SME growth Archives - Page 3 of 4

Crowdfunding Benefits More Than Just Startup Businesses

Posted on June 29, 2020July 2, 2020 by Clive Reffell

Various forms of crowdfunding enable startup businesses to inexpensively test market new products, and for private companies to trade equity in exchange for an investment from new shareholders. However, perhaps it’s my time spent sailing at Greenwich Yacht Club, as well as my work as an independent crowdfunding advisor, that recently drew my attention to two very well established businesses that are currently using crowdfunding to pursue a range of objectives.

Rewards Crowdfunding

Rancourt is a US family-owned and run business that has been making handmade moccasin-style shoes, popular with “yachties,” since 1967. They subsequently expanded their range to include boots, dress shoes and leather sneakers. Today, like many other businesses the world over, and despite its good reputation, Rancourt is suffering under Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.

Crowdfunding isn’t just for startup businesses

Through their own website, they have started offering shoes in a limited number of styles on a rewards crowdfunding basis at wholesale prices. They will collect orders to a threshold of around 150 pairs per style, then make shoes in batches of 300. This will ensure they don’t produce an over-supply of stock that will tie up their stretched cash resources and then simply gather dust.

There are several benefits to trying to generate business even if it will not make them much immediate profit.

It will keep their artisan workforce employed
It will generate business for their supply chain
It gives new customers an opportunity to experience their premium products at an advantageous price
The cash income will contribute to central overheads
They will avoid producing unwanted stock

In crowdfunding terms this is known as the “All or Nothing” model. A crowdfunding project can ask people to pre-order, while also setting a minimum total order figure. That figure will be calculated to cover the raw materials, ‘tooling up’ and all other costs of a first production run, plus delivery of the finished goods.

If the stated minimum target is reached, production goes ahead on a de-risked basis. If it isn’t reached, any pre-payments are returned to customers and the product creators can have a rethink without having incurred costs of producing unwanted goods, hiring storage space or servicing a debt.

In the UK, crowdfunding operates outside the Sale of Goods Act. Due to the time it could take to reach the minimum order total, and produce and deliver the goods, some of the earliest ‘purchasers’ may have to expect to wait longer than 28 days to receive their orders.

Equity Crowdfunding

The second sailing-related project I noticed is being run by a Swedish engineering company, GreenStar Marine International. They have been in business almost 20 years and make a range of inboard and outboard electric motors for all types of recreational boats.

They have no protected intellectual property in their motors, and now that sustainability and safeguarding waterways is a higher priority for many boat owners and users, GreenStar want to expand their silent-running and fume-free product range and dealer network faster than they would be able to through organic growth.

They are offering equity in the business to investors who will become shareholders, and thus share the risks and rewards of company ownership. Crowdfunding has democratised the business fundraising process, that was previously available mainly to people with access to “old boy networks” of VC investors or high net worth individuals.

At the time of writing GreenStar Marine International had raised 131% of their target with 69 days still to run.

With almost two decades’ experience of running their business, they are confident of a high rate of return for investors when they go ahead with an IPO planned for late 2021. Though capital is always at risk, and nothing can be guaranteed.

To learn more about Crowdfunding, registration is now open for free tickets to an all-day webinar on August 27 featuring a range of international speakers. The link gives further information.

In the meantime, feel free to contact me if you are considering crowdfunding to test a new product, to launch a new business or expand an existing one. I am an independent crowdfunding advisor, uninfluenced by formal ties to any specific crowdfunding platforms. Email me at [email protected].

Why Do Many Startups Still Fail After Reaching A Crowdfunding Target?

Posted on May 12, 2020May 12, 2020 by Clive Reffell

I have looked at this topic because I help small businesses and startups raise money through crowdfunding. There are plenty of times when an influx of investment allows them to scale up, which can often mean introducing new procedures and “control levers” to steer colleagues/employees, and maybe suppliers and customers, in new directions. It doesn’t always run smoothly.

Unfortunately for these plans, most people are naturally and inherently change resistant. It’s in our DNA to want to keep things around us they way they are. It’s a fundamental part of our defence mechanism as it helps us to spot anything out of the ordinary or unexpected that could be a threat. “Human beings are programmed to fear the unknown,” says a recruitment tv commercial for the Royal Marines.

Many change initiatives fail because they are decided by a management minority and then foisted on to the majority, employees or other stakeholders, who are suddenly supposed to adopt new ways of working that are unknown to them. Without adequate pre-selling or involvement in a process to bring them on-side from an early stage, a change initiative can be sunk by a majority of people simply sticking to doing what they previously did in the ways they previously did it.

This can even be the cause of friction between business founders if they didn’t all agree on the scaleup measures to begin with. In a business’s early days, it might all be about taking risks. As a business develops and goes through successive funding rounds, whether it’s money from a crowd or institutional investors, or even sales, the emphasis – and perhaps pressure from new shareholders – can change to “let’s not start to muck it up now that we’re nearly there.”

Perhaps high risk-taking mavericks that were the company’s early spearhead are still in the team, but may be less disposed to a more cautious approach – and the new people who will now help implement it. This is one example of how friction can develop, distracting effort away from building the business before it’s even standing on its own two feet.

