves you 100 hours of work after it," says Phil Bosua, who raised $1.3 million on Kickstarter to launch the Lifx LED smart bulb.

Van Den Nieuwenhuizen's vision for a portable Bluetooth speaker began with sketches a full five years before his crowdfunding campaign. "You need to do your homework," he says. "Once my partner and I had a design we liked, we submitted it to some design blogs. The response was very positive, with people asking how they could buy it, and all we had at that point was a rendering. We made our first prototype with a trip to the hardware store. It took us a year of looking in the U.S. and Asia to find the right manufacturer. But by the time we launched on Kickstarter, we were literally ready to begin production if we got the funds."

The challenges you'll face after the funding campaign are daunting and must be addressed early on. "You've got to have an e-commerce site up and running, a supply chain and distribution network, and way to handle fulfillment and warehousing," Dering cautions. "Miss any one of these, and you're dead. You need to be prepared to make your backers happy, and getting as many ducks in a row as you can before starting the campaign, allows you to ship your product to them quickly."

Seeking advice from those who have more experience is always a wise move. Gabriel Bestard-Ribas, whose Goji smart lock raised more than $300,000 on Indiegogo, did just that. "I got advice from people who had run successful campaigns, asking for feedback on my idea," he recalls. "But I also talked to people who had failed at crowdfunding. I learned what things to avoid, which is important."

One thing to avoid is waiting for your campaign to start before doing any marketing. "Build your customer database well before going on Kickstarter," suggests Van Den Nieuwenhuizen. "Even if you don't have a prototype yet, you can release drawings or renderings on Facebook and Twitter. You get validation of your idea while building an audience and momentum for your crowdfunding launch."
3. Bring money to the table
"Kickstarter shouldn't be your first source of money," says Dering. Indeed, every entrepreneur I spoke with for this story had already acquired some capital before launching their crowdfunding campaign. Jonas Gyalokay, creator of AIRTAME, a wireless HDMI streaming dongle, raised more than $1.2 million on Indiegogo. But before that, he and his team had already poured in tens of thousands of dollars into the project. "We invested our own money, using loans and pension savings as well as profit from some of our earlier companies, to buy food and pay our bills," he says. "Another company I co-founded invested $10,000 for a 5% stake in AIRTAME. That paid for office space and some of the hardware we needed in an early stage of development." Your funding sources don't have to be complicated. Bosua and his small team started Lifx with, "$35,000 that came from maxing out our credit cards," he recalls.

Marc Barros is a serial entrepreneur, whose Moment smartphone lens campaign attracted more than $100,000 in just its first 28 hours on Kickstarter. "We spent about $80,000 to get to the Kickstarter stage, with prototypes, samples, and additional engineering support to help solve our problems," he notes. For those looking at mass market production, Barros advises, "You should think about needing $500,000 to get from the idea stage to shipping a final product. Whether you raise that from your backers, investors, or supply partners, that's about how much you need (with some wiggle room) to make and ship. You'll encounter mistakes along the way and a little bit of extra cash makes sure you can deliver."
4. Set a smart funding goal
When setting your funding goal, don't confuse how much money you'd like to raise with how much you need to fund your project. "I made a distinction between 'expectation' and 'hope' when setting my funding goal," Dering says of his first campaign. "I expected to raise $10,000 but my hope was to be the top-funded project in Kickstarter's history." The browse pages of both Kickstarter and Indiegogo highlight not just a dollar amount, but your funding's percentage relative to your initial goal. People love to back a winner, so blowing past your funding goal by 300% in the early days of your campaign can actually help attract additional backers. Of course, you need to set an amount high enough to cover the costs of actually manufacturing and delivering your product, but your goal should be one that you're confident you can reach.
5. Make an effective pitch
"Why do people support crowdfunding?" asks Bestard-Ribas. "Because they are drawn to a vision. One they want to engage with. Many people think of their campaign as just selling a product. But you're really launching your company to the world." Your presentation will have a huge impact on the success of your campaign. The financial cost of producing it is virtually zero. You can shoot the video pitch on your phone if you need to. But the amount of time and thought you put into this presentation must be significant.

"We crafted a very focused message," says Sager, "and presented the product to show how it could impact people's lives in a direct way. We didn't start by talking about features. Instead we led with how we were solving a problem. It's also important," he continues, "to make your team visible. Be very transparent and let potential backers know who you are. Trust is a big part of crowdfunding."

Of course, when it is time to talk about features you need to emphasize what makes your product stand out from the crowd. Bestard-Ribas stresses that there are benefits to having competitors. "There were three competing products that debuted before us," he says. "They generated a buzz around the idea of a smart lock, so people understood our product already. What we had to do was propose why we were better. The competing models ranged from plain-looking to ugly. We had a beautiful, sleek design plus the ability to take and send photos of anyone activating the lock and entering your home. So those are the two features we emphasized."

