BrioBolt is a professional music, graphics and video production house that helps make better crowdfunding pitch videos. We caught up with MD, Aeron Jones, who shared five expert tips you should ensure your crowdfunding investment follows.

What is the core message?

The core message that you are a good choice for investment.  This can sometimes get lost in details that are important to your relationship with the business but not necessarily important to the pitch, taking up time at the risk of losing the interest of the viewer.  The core message is that you are a good choice for investment. Your viewer’s should be as convinced of that as you are.

You need us more than we need you

An attractive situation for most would-be investors is one in which your product is in such demand that you already have customers poised to buy every single one you make. Your personality will come across in the video, so keep your ego under control, but describing your business as one that needs investment cash in order to survive is not going to attract anything like as much investment as convincing them that this is an opportunity they should be hungry for.

Stick to the script

Presentations in meetings are a human experience and a bit of improvisation and digression is perfectly acceptable. Even if this is one of your strengths, don’t rely on it for your on-camera presentation. Once the red record-light goes on, every little pause will be magnified. It doesn’t matter if you develop your script all alone or if you work with a seasoned crowd funding pitch producer, practice it in advance, OUT LOUD with a stopwatch, to the point where you know every comma and can deliver it comfortably within the target time.

Attention span

Everyone has an opinion on this, but most (including ourselves) think 2-4 minutes is about the optimum length for your video. This should be your target, but despite the general consensus there have been many successful campaigns with longer pitch videos than this.

The most important thing is to be focused. You should have a strong, almost bullet-point presentation of the strongest parts of your pitch, and you should be able to deliver this calmly and confidently within the first 30-seconds.  You can then punctuate your video with a change in pace/music/imagery as you move into expanding on the strengths you summarised at the beginning.

Start by introducing yourself, your place in the company and something about yourself that’s relevant to the business you are pitching.  If you have built and sold several companies in the past, use this to impress the viewer right at the beginning.  If the company has an impressive pace of growth, “beyond expectations”, say so!  Seeing your personal passion and belief in the business is encouraging, just beware of getting bogged down in expressing emotional attachments that could be read as personal delusion.

When you move into expanding upon the finer points of the investment opportunity, keep people interested, both through the script and visually.  Nicely shot footage of your products and/or company locations are ideal.  Animation is a popular choice for visually reiterating key points and can work alongside live footage.  Relying entirely on animation can be risky, though, as the good-quality motion is time consuming to produce, with the cheaper animation making many pitch videos look the same.

The sum-up

Here is your opportunity for a strong finish.  The sum-up is another chance to punctuate your video, along with a change in pace/feel, and should again reprise the key strengths of your opportunity for your potential investors. Reiterate the points from your introduction, alongside any less-obvious positive side effects that achieving your investment target will have on your business.  Include something personal that reflects your enthusiasm in your business’ future – and end with a smile!

 Find out more about BrioBolt (winner of CrowdCube’s Best Video of the Year) online right here.

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The UK Crowdfunding Association will offer an evening symposium exploring the pitfalls of crowdfunding.

 “Back in October 2014, we held the first sell-out event of ‘How NOT to do crowdfunding!’, and we’re delighted to announce that we’re bringing it back in February by popular demand!

“Hear direct from the experts, who have been there and done it, share their lessons learnt in an energetic, quick-fire style – What would they do differently next time? What top tips do they wish someone had told them before? And how should you NOT do crowdfunding?”

The event takes place in London on March 10, from 6pm. Admission costs £22.97 though current UK Crowdfunding Association Members and Supporters are entitled to 2 x free tickets each.

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If you’re ready to invest in a crowdfunding project then do take a look at DropKicker, which reminds you that you should always investigate technical claims made by crowdfunding campaigns.

Crowdfund crisis

DropKicker is run by two engineers/product designers who are spending some of their spare time reverse engineering claims made by some of the projects attracting attention in the crowdfunding space.

Their intention isn’t to undermine the projects, but to examine what is being claimed in order to figure out if a claim is technically possible and if the team behind the scheme’s up to scratch.

Not a bad idea when some projects attract millions of dollars in support.

Just because the reward-based project team promises to make an effort to deliver a product to you doesn’t mean you’ll get your money back if they fail to achieve this. It’s a risk. So it makes sense to be critical, or, in DropKicker’s case, “provide a healthy dose of pessimism”.

