Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted...even on Indiegogo

...AND it may be the most valuable thing you have to offer, to casually quote CMU's own beloved Randy Pausch.  This may be one of my favorite things he said because not only does it make me feel better about my own eclectic resume of experiences but it's just a great approach to any project, experiment, or whatever.  

So, when you set a $95,000 goal on Indiegogo and you raise $4,957, it can be hard to look at that like not a failure.  But Dr. Jarvik, lead researcher of the project seeking funding for GDF11 research, which you will all hear more about during my pitch, looks at it like a win.  It's almost $5,000 more than zero dollars and they learned just how much they didn't know about a good crowdfunding strategy.  I spent some time this weekend discussing future strategies for the project so I could develop a more specific pitch for today, and help to plan for the future funding opportunities.

This article from Forbes a gives a number of important tips.  And after debriefing the crowdfunding experiment, here I kind of want to go through and talk about each "tip" and how SpectraGenetics did or did not follow.  (http://www.forbes.com/sites/amadoudiallo/2014/01/24/crowdfunding-secrets-7-tips-for-kickstarter-success/)

1. Solve a real problem

...So this is where they hit the nail on the head.  Aging pets are sad and expensive and most pet parents would likely prefer to provide an affordable supplement to their pet.

2. Do your homework

This is where they  start to go wrong, it was almost on lark that they decided to try crowdfunding, it seemed like such a cool and easy idea.  But they really knew nothing about how much work would go into setting up a really effective campaign.  They have now learned that the waiting until the campaign is started to get publicity is way too late.  This article (http://www.post-gazette.com/pets/pet-reports/2015/01/30/In-hospical-care-woman-reunited-with-beloved-cat/stories/201501300177) was published with only 10 days left in the campaign and after it's publications they received the bulk of their modest donations.

3. Bring money to the table

So here the article says that the crowd funding shouldn't be your only source of income for the project.  And I think they sort of nailed this one, as a sophisticated scientific company with access to CMU's state of the art research tools, though they need money to fund the compounds they need to buy to experiment with, they don't need to start from scratch. Here the article also talks about how this shouldn't be the only funding source and the sort of psychological tipping point at about halfway to the goal where the donations will start to pour in.  People want to donate to a campaign that looks like it'll succeed.

4. Set a smart funding goal

I think they thought they were setting a smart goal, but it turns out $95,000, which is too low to complete the project but too lofty for them to meet was a mistake.  A smarter, future approach will be to set smaller goals for specific funding needs for the projects.  Especially since crowdfunding is new in general an particularly to the biotech community.

5. Make an effective pitch

Their video/pitch was not effective at all.  Not to mention the actual tag line of "making pet's live longer" is inaccurate.  The protein actually extends "health span" not "life span," which a really important point to stress.  Also the video was cats playing with a bag while a voiceover delivered the "pitch."  I think the pitch I'm delivering today will be slightly more effective.

6. It’s not (always) about the money

This is another way they were successful, because of the campaign the project received a lot of press and public interest.  And this could be leveraged into their next campaign or to other funding sources in the future.

7. Make the campaign your top priority

They didn't have time to manage the campaign at all, on top of not knowing these priorities.  So in the future, they would have one person's sole job be to manage the campaign.  If they decide to go that route.

What other things do you guys think are major priorities for successful crowdfunding?