VidAngel, an American streaming video and production company released a concept pilot of The Chosen, a story of Jesus, on social media that ended up being viewed 15 million times. Yes. That actually happened. No kidding.

This is what Dallas Jenkins, director and co-writer of the series, who recently directed The Resurrection of Gavin Stone for Blumhouse Productions and Walden Media, has to say on the miracle:-

“We started this campaign with no built-in audience and we based it on a short film I made on my friend’s Illinois farm for my church’s Christmas Eve service after my previous film had disappointed at the box office,” Jenkins said. “What’s happened has blown us away, but it’s an indication that there’s tremendous demand for something like this. I love binge-watching original series, so why not one about Jesus and his followers?”

The project utilised “equity crowdfunding” to raise money for the scripted show, offering one share for each dollar invested. The production company artfully issued equity to investors making the use of a provision made in 2016 in President Obama’s so-called JOBS Act. The “equity crowdfunding“ is highly regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC), but has stated that production companies and other entities can offer a share of the profits to online strangers who financially invest in their projects.

This project called “The Chosen” is live and has raised more than $9 million. They are seeking $13 million to produce a full series.

Here are the historical statistics of crowdfunding in any TV show:

Super Troopers 2, the record-holder for film and TV category in Indiegogo raised $4.6 million. Mystery Science Theater 3000, which was later picked up by Netflix had raised $5.8 million on Kickstarter. None of these projects at Kickstarter or Indiegogo offered equity to investors.

What shall we learn from it?

Equity crowdfunding and rewards basics. 

• It should be noted that these shares can’t be resold at this time, but managers of the production company have guaranteed that they shall not accept any profits — should there be any — until all investors make at least 120 percent on their investment made. Investors could also potentially make more money, as they are the partial owners in perpetuity. VidAngel and crowdfunding investors are hoping to make a profit via streaming and broadcast licenses, DVD and VOD.

• Instead of the usual reward schemes, like tickets to screenings, DVDs or one on one interaction opportunity with actors, they chose to go with equity crowdfunding and the results are in front of you.

You can watch the pilot of “The Chosen” and listen to the team behind the project in the following videos below.  

Do let us know your views on the matter discussed. If you also have any idea that has been lingering in your mind for long and has not manifest just because of lack of funds, you can launch your campaign with Catapooolt – India’s largest crowdfunding platform.  

Main Image: ©VidAngel

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Leaving a prestigious job to pursue one’s heart calling is the new normal these days. But the journey of these men is different. They programmed ultimate magic with what they created after leaving golden opportunities, calling them out from different parts of the world.

Introducing to you, Anil Mishra and Sachin, the co-founders of “FarmTree”. A hardcore developer by profession, Anil has been a part of the Indian IT industry for 5 years and dynamically worked in 11 states of the country.
Sachin, on the other hand, is a technical maven by the mind and an intellectual thinker at heart. His enriched experience in the domain of product architecture and other technical nuances is laudable.

However, as their stars would have it, the result of Anil and Sachin joining hands was nothing ordinary but FarmTree – a one-in-all dairy solution app and more.

It was Avik, Anil’s batchmate at college who identified the pressing need for technological upgradation in the realm of dairy farming. He interacted with farmers, observed their practices and assimilated data which acted as the launchpad for FarmTree.

Incidentally, Avik shared his farm experiences and introduced Anil and Sachin to two farmers who were desirous of having a customised farm management software. After hearing to the pain-points of the farmers, Anil and Sachin
explored the realms of dairy farming, visited small dairy farms of 5-10 hectares. Subsequently, they realised that there was an undeniable need of a dairy management platform to organise it. The duo was then convinced and
prompted to invest their heart and soul into this sphere and decided to create a platform which becomes a dairy farming guide for the farmers. The agenda was to enable and equip farmers with the right tools to assess and boost long-term profitability through an automated software. The astounding quality of FarmTree’s software was underpinned by the cognitive and intellectual abilities of both geniuses.