Project records

DropKicker has looked at a couple of projects recently, including the Scribble colour-changing pen and the iFind Bluetooth beacon (it has also examined other projects). In both cases the site raised doubts about the campaign claims:

The Scribble pen’s response was to close its Kickstarter campaign and move to a different service. This is interesting because while Kickstarter doesn’t transfer funds until the project is complete Scribble’s new chosen platform transfers funds immediately.

Following DropKicker’s debunking of the iFind project Kickstarter closed the project down because it broke some platform rules: the team was backing its own project, posing as a third party supporting project, and providing inaccurate user information.

So what are we saying? Put simply it’s this: There’s a lot of money being fired at crowdfunding projects. That’s great and the democratization of funding it brings will enable many new startups and product designs.

What to do

On the other hand, not every project team knows what they are talking about, some are inexperienced, others lack technical proficiency and some may simply want to part you from your cash.

What’s tragic is that in both cases mentioned here the project teams had invested in PR representatives who had managed to place reviews across trusted media outlets, such as Cnet. This is bad as it suggests those outlets will carry reports about projects without checking their technical feasibility.

Our advice?

• Always check the project thoroughly.
• Seek advice on the technical claims, from a friend or even from DropKicker (you can get them on Twitter).
• Take media reports about new project products with a pinch of salt.
• If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is – but it might not be, the thrill of crowdfunding is that sometimes you come across a great idea.

Happy crowdfunding!

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A staff pick on Kickstarter, Openmix looks like one of those products people could get into. It’s a portable audio mixer for smartphones and other portable music devices, enabling you to switch between music sources.

Crowdfunding the DJ…

You connect the small Openmix device to your home speaker (or a full sound system if you’re engaged in becoming a digital DJ). The device features a miniaturized audio crossfader with which users can “mix” two tracks or create smooth transitions between tracks.

The secret is the existence of a third input, so you can add an iPad to the mix in order to apply any of a range of effects taken from one of the many popular DJ apps.

The project team say they’ve spent months developing the product and tweaking the device in order to deliver the best possible audio.

Specifications:

Weight : 0.6 oz [ 17 g ]

Dimension : 1.5 x 2 x 0.6 in [ 38 x 51 x 15 mm ]

Material : ABS plastic

Audio Input : (2) 3.5mm stereo, male, gold plated jack (1) 3.5mm, female stereo, socket

Audio Output : (1) 3.5mm stereo, female, socket

Crossfader : 180° continuous stereo crossfader. Low noise and volume drop-out.

The campaign has attracted $1,838 of its $65,000 goal and has 34 days to go.

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Crowdfunding expert, Clay Herbert, advises project developers on how to execute successful crowdfunding campaigns – and he believes that the work you do before launch makes a big difference to your campaign.

Target the crowdfunding pitch

Herbert urges anyone hoping to get a new crowdfunding project off the ground to look hard at their sector in order to figure out who might be most interested/supportive of their campaign – and contact them to ask for their support.

“Successful crowdfunding is about being targeted,” he said in this video report. “Instead of thinking about mass, think about who are the 1,000 people that care about my product and how do I contact them.”

In one pet-related project, this advice led the campaign founder to do a great deal of initial work to identify 13,000 people who happened to both be cat lovers and fans of good design. Doing so proved to be a good idea — the campaign raised $271,154 — $241,000 more than the initial $30,000 goal.

Old ideas, new technologies

It makes complete sense, of course.

Most crowdfunding campaigns attract most of their initial funding from family, friends and colleagues of the project founder(s). The rest of the cash comes from the crowd, and while big investors will become more interested as a campaign gathers momentum, identifying and contacting potential interested strangers can make the difference between success and failure in the attempt.

This is precisely why Herbert urges anyone who has an idea to launch a project to put some time into researching their sector first.

Not only does this make solid business sense in terms of identifying and estimating the potential value of your market, but it may even unlock fresh opportunities in your chosen sector you’ve not yet identified.

In truth it’s the same rule as has always existed for business: the more effort you put into understanding your market the more likely you are to achieve success in your attempt. This has always been the case for new business start-ups. It also remains true for crowdfunding business ideas – the only difference being that it is now far easier to reach people who may support your attempt than ever before.