Rewards/perks are huge calls to action for potential backers. Get creative. Gavin Fish, VP of Sales and Marketing for Light Harmonic, whose campaign for the Geek Pulse, a portable DAC, has raised more than $1.17 million on Indiegogo, has taken full advantage of services unique to that platform. "One of the reasons we switched to Indiegogo for our second campaign was that backers could choose multiple perks." Fish also made use of Indiegogo's tracking tools to offer even non-contributors a chance to earn free products by referring friends who did become backers.
6. It's not (always) about the money
Crowdfunding has several benefits beyond access to capital. "We were already well-funded as a company," says Fish. "And we knew the high-end audio customer well. With the Geek line, we were looking to deliver a mainstream, affordable product, but we didn't know what the mainstream consumer would buy. For us, the feedback from backers was much more significant than the money we raised. Near the end of our Geek Out campaign, for example, many backers began asking for a larger unit with more features. That feedback led directly to our second product in the lineup, the Geek Pulse."

Bestard-Ribas also emphasizes the importance of the contributor community. "The feedback we get is 10-fold more valuable than the money we raised," he says with conviction. "Normally, you're working in the dark until you bring a product to market. With crowdfunding we get customer feedback before the product is finalized." And it wasn't only customers that he was able to build relationships with. "The press coverage that our campaign received opened doors to partnerships," he continues. "We had retailers and distributors reach out to work with us before the product was finished, which helped us to better fit their needs. Our partnership with Staples is an example. They got in contact with us during the campaign and now our product is part of their [app] ecosystem."
7. Make the campaign your top priority
Managing an active crowdfunding campaign is an intense process. "It's not only full-time for one person, it's full-time for everyone in the company," says Gyalokay. Sager agrees. "When we ran our campaign, the entire team was 100% focused on crowdfunding," he recalls. "We sent out multiple surveys to our backers. I personally answered 3,000 emails in the first week." Although it can be a nearly overwhelming experience, the campaign offers a valuable opportunity to engage with your backers. "We believe that if we can have a dialogue with the market, we can be successful," says Fish. "We decided to host a separate forum for our backers, to continue the conversation beyond the crowdfunding campaigns."

"Feedback can drive product design,"says Dering. He recalls having to decide between two competing features in a new camera strap that was still in development. "We sent out a Kickstarter survey with a choice of A or B, and our backers overwhelmingly picked a winner," he recalls. The challenge with feedback, of course, is knowing when to say no. "You're going to have to decide which requests make sense to implement with this version of your product and which ones are better to save for version 2," cautions Sager. "We made the simplicity of our product the priority and stuck to solving a specific problem instead of trying to meet everyone's feature request."

Social media and email can be very effective in spreading the word about your campaign. "We prepared 100 personal emails each to send out when we launched the campaign," says Gyalokay. "We made sure each one was personal and had a good dose of humility, while stating how important this project was to us and our lives. And of course we ended with a strong call to action." Sager adds, "you need to make your campaign as easy to share as possible. That means all someone has to do is click one button. Don't make it any more complicated than that."

Heed the advice of these crowdfunding veterans and perhaps your idea will be the next crowdfunding success story.

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Crowdfunding Secrets: 7 Tips For Kickstarter Success

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Crowdfunding has quickly moved from trendy buzzword to a mainstream fundraising model. In less than five years, Kickstarter has attracted more than five million contributors pledging close to $1 billion, funding more than 55,000 individual projects. Rival fundraising platform Indiegogo can boast of a campaign that single-handedly generated $12 million in pledges.

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"General Manager of the Spark Foundation, Lynne Le Gros told Idealog the biggest measure of the platform’s success is the number of projects successfully funded." Idealog,. (2015).

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Ordanini, A., Miceli, L.,Pizzetti, M., & Parasuraman, A. (2011) notes another actor in crowd funding are those with ideas and projects who want to be funded, and want to directly engage their consumers.

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Ordanini, A., Miceli, L., Pizzetti, M., & Parasuraman, A. (2011) notes that funders are one of the three actors in crowd funding, financially supporting the project, taking on risk, and expecting output from the project.

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Ordanini, A., Miceli, L., Pizzetti, M., & Parasuraman, A. (2011) notes one of the three actors in crowd funding is the platform itself, which brings together the funders with those who need funding.

