I've created a number of crowdfunding campaigns over the past few years, as well as having been an early adopter of the crowdfunding concept about 12 years ago. In that time, I've also come across many other interesting campaigns, and known many people who have used crowdfunding for a variety of purposes. I've also seen that many crowdfunding campaigns fail to receive any donations, while others s
truggle in the final 10% of their fundraising goal. My first crowdfunding effort, well before the advent of sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, was an attempt to crowdfund a company manufacturing and retailing green transportation and energy technology in Canada and the US, by offering a combination of equity and credit to investors, enabling them to order products in advance, at a steep discount, and be among the first to receive their vehicles and other products. Unfortunately, the window of opportunity for this venture passed without sufficient interest, and in time the technology seemed not to be viable. Despite the failure of this first attempt, it convinced me that the crowdfunding model was the future of venture capital, if performed with honesty and integrity. With crowdfunding, one can access a large community of small-scale venture capitalists, and at the same time, the risk is distributed--no one investor or VC takes on a large amount of risk. Currently, I'm running two crowdfunding campaigns to raise money for photography gear, and one for music gear, plus the MetaCROWD campaign. I'm also developing a number of campaigns for various companies and non-profit organizations, but taking time to work out logistics, branding, promotion, and other issues before launching them. http://www.gofundme.com/8youpk
In this campaign, I'm attempting to raise $15000 for a long list of music gear, to expand my studio, as well as to enhance my live performance. I'm focusing mostly on inexpensive gear, but it still adds up, especially with tax and shipping. As incentives I'm offering downloads of my recently released album, Soundtrack of an Unreleased Film http://neur0mancer.bandcamp.com/album/soundtrack-of-an-unreleased-film, at a discount from the regular price, and lifetime guestlist for my shows. http://www.gofundme.com/8yrp9o
In this campaign, I'm trying to raise funds for some gear to enhance my photography capabilities. These are my highest priority items. I buy most of my photography gear used, so I don't know exactly how much it will cost to get everything on the list, but I've estimated the cost at $32600, and that's my fundraising goal. I'm offering prints of my photographs on aluminum sheet as incentives, and I plan to add one or more photo books in the future. I'm also offering downloads of my recently released ambient album, a destination wedding and honeymoon package at a steep discount, and advertising/sponsorship opportunities on my gear and on my photography websites. http://www.gofundme.com/a1vfks
In this campaign, I'm also trying to raise funds for photography gear. This is my low priority list, and my dream wishlist--all the photography gear I want that isn't on my other list, excluding vintage gear, which I'd like to collect, but don't have the space for. For incentives, I'm focusing entirely on sponsorship for this campaign; essentially, I'm selling advertising on the side of my lenses and other gear, for the cost of each piece of gear, along with additional advertising on the web. This one includes a bunch of lenses for my current camera, particularly several Canon supertelephoto prime lenses, as well as other camera systems such as Hasselblad, Leica, Phase One, and Sinar. I'm continually adding more items to it, but the total cost has already exceeded $500000. http://www.gofundme.com/MetaCrowd
In this campaign, I'm raising funds to contribute to other crowdfunding campaigns. 100% of funds raised, excluding what goes to service fees, will go to other crowdfunding campaigns. No more than 10% will go to my own campaigns and our minimal operating costs.