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The first crowdfunding conference dedicated to renewable energy takes place on October 30. The Renewable Energy Crowdfunding Conference will be held at Dexter House, London and is organised by Solarplaza. It aims to connect crowdfunding leaders with developers, investors and funders interested in the sector.

The crowd needs energy

Crowdfunding is becoming a recognised source of finance for renewable energy projects. Investors like the sector because it offers recurring income while communities are embracing such projects to help them develop off the grid.

“The Renewable Energy Crowdfunding Conference provides an excellent platform to meet like-minded individuals from across the sector. Delegates have the opportunity to learn about this unique type of investment from individuals and organisations who have already benefited,” said Paul van der Linden, Solarplaza VP.

Energy switches on to crowdfunding

The success of the Mosaic and Abundance crowdfunding platforms for such projects means the two platforms have already raised $8 million and $10 million respectively since launch. Rooftop solar projects are predicted to attract $5 billion in investment via crowdfunding platforms within five years, Solarplaza states.

Solarplaza’s Energy Crowdfunding Conference will include four sessions:

• Shaping the context
• Working the system
• Crowdfunding in practice
• The future of renewable energy crowdfunding

Those attending the conference will also meet with experts from the largest renewable energy crowdfunding platforms, Mosaic, and also Windcentrale: the largest crowdfunding platform in the sector.

Inside look

Over 50 industry leaders have confirmed their involvement, including Mosaic, Abundance Generation, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, Trillion Fund, Palmetto, res and Statkraft.

According to the conference website the top five renewable energy crowdfunding platforms include:

• Windcentrale
• Abundance Generation
• Mosaic
• Trillion Fund
• Gencommunity

Tickets can be purchased at discounted price of £199 until 31 August 2014, a saving of £100. For more information about the conference and to book tickets visit www.recrowdfunding.eu.

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London is quickly becoming the crowdfunding capital of the world, according to new figures from The Crowdfunding Centre.

London calling

The UK capital beat out San Francisco and New York with local businesses and startups creating more campaigns in July than in any other city.

Just over 250,000 new crowdfunding campaigns launched worldwide between January and July, but in London 12 new projects launch each day, on average.

Approximately 32 percent of these achieve their funding targets to raise on average £10,000 each time. These projects come from a variety of different sectors, particularly technology, gaming and publishing.

Hyper-connected startups

Crowdfunding Centre CEO, Barry James, said: “When we look at the database, I was stunned to see that London sees the most crowdfunding activity on most days.

“It’s clear from the figures that the hyper-connectivity of the startup community in London is helping. There is also the fact that compared to the US, where centres of excellence are scattered around the East and West coasts, London has become a centre of many specialisms.”

Chancellor George Osborne says: “We stand at the dawn of a new era of innovative finance, and setting the objective of the UK leading the world, London has become the world capital of Crowdfunding.”

Rise of alt. funding

Beyond London, data shows crowdfunding activity across the UK is intensifying. Just $4 million was raised via crowdfunding activity in 2012, but this climbed to £28 million in 2013. Nesta suggests alternative funding sources including crowfunding will achieve £1.6 billion by the end of 2014.

There are approximately 87 active crowdfunding services in the UK at present. These offer support across a range of sectors and you can consult our database to get a bird’s eye view of some of the available funding sources.

The number of crowdfunding platforms operating in the UK rose by over 50 per cent in 2013 according to Nesta, the UK’s innovation foundation.

Crowdfunding is growing fast

Liam Collins, Senior Researcher at Nesta, explains that a combination of modern technology and the financial crisis has accelerated crowdfunding growth:

“We’ve seen phenomenal growth in the number of platforms over the last five years, across every type from reward-based crowdfunding to peer-to-peer lending. Crowdfunding has proved immensely popular, both in the UK and globally, and these figures show that this trend is set to continue.”

It has been estimated that startups supported by crowdfunding have created 426 new jobs in London.

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The Mobile Museum is a Kickstarter project with a unique aim – to create a mobile museum of cultural activity across 11 housing estates across the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham.

Local crowdfunding mission

The idea is pretty simple:

Take a large truck, convert it into a functional museum and travel between these estates to gather photos, words, images and examples of all existing current cultural activities from residents across the area, generating publications, exhibitions and discussions among people who live in the area.

“Contemporary cultural activity across the borough will be documented, mapped and deposited in the collection; from galleries, to photography clubs, reading groups, knitting circles and jigsaw making clubs,” the project team explain.