This is what’s meant by “company culture eats strategy.” Company culture is an emotional element that binds colleagues together with shared expectations of each other, and it has to be tackled alongside procedural ones to initiate change. A startup team will have often developed a strong culture, meddling with it can be tricky.

For more on the topic, take a look at this article (which is nothing to do with me, I just liked the look of it from the ones I found in a Google search): Culture eats strategy for breakfast – The Management Centre. It also has a five point plan to initiate change successfully.

Tips on Making an Effective Crowdfunding Video

Posted on April 9, 2020April 9, 2020 by Clive Reffell

In my role as an independent crowdfunding adviser I’m often involved in matters to do with making videos as part of a pitch to investors, backers or donors. And where a client wants me to work on the basis of payment based on results of a successful project, it would be irresponsible of me not to ask for involvement with such a crucial aspect of a pitch. So I’ve built up a list of some tips that I thought I’d share.

Video production companies don’t have all the answers

The first tip is do not assume that a video production company knows what should be in your crowdfunding video. Some do, though not all of them. Even if they say they do, they might not.

This week the founder of a video production company asked to connect with me via LinkedIn. I confirmed with him he had worked making crowdfunding videos, and he sent me a link to one he had shot for an equity crowdfunding project.

Throughout the five minutes of the video I was waiting for the company founder to tell me why he was raising money, how much was needed, what it would be used for, the current company valuation, what the new value could be when the latest investment had been secured and the developments implemented, what their potential exit strategy might be, and a possible Return On Investment. None of it was ever mentioned. The video might encourage a few new customers to make a purchase, but there was nothing in it to convince anyone to invest in a share of the business.

It turned out that the video team had simply followed the client’s brief, didn’t offer any ideas on the content, and made their usual sort of company video in their usual sort of way.

How to start thinking about your crowdfunding video

Whether your project is to sell equity in your business or generate donations, maybe for rewards, there are common aspects of a good video. These tips from rewards platform Indiegogo are well worth a look, they’ve certainly had enough videos to look at to spot the common ingredients of what works: https://learn.indiegogo.com/making-your-video-great-campaign-video-creation-guide/. This link takes you to some tips gathered from four sources by the equity crowdfunding platform Seedrs: https://www.seedrs.com/academy/how-to-perfect-your-crowdfunding-video-pitch/

Also, spend time watching the videos of successful projects yourself to identify what they have in common, and to spot anything different that makes any of them stand out to you in a positive way.

Spontaneity or a well-rehearsed script?

As much as you should not rely on spontaneous inspiration of what to say, writing a tight script and saying it word-for-word can sometimes lose too much spontaneity and make you sound flat, unengaging and uninspiring. On the other hand, don’t employ a video company and only start thinking about what to say when they turn up, or you arrive at their studio.

I once saw a good video that had been expensive to make because the video team had been with the project leaders all day and they hadn’t been able to shoot the right content to put together an effective three minute film. At the end of the day, almost in exasperation, the three founders sat round a table to talk it through once again, and the camera stayed rolling. This footage is what was finally edited to produce a very naturally flowing video in which they said all the right things to convince enough backers.

So do some concentrated brain storming and throw some ideas around with people who know inside out what you’re doing with your business or new product idea, film yourselves on your smartphones to get comfortable with talking to camera, and reach a point where you pretty much know what’s going to be in your video. Then get a video team with a decent camera and sound equipment to film it and use a good editing suite to pull it together.

Prepare storyboards

Do you know about preparing storyboards? Storyboards will keep you on track while shooting and give the video team a good idea of the intended end result before they start doing anything.

Maybe share the storyboards with them at a pre-production meeting so they can think about how to stage and light some of the shots you want. It gives them an opportunity for technical input (rather than asking them for creative input) and thus plays to their strengths.

Overall, the more you do, the more the video team can just get on with it and it will be more affordable for you. It will make the process less open-ended, and you’ll be more certain they’ve shot the right content.

Get the most value from the video team

After shooting the main video content, record some other short pieces to use later while the crowdfunding is running, messages like: “Hey, we’ve reached 30% or 40%,” or “we’re half way there” or “we’ve reached the first £50,000 – thank you all so much. But there’s still a way to go. Please let your friends know about us…..”

Have these clips ready to use via your social media before they are actually needed, so anyone can just lift them down from the proverbial shelf.

Consider changing some clothes for these other mesages as they will go out at different times during your crowdfunding project.

Other crowdfunding video tips

There are more crowdsourced tips from various other people here: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-most-important-points-to-remember-while-making-a-crowdfunding-pitch-video

Like anything else, perfect preparation prevents pathetic performance.

Maximising the Impact of B2B Social Media

Posted on August 25, 2019 by Clive Reffell

Responsibility for executing an organisation’s Marketing has changed drastically. Back when digital multi-channel television and colour photographs in newspapers were becoming the new normal, I was planning where and when international clients and household brand names should run their media advertising campaigns, and convincing their heads of marketing to sign off eight-figure annual budgets.

Today, just as importantly for the businesses involved, I handle social media accounts and write articles for B2B clients to post on their websites and elsewhere as part of a Content Marketing strategy. In terms I learned at school in GCSE Economics classes, Marketing for many organisations, particularly smaller ones, has transitioned from a capital intensive activity (needs a lot of money) to a more labour intensive one (less cash outlay, though needs more time spent on it). Whose time should it be?

Old School Marketing

Imagine standing at a podium in front of a large crowd of people, telling them things about your business. Some of them are your customers, some of them are people you’d like to be your customers, and some of them are people who could be asked for advice on whether they think you’re any good. You have the only microphone, you are standing on an elevated stage. You know where your audience is to face them, though you can’t see them very well through the stage lights.

This is how much of marketing communications used to be done – broadcasting. Whilst there is some element of audience interaction – you can hear if you make them laugh, or when they didn’t at a point you hoped they would – it is fundamentally a one-way experience to deliver a controlled, scripted message to an audience switched on to politely sit and ‘receive.’

To ensure the advertising and PR message(s) being put out were the correct ones, and that they were delivered professionally and effectively, you would have hired an advertising agency and a PR company. The messages would be relayed through media owners – the press, radio and tv companies – that controlled the gateways to reach their readers, listeners and viewers. Or you could use direct mail, or some leaflets delivered door-to-door.

Whatever a business chose to do, it was almost totally handled externally, and managed by an internal Marketing team or person. By far the majority of any organisations’ employees had nothing at all to do with it.

Today’s Reality

Now think about sitting at a table with a group of eight or ten people from that theatre audience, who have been selected to discuss your business and its ‘brand values’ – the reputational values and core skills you want your business to be associated with. You can all see each other on the same level, there are no microphones, no stage lights. The process of communicating is very different, and the biggest difference is now that you will have to spend a lot of time listening.

As you begin to talk there will be interruptions, of agreement and disagreement, it will be a true iterative process. The people round the table will start talking to each other, maybe some to defend you, others to pile on the pressure of what they think your business lacks or is failing to do (or say) properly, or even chip in with personal poor experiences. You will be debating, advocating, persuading and interacting. You might find it can be a bit like this when you’re networking at events.

Then add to the table a couple of your employees. The other people at the table are likely to make judgements based on what they say as much as what you say. Do they support or deviate from your own core messages; how enthusiastic are they; do they project a ‘united front’ of consistent values, knowledge and skills? Or maybe they sit there absent-mindedly gazing out of the window while ignoring the conversation, your customers, influencers and other stakeholders who are present.

This is more what Marketing has become in the interactive two-way street of social media, with direct and immediate person-to-person (C2C) contact without permission or approval required from gatekeepers, and with every person creating and delivering their own messages in their own style. It’s a powerful process that can easily use images and video clips. It’s also chaotic, noisy, cluttered and taking place 24/7. And it’s a process that at best you can hope to influence though never actually control. So wouldn’t it be better if there were a few more people helping out?

Marketing Is Not A Person

Inside your own business, think about the numerous people responsible for direct contact with your clients, with key decision-makers: are they all saying the right things, the same things, about the business? And with what degree of enthusiasm or lacklustre detachment?

You also have other ‘back room’ employees in contact with your clients’ counterparts, and occasionally perhaps local authorities, licensing bodies, suppliers, professional trade bodies, the taxman, local and specialist professional media – don’t think this is unimportant. Every contact point at every level influences external perception of your business and what it’s like to do business with you: how the phones are answered; how emails are worded; accuracy and timing of the response to questions; timely and accurate billing; how problems are handled – do people take responsibility or play the blame game? As a start point, it’s why you’re (usually) all smartly dressed and presentable for business meetings – to project a good image. Everything else is simply an extension of this.

Marketing’s ‘New Normal’

These days, a wider appreciation of Marketing should be part of a successful company’s DNA, woven in to its very fabric. In the new “always on” digital-era business environment, it’s more a state of mind, a company culture, not restricted to people who have the word in their job title.

Supporting the company’s digital and social media marketing doesn’t require anyone to spend large amounts of time on it, start writing their own engaging content or become a social media influencer with a multitude of followers. A fuller commitment to the company’s business aims can start with as little as a Click now and again on a LinkedIn Update ‘Share’ or ‘Like’ buttons, or a Twitter re-tweet or a ‘Like.’ To do nothing is to gaze out of the window.

Crowdfunding does more than raise money

Posted on November 22, 2018November 23, 2018 by Clive Reffell

I was recently asked about crowdfunding by the founder of a startup business that makes a range of non-alcoholic wine. There was nothing confidential in my reply, so I thought I’d share it with you.

You’re absolutely right that crowdfunding can be a more time consuming way to raise money compared to perhaps a VC investment or an angel investor. Yet there are other benefits that go way beyond the money it raises.

For example, VCs were queueing up to invest in Chapel Down (the celebrated English sparkling wine maker) when in 2014 they launched their equity crowdfunding campaign. Beyond raising £3.9m in three weeks, their CEO Frazer Thompson told me that crowdfunding had generated 1,500 brand advocates who would spread positive word-of-mouth, buy Chapel Down products at every gift-giving opportunity, and create sampling opportunities by stocking their wines (now beers as well since they built a brewery with some of the money they raised, and gin too) both at home and in their company drinks cabinets. Priceless!