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Ordanini, A., Miceli, L., Pizzetti, M., & Parasuraman, A. (2011) notes "The idea that some people may decide to pay for producing and promoting a product (instead of buying it), and bear the risk associated with that decision, represents a further step in the evolution of consumers' roles, that involves a mix of entrepreneurship and social network participation."

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From

YouTube,. (2015).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b5-iEnW70k

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What is Crowdfunding? CrowdFunding planning? What, How, Why and when

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From

Classes.dma.ucla.edu,. (2015).
http://classes.dma.ucla.edu/Fall14/161/projects/nicholas/4-style/Types.html

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Ordanini, A., Miceli, L., Pizzetti, M., & Parasuraman, A. (2011). Crowd-funding: Transforming customers into investors through innovative service platforms. Journal of Service Management, 22(4), 443-470. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09564231111155079

Classes.dma.ucla.edu,. (2015).Crowdfunding: The 4 Types. Retrieved 26 July 2015, from http://classes.dma.ucla.edu/Fall14/161/projects/nicholas/4-style/Types.html

YouTube,. (2015). What is Crowdfunding? CrowdFunding planning? What, How, Why and when. Retrieved 26 July 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b5-iEnW70k

Words for the tagcloud background from Wikipedia,. (2015). Crowdfunding. Retrieved 26 July 2015, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdfunding
Tagcloud created by Waylon Kenning at Tagul.com,. (2015). Crowd Funding. Retrieved 26 July 2015, from https://tagul.com/show/bihk4ou2hur3/Crowd%20Funding

Idealog,. (2015). How crowdfunding platform Spark My Potential has grown from babysteps to setting high industry standards. Retrieved 26 July 2015, from http://idealog.co.nz/venture/2015/02/how-crowdfunding-platform-spark-my-potential-has-grown-babysteps-setting-high-industry-standards

Diallo, A. (2015). Crowdfunding Secrets: 7 Tips For Kickstarter Success. Forbes. Retrieved 26 July 2015, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/amadoudiallo/2014/01/24/crowdfunding-secrets-7-tips-for-kickstarter-success/

Spence, E. (2015). Pebble Has Not Destroyed Kickstarter. Forbes. Retrieved 26 July 2015, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2015/03/06/pebble-time-crowdfunding/2/

Indiegogo.com,. (2015). Retrieved 26 July 2015, from https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/jibo-the-world-s-first-social-robot-for-the-home#/story

Suleman, K. (2015).Jibo the social robot gets $300k funding in 24 hours.ITPRO. Retrieved 26 July 2015, from http://www.itpro.co.uk/desktop-hardware/22718/jibo-the-social-robot-gets-300k-funding-in-24-hours

Gannes, L. (2015).Jibo Raises $25.3 Million for Hotly Anticipated Home Robot.Re/code. Retrieved 26 July 2015, from http://recode.net/2015/01/21/jibo-raises-25-3-million-for-hotly-anticipated-home-robot/

CAMPFIRE（キャンプファイヤー）,. (2015).伝説のポートレイトレンズ・Petzvalをボケ調節機能を備えた58mmレンズに！ - CAMPFIRE（キャンプファイヤー）. Retrieved 26 July 2015, from http://camp-fire.jp/projects/view/2297

Kickstarter,. (2015).The Lomography New Petzval 58 Bokeh Control Art Lens. Retrieved 26 July 2015, from https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lomography/the-lomography-new-petzval-58-bokeh-control-art-le

Snowballeffect.co.nz,. (2015).Invivo - Back a Kiwi Business on Snowball Effect. Retrieved 26 July 2015, from https://www.snowballeffect.co.nz/invivo

Idealog,. (2015).UPDATED: Invivo Wines smash $500k target - Equity crowdfunding + brokers = unexpected. Retrieved 26 July 2015, from http://idealog.co.nz/venture/2015/03/equity-crowdfunding-brokers-unexpected-invivo-wines-brings-big-guns

Indiegogo.com,. (2015). Retrieved 26 July 2015, from https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/kreyos-the-only-smartwatch-with-voice-gesture-control#/story

Indiegogo Help Center,. (2015).Fees & Pricing. Retrieved 26 July 2015, from https://support.indiegogo.com/hc/en-us/articles/204456408-Fees-Pricing

Limer, E. (2015).​The $1.5 Million Indiegogo Smartwatch Horror Story.Gizmodo. Retrieved 26 July 2015, from http://gizmodo.com/the-1-5-million-indiegogo-smartwatch-horror-story-1625043836

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Crowd Funding is defined as “a collective effort by consumers who network and pool their money together, usually via the internet, in order to invest in and support efforts initiated by other people or organizations” Ordanini, A., Miceli, L., Pizzetti, M., & Parasuraman, A. (2011).