During the five-month journey across the Barking and Dagenham the museum will create personalized magazines detailing cultural activity across each one of the eleven estates it visits.

Creative community

This is great, because it should galvanize existing creative activity while also evangelizing and encouraging further work in the sector – and creating a record of what is happening now. What’s interesting too is that this is a classic example of crowfunding from within the community to address a local goal.

The project will culminate in a screening and celebration event at Valance House, the home of London Borough of Barking and Dagenham’s archives and a museum.

Another strand to the project is reaching out to the local community to encourage them to use the borough’s existing museums, galleries and archives.

Big society?

The project seems to be an innovative attempt to use crowdfunding to  bring communities closer together, to activate creative activity and to break down barriers between communities, while also recording what kind of creative activity is taking place in this part of London today. It seems an interesting example of an innovative project with a clear social and artistic message.

Take a look at the project here.

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Looking for a crowdfunding project to put some cash into? There’s an app for that, as Indiegogo launches its own for the iPhone.

Reaching the crowdfunding crowd

While Kickstarter introduced its own iPhone app some time ago, Indiegogo’s introduction arguably suggests the importance of mobile services within the emerging digital democracy of crowdfunding, after all — potential investors and projects need to be able to reach each other no matter where they happen to be. That’s something the crowdfunding services seem to recognise.

Indiegogo CEO, Slave Rubin told TechCrunch that if the company were launching today it would be a mobile-first company.

“Having a mobile presence like this will allow for an even more localized and personalized experience, which will take away even more friction,” he said.

What it does

The new app has tools for supporting and managing campaigns on the service:

Supporting Indiegogo campaigns

• Discovering new campaigns through recommendations based on past activity and preferred categories
• Exploring and following campaign categories
• Claiming campaign perks
• Sharing favorite campaigns with friends

Managing Indiegogo campaigns

• Receiving notifications each time a contribution is made to a campaign
• Monitoring campaign comments
• Posting campaign updates and photos
• Thanking contributors
• Sending custom messages to phone contacts and Facebook friends
• Promoting campaigns on social networks

It doesn’t stop there—campaign creators will soon be able to publish an Indiegogo campaign using their phone.

The best mobile experience?

“Since day one we have been dedicated to providing our campaigners and contributors with the best funding platform in the world,” said Rubin. “This year has been one of tremendous growth for us and we’re investing heavily to continue improving Indiegogo for mobile users globally. The Indiegogo App is the first of many advancements focused on delivering the best mobile experience imaginable.”

Is the app available for the iPad? Not quite, the company states:

“We love tablets! Optimizing the Indiegogo app for iPad is one of our priorities, and we’ll make an announcement as soon as we have news to share.”

Perhaps reflecting the fragmentation of the platform, neither Kickstarter nor Indiegogo offer an app for Android just yet. However the Indiegogo promises this to be “on the radar” for release later this year — watch this space.

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Hollywood is turning to crowdfunding in a big way, with UK-born director, Simon West (Tomb Raider, Con Air) revealing plans to raise £1.8 million funding for his next movie, Salty, by selling shares through equity crowdfunding platform, Syndicate Room.

Crowdfunding the movies

West’s films have taken over a billion dollars at the box office, so a chance to grab a slice of receipts from his next movie venture should attracts some investment.

“During my two decades in the movie business I’ve funded films in a variety of ways, but for this one I was determined to break away from the big budget, big studio model. With the studios’ deep pockets comes bureaucracy that’s inefficient, expensive and which can stifle creativity,” says West.

The minimum investment you can take in West’s movie is £1,000, and those who invest $90,000 or more in the project will be invited to appear in the movie as extras. Investors get their money back if the project breaks even and will receive a share of the profits if any are made. The process has been made possible by the recent US JOBS Act.

Supplementary funding

The director is not crowdfunding all the funding he requires – the rest of his production costs will come from movie pre-sales and tax credits offered by the locations in which filming takes place.

Like many creative industries, Hollywood is becoming more interested in crowdfunding.

Movie business

New San Francisco start-up, Junction, is offering high net worth film fans the chance to invest in big name movies such as Triple Nine, starring Kate Winslet. The USP for Junction is the service sources additional funding for projects which are already in possession of the funds they need.

Hollywood’s interest follows the success of the Kickstarter funding round for the film, Veronica Mars, which raised $5.7 million

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