233: Raising Money For Scaling Via a Crowdfunding Campaign

With Will Ford, President and Co-Founder of LaunchBoom

Hosted by Kevin Mako, President of MAKO Design + Invent

Will Ford is one of the world’s top crowdfunding experts. As President and Co-Founder of LaunchBoom, the leading crowdfunding agency for hardware startups, he has helped thousands of inventors and entrepreneurs leverage platforms like Kickstarter or Indiegogo to establish and scale their product empires. Today, he explains in great detail why a successful crowdfunding campaign can lead to significantly higher post-campaign investments and increased sales across multiple channels to enlighten inventors, startups, and small manufacturers. Will also details best practices for raising funds and optimizing crowdfunding efforts, emphasizing the importance of strategic planning, storytelling, and social proof.

Here are the key takeaways from the episode:

• Don’t give away too much equity too early in your entrepreneurial journey!
• Although it’s great to have more money at the start, if you give away equity early, you will erode much of your future potential earnings.
• Convertible debt is a great pathway for raising money for your future valuation that Will used for his second business.
• You can take a prototype and pre-sell it to thousands of people worldwide through a crowdfunding platform.
• Raise growth capital after you complete your crowdfunding campaign.
• You will raise far more money if you bootstrap for as long as possible before crowdfunding, and you will give out far less equity.
• Buyers always want the coolest new products in the market as early as possible. This is why crowdfunding platforms are so powerful for inventors.
• You can turn backers who support your campaigns on Kickstarter and Indiegogo into investors once the campaign is over.
• Venture capital, equity crowdfunding, and angel investing are also great financing methods.
• Dr. Squatch is an example of a hundred-thousand-dollar crowdfunding campaign.
• Prelaunch, test, and then validate the return on ad spend.
• Don’t raise capital until you really need it, bootstrap for as long as you can!

Will Ford Links:

LinkedIn | LaunchBoom

The Product Startup Podcast Links:

www.ProductStartup.com

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MAKO Design + Invent Links:

www.makodesign.com

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Kevin Mako Links:

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Producer: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to the above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories.