I'm here with Sarah Miester who is a vertical lead here at Indiegogo, and I'm really happy that she can answer some questions about how to run a campaign. And why don't we start out by asking you what kind of product you should consider using Indiegogo. >> Well, Indiegogo is an open platform. So, really anything that isn't for illegal substances can be funded. That was really by design. The founders wanted it to feel as kind of open format as YouTube. So, all sorts of other ideas have been funded beyond what I specialize in, which is hardware design and technology. But if you are doing a play or if you're doing a public art project, whatever, you're more than welcome to launch on the platform. >> And is there a particular reason to pick Indiegogo over other platforms? >> Yeah, I think one of the earliest reasons that people went with Indiegogo over other platforms is that we have flexible funding and that allows you to keep whatever you raise. The transaction happens right away. You still get your funds about two weeks after the campaign is over. But you at least know that that transaction has happened and it's already confirmed. Now I think we're actually better known for our support. People always ask me, when should someone come and talk to the platform? And I always recommend they should talk to us as soon as possible. Because we can help them with all of their kind of pre-launch strategy, and we can help them find a good partner to work with if they're looking to work with a marketing or publicity partner. So really anything that we can do as early as possible, we try to do. And that was actually my experience when I was working at an agency. I felt like, wow, Indiegogo is always the most supportive of the different crowdfunding partners we have. Always there, always available by email, even text. [LAUGH] So I think that's part of the reason why I'm here and happy to be here. >> Great, and so you've talked about that you give out lots of personalized advice. But in general, what would be some advice you'd give to someone as they're planning their campaign, thinking about what they're going to do, budgeting, all of those issues? >> Yeah, we have a lot of materials on our blog and on our website. We have a campaign calendar. We have advice columns. We have a podcast. Generally, it's starting your campaign well in advance of when you think you're going to start. It's not something you can just launch next week. You want to do as much pre-launch preparation as possible. So building out an email list, having a highly kind of convertible website, and making sure your social media is there. One of the things you can't launch a crowdfunding campaign, not matter what platform you're choosing, one of the things you can't launch without is an engaged and excited audience. So without that, you might have the best idea in the world but it's just not going to say all the way that it would if you had maybe 5,000 people ready to go on day one, which some of our more successful campaigners have had. >> And how do they get that large number of people ready to go on day one? >> Sometimes it's advertising, and sometimes it's attending events. Sometimes it's spreading the word virally over social media. Getting friends to be kind of like a street team for you. I think it's really one of those classic things that really honors creativity. And the more you kind of do, the more you push the envelope, the more you think outside the box, the better off you'll be. But I think classically right now, it's just promoting your website and trying to gather leads classically that way. >> What about during a campaign? What should you be doing to make sure you're successful? And how did you feel about fundraising, the emotional ups and downs of raising more money at some points than others, and so on? >> Yeah, that's a really good question. There was a great research project that was done. This woman looked at 9,000 different Indiegogo campaigns and saw a few things. One was that the more kind of narrative and passionate people were, the more successful they were with crowdfunding. So getting out there and being excited and being in your comment section and emailing with your contributors is something that really resonates with people. Also, she noticed that the more people kind of edited their campaign page, the more kind of surprises and new offerings that they had along the way, the better off their campaign kind of went. So I think those are two things. But then also I think you can continue to email your campaign to different members of the press, you can do kind of fun events in your town. There is this one woman who has an awesome campaign to raise funds for a library or a bookstore in the Bronx. And she's having this big event and getting a bunch of people together because their only other bookstore had just closed. So she's making it into this huge community thing, which I think is part of her success. >> That's excellent. Now, what about the delivery phase, especially in something like hardware, right? >> Yeah. >> There are people work with contract manufacturers, how do you deal with satisfying your backers and so on? >> Well, I think a big component of that is trust, which is where our Arrow partnership comes from. Our partnership has instilled a lot of confidence and trust in our backer community. Usually, our campaigners will have a pledge or some kind of a badge by Arrow saying, this is kind of what stage of production they're in and we feel confident that they're in that stage. So I think that partnership and partnerships with other kind of software or hardware companies that have been in this world for so long, distributors, manufacturers, people who we trust, that's really helped a lot of people start to kind of get on the right path. I think it's kind of, sadly, the negative connotation that people have with crowdfunding. So we're really doing everything in our power to address that through other relationships with experts in the field. >> So and that's great. And what about that for their creators themselves though? What should they be doing or concerned about? I mean, projects sometimes go badly, and how do they recover? What should they be thinking about as they go through the process? >> I think that they should be admitting that they don't know earlier. They should be reaching out for support earlier. I think some people wait until everything is on fire and think, okay, we can do this, it's fine. But if they actually go and reach out to the necessary parties, reach out to us, tell us that they're concerned, that they're seeing some warning signs, we can help guide them through the process and make sure they're at least talking to someone. I don't know every manufacturer in the world, but I know that we can find the right people to get our campaigners where they need to be. So it's like admitting that you don't know what you're doing or that you're feeling stressed earlier on is a huge part of the process. I think people, when they approach their campaign in a conservative way too, like we're not going to be able to deliver this in two months. Thinking a little more conservatively, more kind of realistically about when actually they can deliver based on kind of the whole trajectory of other hardware campaigns and their success in manufacturing and production. I think that's always something I try to encourage my campaigners to do. >> Great, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. >> Of course, yeah, happy to.
