Crowdfunding Record Shattered

The date was July 6, 2010.

That’s the day I first started publicly promoting Crowdfunding as a viable funding source for entrepreneurs.

At the time, entrepreneurs were raising approximately $1 million each month from Crowdfunding.

Since then, the market has absolutely exploded. I now estimate that $49 million is being raised from Crowdfunding each day!

When I first wrote about Crowdfunding nine years ago, I predicted it would be huge. That prediction has clearly been proven true.

But what I also predicted was that some entrepreneur would shatter the million-dollar Crowdfunding barrier.

You see, at the time, tons of entrepreneurs were raising smaller amounts with Crowdfunding. But no one had raised over $1 million dollars.

In the early days, many entrepreneurs came close.

On December 6, 2010 Scott Wilson from Chicago raised $942,578 for his crowdfunded watch-kit product.

And on January 18, 2012, John Van Den Nieuwenhuizen from San Francisco, raised $938,771 for his Bluetooth speaker project.

But still no one could break the million-dollar barrier.

And then it happened.

Casey Hopkins from Portland, OR broke the record in 2012 with his iphone dock product. Casey breezed past the million-dollar mark, raising $1,464,706 for his product via Crowdfunding.

But here’s the crazy thing….Casey Hopkins only had a few days to bask in the glory of raising the most money every from Crowdfunding.

Since, 2 months later, San Francisco’s Tim Schafer completed a Crowdfunding raise for his new video game project.

And Tim raised a whopping $3,336,371.

That’s right. 87,142 individuals from throughout the globe each chipped in an average of $38 each to give Tim $3.4 MILLION to launch his product.

Wow!

And to bring things up to present times, there have now been countless entrepreneurs who have raised over $1 million using Crowdfunding.

And it is estimated that $18 billion has been invested via Crowdfunding in the last year.

That’s $49 million each day!

I’d say at this point Crowdfunding has proven itself to be a huge success.

Over the past decade, I’ve not only helped tons of entrepreneurs launch their Crowdfunding projects, but I’ve scrutinized the ones which have successfully raised all the money they need.

And, from doing so, I’ve identified the common characteristics of those entrepreneurs who successfully raise Crowdfunding:

1. They start by having their close friends and family members Crowdfund them. You see, if I as a stranger go to a Crowdfunding project and see that no one else has funded it, I become skeptical. Conversely, if I see that 35 people have already funded it, I am more confident. This is called “social proof.” Entrepreneurs who successfully raise Crowdfunding leverage social proof by getting their close friends and family members to fund them before they promote their raise to strangers.

2. They offer “tangible” rewards. Most strangers won’t fund you out of the goodness of their hearts. Rather, they fund you to earn the rewards you have promised them. Such as you shipping them your $100 product later when they give you $65 in funding today. The more tangible your reward, and the more you can position it as something the customer wants, the more successful you will be.

3. They create a cool, personal video. Even if your product or service idea is great, most strangers won’t want to fund you. But, if you create a video in which you are speaking about why you want to create the product/service, your success will skyrocket. In the video, you need to connect with people. You want to inspire strangers who watch it, so that they want to fund you and see you succeed, and they want to tell their friends about you.

4. They manage their Crowdfunding raises from start to finish (which usually lasts 60 or 90 days). Once you set up your Crowdfunding project, you’re not quite done. You need to market it via social media and other channels (like PR which has worked really well for entrepreneurs raising Crowdfunding). You need to respond to questions that potential funders pose. And if the amount of funding you initially sought gets exceeded (which fortunately happens a lot), you need to post new videos and updates telling strangers that you will accept more money and what you will use it for.

I hope you found the 4 common characteristics of successfully crowdfunded entrepreneurs helpful.

Importantly, I’ve identified even more strategies and tips to ensure you succeed with your Crowdfunding raise. I put them all together in a simple-to-follow program called “Crowdfunding Formula.”