The plight they discover was being a medium scale dairy farm with the well-equipped system installed on the farm, management issue was severe and had a huge impact on the revenue of farms due to lack of cattle health and activity tracking. The lack of knowledge and management creates an impact on cattle’s health resulting low yield leading to farmer’s loss. After a specific period, if proper actions not taken, farmers make a minimum loss of 6500 INR in every 21 days from a cow. This is a huge impact on their livelihood and this is where they decided to avail
system to most of the farmers and came up with a dairy management platform than a standalone software. The platform is as economical as it cost a maximum of 15 paise per litre and can be used by technologically challenged
farmers. The system tracks the expected breeding activity in the herd, communicate to farmer ahead of time and help to increase the revenue of farmers.

It has relieved farmers of the manual task of cattle productivity assessments, quality checks, monitoring production, tracking growth, ensuring improvement and more. The app which took almost 1.5 years to build the
application has been successfully serving for the last 6 months and shall continue for the longest time to come.
FarmTree is today creating immense possibilities in the relatively uncharted realms of dairy farming and cattle production. The software has pioneered the journey of digitising cattle farming. The software which has proved to be a benison for farmers across the country is now accredited as India’s most effective way of automating farmers daily chores. They have also been felicitated as the second best Agri-AI venture amongst a bunch of 219 others
across the country. The team has made a continuous effort on the field to upgrade and develop a system with a vision to support the pain point of Indian dairy farmers. In a span of 2 years, as part of our journey, they traveled more than 1 lakh km on Royal

Enfield across several states and met many farmers to consult and spread knowledge on data management.
FarmTree is today bringing happiness and smiles to a large community of Indian farmers. They want to increase their pace and require funds for that. They target to reach 1000 farmer sheltered 25000 cows and need your
support in this. Help them in bridging the technology gap between the big dairy players and the small farmers.
Help them and do contribute at https://www.catapooolt.com/farmtree

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HoloSuit is the first product from Kaaya Tech – the world’s first affordable, bi-directional, wireless and easy to use full body motion capture suit. With options for 26 or 36 embedded sensors and nine haptic feedback devices dispersed across both arms, legs, and all ten fingers combined with six embedded buttons, HoloSuit captures the user’s entire body’s movement data and uses haptic feedback to send information back to the user, for scenarios including sports, healthcare, education, entertainment or industrial operations.

HoloSuit was started when the founder got a fitness challenge in their Microsoft Research team. They were supposed to wear the fitness tracker and perform exercise and whichever team had maximum calories burnt would get the team reward. After doing rigorous yoga for 2 hours, the fitness tracker said: “2 calories burnt!”. That was the moment when the founders decided that we cannot have fitness trackers which hallucinate data and treat headstand and leg stand the same! So they created HoloSuit which tracks all the body joint motion accurately, so that you will know exactly how your body moved when you did the workout – whether yoga, karate or cricket. You can store it and review it in 3D and watch your progress in fitness over time. VR and AR are becoming more immersive and natural as resolution field-of-view increase while the latency decreases. But the controller remains the Achilles heel of mixed reality, with cumbersome and unnatural handheld devices only tracking your hand movement in a limited range. Here’s is the solution for that. HoloSuit provides you an unparalleled immersive, full-body and bidirectional AR/VR/MR experience. The product goes well beyond gaming and is so powerful that it can be utilized for real-life, mission-critical situations such as sports, education, neuro-rehab, combat training, surgery, and even filmmaking.

Perfectly suited for indoor and outdoor use, the fashionable, lightweight and affordable four-piece suit starts at Rs. 7000 for a single finger glove and scales up a pro version consisting of a jacket, pants and two gloves. It will be available in different sizes, is machine washable and can be sold as separate items or as a complete suit. It also features nine integrated haptic exciters that provide physical feedback to the user. HoloSuit can be connected to and used with all kinds of devices, including PCs and smartphones, as well as VR hardware like HTC Vive, Oculus Rift/Go, Microsoft’s HoloLens, Samsung Gear VR and more – entirely over Bluetooth LE & Wi-Fi with no wires to connect.