Crowdfunding creates a virtuous circle whereby customers can become shareholders and shareholders become customers. I’m caught up in it myself as an investor in a craft brewery and a gin maker. If “my brands” are available, why drink others? Shareholders catapult themselves right up the brand loyalty ladder.

Hop Stuff Brewery started five years ago when it raised £58,000 through offering 34% of equity. It’s now valued at over £25m, with products stocked in Wetherspoons (which encourages lower than regular cost product trial), Tesco and Majestic Wine; it has a growing chain of beer and pizza outlets; and international sales and franchise brewing agreements. Hundreds of their 1,000+ investors from three rounds of crowdfunding on Crowdcube attended an “Investor Fiesta” event at their new brewery back in August.

A network of investors can be used for research purposes and to ask for ad hoc assistance such as help recruit staff, recommend suppliers, volunteer their own services, and so on. At the Hop Stuff event I heard a fellow investor volunteer to use his contacts to help sort out supplies of CO2, which if you remember was in short supply in the summer.

Even if it’s not a main aim of the crowdfunding, it could find you an angel investor. This happened to some people I know who started a business making tissues from bamboo. To begin with, all they wanted was an initial £10,000 of orders through rewards crowdfunding to provide validation they weren’t wasting their time. A backer was impressed with what he saw and stepped forward to invest, which allowed the founders to greatly speed up product development and company growth. So do eveything as professionally as possible.

They were a top-seller on Amazon very quickly. Within three years the company founders raised £500,000 in October 2018 for 10% equity on the Seedrs crowdfunding platform – they had a business valued at £5m!

Their latest news is The Cheeky Panda tissues are now stocked in Tesco and Morrisons; in the summer they signed a £1m corporate investment deal that valued them at £20m; and right now they are running a second round of equity crowdfunding for existing investors in which they are offering 5% for £1m.

Good crowdfunding is also good marketing. I call it an ultimate direct marketing campaign. There’s a start date, an end date, lots to do, and if you fail to hit target you don’t raise any money. Naturally there are risks, though by breaking a crowdfunding campaign down in to component parts each potential risk can be addressed and minimised. I’ve created a Seven Stage Assessment to check if a business is ready to start crowdfunding, and identify areas that need to be addressed before going public.

My approach is more from a marketing angle, since that’s what I’ve always done. I am not a finance expert and not qualified to give financial advice. Though I can provide an experienced layman’s assessment on how appealing any offer may be to the public. I do have a post-grad diploma from the Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing and a Professional Diploma in Management from the Open University Business School.

One vital tip is that crowdfunding should not begin until you have done enough personal pre-selling for 30% of the financial target to fly in to your crowdfunding campaign within the very first few days. This applies whether you’re trying to generate product orders or offering equity. This gives immense confidence to other backers who don’t know and haven’t met you, and creates valuable momentum. So if you have a target of £200,000 your pre-selling should reach a guaranteed support level of £60,000 in the bag before you start crowdfunding in the public eye (ideally more to allow for dropouts).

Early success is newsworthy and hard-working PR will generate media coverage to add to your early momentum. On the other hand, crowdfunding without pre-selling is like shovelling quicksand – hard work and you get nowhere.

How much it costs and how long it will take depend on:

how well your business rates against my Seven Stage Assessment
how much work has to be done to become investment-ready
of that, what can be done internally and how much has to be outsourced
including how enthusiastic and good you are at using social media – and “it’s ok, my kids use Facebook, they can help” isn’t good enough
success rate of using PR to secure media coverage
how long it takes to drum up support to reach the first 30% of your target.

If you have no social media networks to drive people to your crowdfunding project it may first require months of work to build some. Or months to accumulate impressive media coverage you’ll be able to refer to, or both, ideally.

Outsourcing support and input can even begin with the pitch document. A 30-chart deck may be very thorough but it’s too much for a potential equity investor to wade through with enthusiasm. Most look for the first reason they can give themselves as to why not to invest so they can move on to the next opportunity. Simply having to spend too long to get a feel of an opportunity is a good enough reason to discard it right away.

Don’t forget the taxman. Many retail investors prefer businesses to be registered with HMRC under EIS and SEIS agreements. These Enterprise Investment Schemes allow tax-paying investors to claim valuable rebates of up to 50% of the cost of their investment, and shelter capital gains from CGT. Under SEIS a company founder can invest up to £100,000 in their own business and claim a refund. Make sure you understand and take advantage of these benefits for yourself and your backers.

To close, what you see online when people and organisations run crowfdfunding campaigns is like the tip of an iceberg visible above the waterline. Invisible under the water is a vast amount of planning and preparation, and a fair amount of stress. It’s not impossible to run a crowdfunding campaign alone if you’re tough and resiliant enough, though most people need some help and support, be it technical or emotional or anything else. This comes either from a team of willing supporters who between them provide all the necessary skills required to achieve your success, or you need a budget. Most times it’s a bit of both. If you want to talk about your ideas that could transform your life please get in touch, [email protected].

