Not only money, crowdfunding makes you an entrepreneur

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Blog
14 settembre 2017

Starting up a company is a very risky journey. Beside money, when you are trying to implement your business idea, there are always a set of lessons that you will learn only when you are in the arena.

Experimentation is a fundamental step for every entrepreneur, if you are not able to learn from evidences, test and observations, you have not a disruptive idea, you are chasing for a chimera. Learning by doing process take normally long time, this period is inversely proportional to the time and efforts spent by the team, or the entrepreneur. More proactive is the founder, more quickly learning mechanism works.

 

Ok, now we have a good news.

 

Crowdfunding is becoming a great alternative to raise fund for your venture, because it link a short and intensive training with the fundraising process, serving as a valuable learning experience.

Even though being successful in startup fundraising via crowdfunding is not easy to obtain, with this new mechanism creator can experience a valuable learning process, reducing also the risks and saving control over its idea.

A crowdfunding campaign provides some valuable benefits, beyond money:

It mitigates risk

When you fund a venture with crowd you can maintain control over your business. If you are experiencing a reward based crowdfunding, you can start your business without giving up equity, avoiding in addition a more risky indebtedness exposure. If you have reached you target capital via equity crowdfunding, your stockholders will be, mainly, small investors without the necessary experience to co-manage your business.

Learn about your market

In a crowdfunding campaign you expose your idea to the global audience, this means that people, both who will support your idea, both who not, can leave on your fundraising page comments, feedback and ideas. Normally, if we do not consider crowdfunding, the launch of a new product or services on the market requires prototypes tests’, marketing and production investments, without the possibility to test on large scale how your product fits your consumers’ needs.  By having a crowdfunding campaign you can record precisely what your potential consumers think about your market proposal. This are precious feedback, as you have the rare opportunity to understand some aspects of their approach that were previously unthought-of for a better market production fit.

Build a community

Exhibit your idea to a large group of potential customers, instead of a small group of investors, make a huge difference. Presenting a new market offer to the global audience with the aid of the media exposure, gives you the opportunity to reach a wider audience. The crowdfunding campaign allows entrepreneurs to build a community, a consumer portfolio that likes and believes in the project or in the new venture vision. They express their appreciation through pre-pay for your campaign, without warranty. This trust is precious, you can take care of your community beyond and after the fundraising process.

Raise additional funds

A successful crowdfunding campaign gives to the new venture credibility and legitimacy. The viral exposure, the ability to catch new needs and satisfy it, the favour of a wide community, means for a potential investor that you have value in your pocket. Investors can appreciate your success, you have been consecrated from the same people who will acquire your products, so why do not invest in your business?  Crowdfunding bring a lot of attention from potential partners, allowing to raise more easy additional professional funds.