The HoloSuit team is comprised of 15+ stellar AR/VR, IoT, and Robotics experts dedicated to developing precision motion capture solutions for immersive VR applications, film production, education, and mission-critical applications. They have over 37 patents from around the world in AR/VR, robotics, human-robot interaction, sensor fusion. As any product based startups, they require funds for carrying out activities such as mechanical RnD , sourcing and a lot more. Currently, they are participating in an ongoing event by Catapooolt for raising money through crowdfunding. Top 15 startups will make it to the investor’s table pitching their ideas.

Holosuit is already being used to help people with disabilities to regain their body motion and to help kids to train them for sports. The scope and market for the product are so huge ranging from village kids, helping defense forces to enable virtual labs to conduct experiments. The startup is focusing to revolutionize the era of the virtual world. They need your support in making a difference in people’s day to day life. So if you want to see more sportspersons bringing medals for your country do contribute to Holosuit. Early adopters can pre-order HoloSuit components or an entire suit on www.catapooolt.com/holosuit.

Watch the demo video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEQsDR32gII

For questions about HoloSuit products, software or SDK, email at info@holosuit.com or visit www.holosuit.com. www.facebook.com/HoloSuit, www.linkedin.com/in/holosuit, www.youtube.com/holosuit

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It’s not a new concept! Memorials and worship places have been funded and built in by small donations for years. In the recent years, Indian startup story has witnessed more twists than before. If you are also a part of this startup story, crowdfunding can be the way of connecting investors and bring your story to life.

Here’s how does it work?

Selecting the project and building a story

Launching a new product or starting a campaign should be specific with a perceived outcome. Your campaign should be time bound. Try to make a complete story that would appeal people to contribute in your product. Make them understand why your project is unique and what problem you are solving that will compel your potential backers to fund you.

Mount a funding budget

Set up a specific budget you need and be clear where it will go. Be precise about meeting up your targets as it allows the investors to know the licitness and credibility of your project. It shows that people have been interested in backing up your project,

The budget should include the commission fees of your crowdfunding platform and the reward budget.

Choosing a Platform

It is the one of the most important and crucial step in launching your crowdfunding campaign. It depends upon what type of project you are launching and what your goals are. There are loads of platforms to decide from such as Milaap, Indigogo, Catapooolt etc. which offers you a good stuff of audience.  You need to decide between:-

Reward and donations based – Offering ‘rewards’ and perks for your backers is always good. You could give them gifts and perks based on how much contribution people pledge.

‘All or nothing’ or ‘Keep it all’- Some platforms keep the rule of ‘ All or nothing ‘ where if you don’t meet your target you will have nothing. And platform like Catapooolt offers you to get all the money minus their fees, even if you fail to meet your target.

Prepare a pitch and promote your campaign

Prepare an overwhelming pitch about your campaign telling who you are ,what’s your idea, why you started that will revoke the interest of your potential pledgers. Have an impressive pitch video catering a personalized strife to the viewers. You have to make people informed about your crowdfunding campaign. Create a coordinated online social media campaign with the help of your crowdfunding platform. Reach out to media and people to have more coverage to your campaign. Encourage them to back up your campaign by hosting an event or through any other engagement. It is not easy to arouse people’s interest unless you give your full commitment to your campaign. Be passionate enough to turn your dream into reality.

Follow Feedback

It is your backers which helps you to climb the mount. Taking your customers feedback seriously is really significant. Getting reviews and making improvements is essential before launching the campaign. Keep in touch with your supporters and keep them modemised about your progress. Thanks them and let them feel that their contribution is making a difference.

Its time to capitalize your venture and let your business grow through crowdfunding. The arise of crowdfunding has provided an alternative to traditional ways of funding. It is an effective way to help entrepreneurs in reaching their dreams. The increasing social media trends inculcates perfect conditions for crowdfunding as a fundraising tool to prosper in the capital market. So fund your project and go crowd out loud!

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As an entrepreneur,  you will never know when you have the opportunity to pitch your idea. It may be in front of the wealthy investors in the shark tank or a quick encounter with someone at a party or elevator. So you should always be up with a succinct pitch, all geared to convince your potential investors.

Whether a new startup or an established venture, all businesses arise over a stage where they need funds either to move forward with the business plan or make their venture grow. And a big part of the decision that investors make is based on the quality of your presentation and the people involved.