How Crowdfunding is Changing Business

Posted on August 26, 2018August 28, 2018 by Clive Reffell

For many startup entrepreneurs (and d-i-y investors who back them) the most significant form of modern day crowdsourcing is crowdfunding. Rather than trying to impress a single backer to support a business idea, perhaps through chasing a grant or bank loan, or by catching the attention of an elusive angel investor, crowdfunding has decentralized the process and enables business startups to ask crowds of people directly – some of whom they know and many they don’t – to each provide a relatively small level of support. It also builds communities of followers and supporters, where customers become investors and investors become customers in a virtuous circle.

Favourable “light touch” treatment of equity crowdfunding (where investors pay for a slice of ownership of a business, and accept the risk that it may fail) by the financial regulators allowed the UK to emerge as the world’s market leader. Crowdcube was one of the first equity platforms to appear, in 2011, and it recently announced a total figure of more than £500 million invested so far in 700 funding rounds. The banking app Revolut and the Scottish brewery Brewdog, both currently worth over £1 billion, launched through Crowdcube.

Although some of the startups supported by crowds of sometimes relatively unsophisticated backers might be mocked by professional investors for some fanciful financial forecasts, many disruptive and challenger brands have emerged whose impact on established business sectors often far outweighs their market share or company valuations. Being new can mean a fresh approach unbound by a legacy of the past, even though a lack of a track record makes it hard to interest traditional investors at the beginning.

Here are examples in three business sectors where challenger brands used the power of crowds and are disrupting the status quo.

Banking
London-based Revolut, the UK’s fastest growing fintech company, ran a crowdfunding campaign as recently as 2016 to raise £1m and get started. Crowdfunding was also good marketing for them as it generated a core crowd of hundreds of investors who would become keen customers and brand ambassadors.

Revolut’s CEO and co-founder Nikolay Storonsky

The co-founders’ business idea came from their personal frustration with exchange rate markups, inexplicable foreign transaction fees and the overall hassle of managing a bank account abroad.

Today, Revolut provides over two million customers (two million customers acquired in two years!) with a debit card allowing the holders to spend money in 150 currencies with no fees. They estimate they have saved their customers over £560m in traditional banking fees, and in 2018 raised $250m through corporate investment which valued the business at $1.7bn (£1.2bn).

Brands like Revolut and fellow banking newcomer Monzo are definitely shaking up the traditional banks and changing customer expectations. The technology was there, but the existing high street banks still provided us all with slower, less sophisticated and more expensive services. With us all the way, are they?

Brewing
Behind Brewdog which is now a unicorn startup valued at over £1bn, there are many smaller craft brewers that continue to launch with modest funding and provide UK drinkers with a vast choice of beers and ales made with hands-on quality control and finer ingredients than high volume mass-market brands can access in sufficient volume.

An example is the fast growing Hop Stuff Brewery in south east London. City finance professional James Yeomans found he enjoyed home-brewing more than his time spent in the office and became determined to take it further. In 2013, without any commercial brewing experience – but he could talk “money” – he used equity crowdfunding through Crowdcube to raise £58,000 in exchange for 34% ownership of his startup craft beer brewery.

The business grew, and alongside attracting corporate investments it ran a second round of equity crowdfunding that closed in January 2017, and then a third smaller one in early 2018. Although corporate investors were by now queuing up for a slice of the business and crowdfunding was unnecessary for purely financial reasons, crowdfunding has provided Hop Stuff with a dedicated following of over a thousand supporters happy to perform unofficial Brand Ambassador roles. They influence people to sample the brewery’s products through positive word-of-mouth, and ask pubs and bars where they drink to stock them.

Hop Stuff is currently opening a number of its own “beer and pizza” bars under the Taproom brand, filling a global order book and signing overseas franchise brewing agreements. Compare this to the rest of the UK beer trade: the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) recently reported annual sales were 1.7% down, and in August 2018 the BBC reported UK pubs are closing at a rate of 18 a week. Hop Stuff Brewery is certainly bucking the trend, has just moved to larger brewing premises, and five years after launching with £58,000 raised through equity crowdfunding it is valued at over £25 million.

At an invite-only event for his crowdfunding investors in August 2018, founder James Yeomans announced that packaged Hop Stuff Brewery products will soon be on the shelves in London branches of Tesco, Oddbins and Majestic Wine.

Grocery items
Bamboo is a fast-growing sustainable product with four growth cycles a year. Tissues made from bamboo rather than paper are naturally stronger, softer and more hygienic. They can be made with a 65% smaller carbon footprint.

Who created and introduced this breakthrough eco-friendly product to the UK? Was it corporate giants Kimberly-Clark or Procter & Gamble that own market-leading worldwide tissue brands? No, it was a pair of UK holidaymakers who returned home from China, researched possibilities and wrote a business plan to utilise abundant supplies of unwanted surplus bamboo they had seen being left to rot.

A modest reward crowdfunding project on the Crowdfunder UK platform with a target to generate £10,000 of orders gained the attention of a crowd of early adopters and, by chance, an angel investor. Within three years the founders of The Cheeky Panda tissue company ran an equity crowdfunding campaign with Seedrs that raised £500,000 and valued their business at £5m. The brand is a top seller on Amazon.

So even in the high-volume fmcg sector (fast moving consumer goods) dominated by massive brands that are supported with multi-million £ advertising budgets, crowdfunding – the crowdsourcing of both money and a community of supporters – enables entrepreneurs to introduce innovative products and disrupt existing markets.

If you are considering crowdfunding as a means to launch a startup, or maybe to grow an existing business, I can provide you with independent crowdfunding advice and hands-on support. I have no ties to any particular crowdfunding platforms. Please email me, [email protected]. Let’s discuss your ideas and set about building them in to a plan of action.

10 Tips on Reward Crowdfunding from a Tech Startup

Posted on July 20, 2018July 22, 2018 by Clive Reffell

Hribarcain is a newly founded UK technology company that was launched on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter in 2016. After starting in a small design studio in Bristol their first product launch was “Magno, The World’s First Magnetically Controlled Pencil.” They then developed a range of titanium pens and expanded internationally to provide products to thousands of customers worldwide, raising over £250,000 in revenue. As an SME marketing and crowdfunding specialist I was keen to meet the company founders at a recent networking event and hear more of their story.

Co-founders Ashley Hribar-Green and Matthew Aston Cain are British entrepreneurs with a wealth of experience in product design engineering. After working for one of the largest technology companies in the world (Dyson), Ashley and Matthew launched Hribarcain to pursue their dream of designing products that challenge convention as a result of ground breaking innovation. In this case it began with a range of magnetically controlled propelling pencils with a subsequent brand extension in to pens.

Rewards crowdfunding allowed Hribarcain to promote their products direct to end-user buyers without first needing retail distribution agreements. They also used Indiegogo in 2018 for a campaign with US dollar pricing, whereas their Kickstarter campaigns have been priced in UK pounds.

Matthew already had previous experience from using reward crowdfunding on Kickstarter to generate orders for his range of Astoncain minimalist watches with top quality components and functions at a reasonable price. At a recent networking event in London organised by Masterclass Crowdfunding, he happily shared 10 top tips based on his seven years’ experience of using reward crowdfunding.

1. Have a clear and concise video that runs under 2 minutes – it’s your business card. This is his advice after sometimes using longer running videos.

2. Advertising – use some! Let people know you’re crowdfunding

3. At the close of the project don’t simply just fulfill the reward item orders, up-sell to the buyers. In Magno’s experience it can add a further 15% sales income

4. Make your pricing attractive, reduce it to create urgency within the limited time period of your crowdfunding project, maybe to 50% of RRP

5. Possess a clearly defined USP (Unique Selling Proposition) to stand out from competitors

6. Use quality photography in your crowdfunding project. It will help to enhance the image of your product or service and reassure people you’re serious about what you’re offering them

7. Only use quality, reliable manufacturers who won’t cut corners and reduce the value of your items

8. Price in a minimum 50% margin to allow for mistakes and to afford some marketing (see Point 2)

9. Consider fulfillment delivery costs right at the start of selecting reward items and maybe opt for smaller, lighter ones, or at least smaller packaging to meet postal rate sizes

10. Find other crowdfunding project owners who have complementary products, such as matching up pen makers and notebook suppliers, or maybe cooler boxes and food and drink providers, and agree to co-promote each other’s products to your respective networks.

All of these are great pieces of advice, though there’s also a lot more to consider. If you are considering using reward crowdfunding yourself then please get in touch via [email protected] for us to meet, either in person in London or maybe on Skype, and discuss your ideas and how to effectively plan for success. You can also follow me on Twitter, @Cliveref.

Successful Equity Crowdfunding On A Shoestring

Posted on April 2, 2018 by Clive Reffell

When Joel Burgess studied Mechanical Engineering he had little idea he would one day almost single-handedly raise over £190,000 through equity crowdfunding to launch Nutrifix, an app that combines convenience food with nutritional advice and signposts where to find a meal to suit any specific nutritional need. Joel describes his equity crowdfunding as the hardest work he has ever had to do in his life. Thorough preparation was the secret to his success.

Background
Joel’s personal story is that he was a very competitive rugby player, though had to give up the game due to a serious injury. As sports people sometimes do, Joel continued for a while with the same diet but he wasn’t burning off as many calories. He took advice to redesign his diet, though was rather non-plussed as to how to maintain the correct protein, fats and carbohydrate balance when faced with the array of items available in salad and sandwich bars and restaurants. A simple mention of the calorie content of each menu item wasn’t enough.

So to help stay in shape he researched and built himself a spreadsheet based on food and meals from a range of outlets he used. The results were evident, and when Joel found 10 people were prepared to pay him £75 for a copy of the spreadsheet he began to think this level of traction showed him he might have a worthwhile idea for a business startup. He decided to develop it as an app to be more functional and interactive. He started that in September 2016 and it launched in January 2017.

Preparation before crowdfunding
Joel also built up his social media following and engaged with potential users. He discovered he had a very keen audience to test and trial the app before it was released, and in time went on to reach over 1,000 users before spending a penny on marketing.

Further encouragement came when Just Eat contributed £20,000 seed money after Joel pitched to them during London Food Week. They also invited him on their first food tech accelerator: they bought into him (people buy people!) and the problem his app was trying to solve, and the size of the market made it a viable commercial opportunity.