So here are few points about how to pitch your idea and make it off the ground.

Emphasize on your elevator speech

You need a short and crisp speech that will cover all the aspects about what you do. The motive of your elevator speech is to succinctly describe your idea and compel anyone who first meets you. The following three essentials should be well condensed in the speech:-

1. What you do – Keep it concise and short. It could be as simple as “We are India’s first smart navigation helmet that helps…”
2. What your product is– Again be short but describe well about the problem your product tends to solve for its target customer.

“80% of the presentations…you even don’t know what the problem is till 15 minutes into the presentation.”

– Vinod Khosla, Khosla Ventures

There are limits to the human attention span, you have to be concise, informative and yet interesting.

3. What makes your product different– Tell about what makes your product unique and what differentiates it from its competitors- Why people should buy yours one over other competitors?

Turn your pitch into a rousing story

“People value you at the value you see in yourself.”- Clindy Gallop, Founder and CEO, Make Love Not Porn

Good stories flow like honey and can be absorbed on the first time of hearing. Thus, telling a story is a proven way to capture someone’s attention. Make yourself the hero of your story and tell the inspiration behind starting the project. It’s an awesome method to follow a narrative manner in your pitch to illustrate how your product works.

There’s no secret behind the success of storytelling and it never fails to contemplate even the most data driven investors. So tell your story well and inspire your investors to get you fund.

“Investors are pinched between two kinds of fears: Fear of investing in startups that fizzle, and Fear of missing out on startups that take off.”

– PUAL GRAHAM, FOUNDER Y COMBINATOR

Do research your investors

You should know about the audience you are pitching to. Knowing them well in advance and what they might be interested in will help you addressing them in an effective way.

You cannot go around tailoring a single pitch every time, so get improvisation to your pitch in accordance with the need and interest of the investors. Try to find out as much as you can find about your investors such as whom he/she has invested before or what they know about your industry?

Give realistic traction

Remember that the investors you are pitching to were once in your shoes and know all the tactics that need to get the funds for your ideas. What they are interested in is the profit that you can revert back to them. So do provide them a realistic data about what you have achieved till now and what you can offer them in future.

Be able to back it up with exact numbers, it helps in proving them your transparency and credibility. Don’t go like- ‘We are planning to hire more people to boost up the sales’, rather say how many.

Many advices to include market strategies early in the presentation deck so that you can directly nail the investors. Provide them the information regarding your current customers, growth strategy, return on investment, etc. Make them believe in you that you can show progress towards your goal and the investor’s expectations.

Show a succession plan

Investors want to make profits in a short span of time. And what’s that span? You should have a clear plan as to where you want to see yourself after 5 to 7 years from now. Investors are very much interested in the exit strategy – you will go public? Or would go for the franchise? Or it would be an acquisition?

Succession plan in your deck shows your passion towards your project and that you want to move ahead with it. Investors would be investing if they would see that you have future growth prospects and foreseeing them from now only.

Work on the revenue model

Be prepared for the question, “how your company will make me rich?”

The investors are interested in the return they will be getting by investing in your firm. So decide about a good revenue model and get it comprehended on your deck. Know the type of revenue model you would apprehend and how will you achieve it.

Prepare yourself not just the idea

Have a personality to kill and a dress to impress. The investors will invest in you first. So be thoughtful, fast and enthusiastic enough to turn the odds in your favor and to earn the trust of the investors in you!

As Sandy Koufax quotes, “Pitching is the art of instilling fear.” Getting funds is an inevitable at times one needs to stay afloat or to grow. Pitching an idea and get it funded is the inception of the change an entrepreneur have been working for so long. Investors are one of the great mentors. So make sure you learn from them every time you make it to the big shark’s table.

Be prepared for the objections and tough questions.

Have confidence and believe in yourself.

Pitch your idea and have fun.

The world is waiting for your good ideas!!

The post How to pitch your entrepreneurial idea, so that investors can’t take their eyes off!! appeared first on Catapooolt.

“Crowdfunding is creating a new public demand which connects common people with investment opportunities that used to be accessible only by the very wealthy.”