Support from a recognised backer, in this case a high street name, always reassures small retail investors who believe that the company’s legal team will have undertaken a thorough due diligence, and that it’s safe to get behind the startup. Joel really leveraged Just Eat’s support during his crowdfunding that followed.

A friend worked at the equity crowdfunding platform Crowdcube and so that was pretty much the extent of deciding which platform to use. Working with Crowdcube, Joel spent a lot of time on his business model and creating a P&L statement. The platform drilled right down to check any claim he was making as part of their due diligence to safeguard investors’ money.

Another pal offered to make his video for him at a reduced rate, and again Crowdcube were there to help by checking his video script avoided any false or unsupportable claims.

In the pre-crowdfunding period before his campaign went ‘live’ Joel created the majority of the social media and email content he was going to send out, with images filed and ready, and spreadsheets of financial projections and cash flow forecasts if these were asked for. He prepared to use every touchpoint available to him, including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

His preparation also included creating a list of what he imagined were going to be the most Frequently Asked Questions, and came up with answers. This way, Joel was able to answer most questions quickly with a ‘copy and paste’ technique, and to be on the safe side he added to the list every new question that was put to him, with the answer that he gave.

He was also in no doubt as to how vital it is for a crowdfunding campaign to start with a bang rather than a whimper, and he set about meeting contacts to encourage some early support. Reaching around 30% of target in the first few days, certainly at least 20%, is generally regarded as essential to create momentum and impress other investors who may otherwise be more inclined to stay sitting on the sidelines. Crowdfunding can’t be done totally online, there is still a need for some vital face-to-face personal selling.

Crowdfunding delivers more than just money
Joel’s high level of preparation meant that when the crowdfunding was ‘live’ his diary was free enough to fix meetings with potential investors who wanted to meet him, and to speak at a couple of events Crowdcube organised for him.

This part of his journey was a real emotional roller coaster. Some investors said they really liked his idea and business plan, others tore him apart and made him sometimes wonder if his dream might collapse rather than become a reality. “This is where you discover your inner resilience, you have to rise to the challenge and be ready to impress the next potential backer.”

The crowdfunding target was £150,000. In the end Joel overshot his target by 29% and raised £194,310 from 375 investors (an average investment of £518) in exchange for 24.46% of his equity. This meant he had a business that the public crowdfunding process had given a market value of £485,000. Through his crowdfunding campaign he had also grown his user network to 750 and gathered 3,500 social media followers. Effective crowdfunding is effective marketing.

And finally, Nutrifix now has a network of active investors, and many have become brand advocates who are keen to help it grow through positive word of mouth and other more direct assistance when contacted. Joel keeps in regular contact through monthly e-mails, and also reaches out to them when he needs some particular help or wants to make new contacts.

Does Marketing need marketing to startups and SMEs?

Posted on August 15, 2017 by Clive Reffell

At #IoTUKInvestorDay on July 17 I heard 10 tech startup entrepreneurs with a business related to The Internet Of Things pitching to raise in most cases hundreds of thousands of pounds. Several wanted to make a transformational step by setting up Sales & Marketing teams and start B2C marketing. Sounded like some scaleup work opportunities for nimble marketing professionals.

Although it’s hard to be certain in a quick-fire series of five minute pitches, a repeated inference to the potential investors in the audience seemed – to me – to be “we’ve done the hard yards getting this far with our invention/discovery/vision/app/idea, and now all we need to scaleup is [your] money to pay for some marketing, then sales will inevitably follow, and we’ll all be sharing the rewards.”

The marketing function with its complexities and uncertainties was mentioned almost as an afterthought, even though it would be the untested new element in the mix to take some of these companies on a transformational step to the next stage of their development. One speaker had indeed used up his allotted time without getting to what a large chunk of the money he was raising was going to be used for – so he settled for an almost dismissive “marketing and all that jazz.” This shows little regard for the skills and expertise required to organise and execute effectively an organisation’s marketing and contribute to achieving its overall business goals. It thus also underestimates a good marketer’s value to an organisation.

Should the marketing profession, perhaps through its representative bodies like The Marketing Society and IDM (Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing) market the business discipline of Marketing to the entrepreneurial, startup, SME sectors?

If you are an entrepreneur with a business you want to either startup or scaleup and would like to understand more about benefits and opportunities provided by reward, equity or debt crowdfunding then please get in touch, [email protected]. I am an independent crowdfunding adviser, not affiliated to any particular platforms. I have over 30 years of varied marketing experience and have specialised in crowdfunding for the last three – making me almost an industry veteran!

How crowdfunding can turn a holiday idea in to business reality

Posted on March 20, 2017December 31, 2020 by Clive Reffell

Let me guide you through the inspiring journey of The Cheeky Panda, a business idea to make toilet tissue from bamboo pulp that started on a 2015 holiday in China and then used rewards crowdfunding to test product viability and financially de-risk setting up a company, plus much more. Successful equity crowdfunding completed in August 2017 gave the company founders a business valued at over £5m. By June 2020 they had grown it to over £50m!

The founders of The Cheeky Panda are Chris Forbes and Julie Chen, based in Essex. In 2015 they took a holiday to China for Chris to meet Julie’s family. They couldn’t help but notice huge quantities of unused and unwanted bamboo lying around. Bamboo is a grass not a tree, and grows so fast there are three crops a year. Local communities had a requirement for only 10% of the bamboo that grew around them, and how to develop a commercial opportunity from the 90% literally left lying around became something that intrigued Chris and Julie.

Their eventual idea was to make tissue paper, and the first version was toilet rolls. This was a great choice, as tissue made from bamboo pulp rather than paper is stronger, softer, and naturally more hygienic. Their idea also had strong economic and ecological benefits: it would create work, benefit the local ecosystem to clear away some of the surplus bamboo being left to rot, and making tissue from bamboo produces a 65% lower carbon footprint than making it from trees or recycled paper.

Beginning the manufacturing process for a first trial quantity needed an order for a minimum viable volume, and without any distribution outlets lined up for an as yet unproven product it would have been a gamble to go ahead. Rewards crowdfunding de-risked the process.

A six week campaign on Crowdfunder in early 2016 required £10,000 of donations and pre-orders to trigger the first production run. If support didn’t reach this level there would be no obligation to fulfil any pre-orders, and it would tell them their idea wasn’t such a good one after all. And without product validation Chris and Julie would have put their entrepreneurial efforts in to other business ideas instead.

The volume of toilet tissue they would receive from China would be enough to meet the crowdfunding pre-orders – priced at just enough below the cost of premium paper products to be attractive yet provide a sufficient yield – and give Chris samples to take to potential retail stockists. This really emphasises they were using rewards crowdfunding as a stepping stone to launch a business, and not using it as an end in itself as a limited project to just make a quick and short-term return as a side issue.

Success could transform their lives, and they believed it was worth some considerable effort. While continuing with their regular jobs they put in an estimated 20 hours of work a week for four months to product research, planning and eventually execute their crowdfunding campaign. And they set aside £2,500 to make an animated video, create a website and conduct their marketing.

Their marketing strategy relied on stunts, parties and personal appearances, always wearing their photogenic Cheeky Panda hats to generate media coverage they amplified through their website and social media. They also courted relevant trade and professional media, and through a flexible content plan achieved coverage in Management Today and FMCG News (fmcg = fast moving consumer goods, a “must read” for anyone in the supermarket business) as well as local media in Essex, the Daily Mail and Huffington Post. I met Chris and Julie at an event at Brand Exchange, a business networking club in The City, where their distinctive headgear invited people to approach them.

My contribution of independent crowdfunding advice to their already well-advanced efforts was to suggest a corporate angle, to approach Chinese companies based in London such as Cathay Pacific airline as potential customers, and to contact the Chinese Business and Social Networking organisation, which Julie signed up to within a few days.

In reality, they had left little to chance. Chris had used his contacts and business skills to personally pre-sell their new product and gain pre-commitments to begin their crowdfunding with high impact. Strong early support creates momentum and confidence to encourage other unknown people to become involved. By just eight days in to their six week crowdfunding campaign on Crowdfunder they had hit 67% of their £10,000 target.

Their further marketing efforts closed the campaign on a high as they reached almost £13,000 of orders and donations. As a crowdfunding backer I received an e-mail with an expected delivery date of my ‘reward’ (45 rolls!), but then received a second one to say there would be a delay. It was for a very positive reason, they were changing from cheap plastic to biodegradable packaging.

This was affordable, and would be a positive note for longer-term reputation and growth, after a financial backer who had tracked their progress asked to be involved in the company. Their rewards crowdfunding with its well-planned and professionally executed marketing had also found them an angel investor.

In summary, The Cheeky Panda founders invested a total of £5,000 and lot of effort in a rewards crowdfunding project that achieved:
• Product validation from 67 backers who supported them to the tune of £12,785 of donations and pre-orders;
• A visible media profile in local and national press, general business management and specific supermarket retail media, and online in ecological and current affairs platforms;
• Stock samples for discussions with retailers and other stockists;
• An angel investor.

The Cheeky Panda range expanded with facial tissues, their products were available on Amazon and through a number of ‘health stores’, and by March 2017 they were in negotiations with a major supermarket chain.

September 2017 update
In August The Cheeky Panda ran an equity crowdfunding campaign on the Seedrs platform. Based on a pre-crowdfunding company valuation of £4,653,000 they were seeking to raise £350,003 in exchange for 7% equity. They over-funded and reached a figure of £521,314. With this amount added to the pre-crowdfunding valuation The Cheeky Panda became a company with a value exceeding £5million. Quite a stunning achievement given the co-founders had a business idea on holiday just two years previously.

2020 update
In 2019 their product range added award-winning babies’ nappies after they had started their own family, and as I add this comment in 2020 I can say I regularly see their products on the shelves at Tesco. After further corporate backing and two more rounds of equity crowdfunding (the last one completed in May 2020) The Cheeky Panda has a company valuation of over £50 million.

What do you do with inspired business ideas you have on holiday? Please share them with me, in confidence, if you’d like some independent and objective insight on using crowdfunding. Let’s assess the viability of using some form of crowdfunding – whether rewards, equity or debt – to make your dream become a reality. It could change your life for the better, like it has done for Chris and Julie at The Cheeky Panda. Drop me a line at [email protected].