And there is no doubt or secret to the intricacies of investment that crowdfunding has aid to small businesses or the newbies of the startup world by connecting them to the common public for raising capital. Crowdfunding simply means, getting funds from a large number of people with the usage of the internet and an online social media platform. The inception of this modern day crowdfunding dates back to 1997 when a British rock band funded their reunion tour through online donations from fans. Since then, crowdfunding has taken many forms and has emerged as one of the most effective options for entrepreneurs and other project initiators to validate their ideas.

So let’s understand some of these different dimensions of Crowdfunding and gets penetrate about them:-

1. Reward- based Crowdfunding

This model of crowdfunding is mainly used by startups who want to accelerate the pace of their initiative and by other projects of artists or film producers, software development or civic projects etc. Reward crowdfunding is based on the perks or rewards a potential backer gets in return of the investment made by him/her. Rewards can be in the form of product or service, he/she is backing up or any other rewards mentioned in the campaign in prior.It is a lucrative method to raise funds as donors donate in the expectation of return. The rewards are differentiated on the basis of backers contributing smaller amounts and the ones who cater gratitude.

Following perks can be rewarded to the potential patrons:

• The backers who contribute less than rs.500 can be revert back with the recognition through the way of a ‘Thank You’ note or a gift card or simply by thanking them personally on the campaigner’s social media page. Make them realize that their every effort is worth of a count.
• Contributors can be rewarded by services like giving them discount, or some smaller reward tiers like shout outs or exclusive t-shirts.
• An effective way of rewarding is pre-orders. Backers will back up in the expectation of availing the product they are contributing their money for.

Companies like Catapooolt, Kickstarter and Indiegogo have emerged as the best reward based crowdfunding platforms of India and are helping hundreds of startups gaining funds for various causes.

2. Equity- based Crowdfunding

SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) regulates the rules regarding Equity Crowdfunding and has made it illegal in India. In this model of Crowdfunding, the backers are termed as ‘investors’ because they invest their money into the company for an amount of share in it on the basis of capital invested. Primarily, these investments are made in the companies with the goal of making a return in 5-6 years.

Usually, a large amount of capital is raised through this model and not the smaller ones. This amount is mainly for either launching a company or taking a big leap, not just for backing up a cause. In India, such funds are raised through an angel investor or a VC for a startup. We have been using other forms of crowdfunding that is reward or donation based, so if you want to raise capital you can avail the advantages of crowdfunding through platforms like Catapooolt for ensuring a swift capital coming in your way.

3. Debt- based Crowdfunding

Also known as ‘Peer-to-Peer Crowdfunding’ or ‘Crowdlending’ is a model based on the process in which investor invests in your project in return of the ‘interest’. Money lent by multiple investors in small amounts through the internet is called Debt-based Crowdfunding. It is somewhat similar to loan except that in crowdfunding, loan is borrowed from a number of investors in small amounts rather than from a single bank. Debt Crowdfunding has an edge over bank loan because of the interest rates being lower and funds can be garnered with ease by reaching among the masses at the same time.

It can be an optimum method for businesses that might get failed to raise loans from banks. But as the saying goes, nothing comes exquisitely. The drawbacks faced by debt-financing are the regular interest payments and the security that companies have to pledge against their assets. Thus, it may be suitable for companies who have already established venture and adequate assets or sufficient cash flow credibility.

A Quick Collation

A major asset that Debt Crowdfunding has over an Equity Based Crowdfunding campaign is that the campaigner doesn’t have to lose any share in its company. Thus, investors are serviced only with the profit share and the owner continues to enjoy his ownership. Equity Crowdfunding is illegal in India. Therefore, for newly established ventures, an imperative option can be to go for the reward and donation based models of crowdfunding. Whatever the model you choose, just go dig well before in the advantages and disadvantages it chalk up.

The post What are Different Crowdfunding Models that have steamroll Traditional Financing? appeared first on Catapooolt.

Crowdfunding has come up as a resolution for that. It is a way of linking project initiators to their potential backers. Crowdfunding is the process of raising funds through a large group of people, especially via internet, which involves a platform, the entrepreneur in need of funds and the people willing to contribute the idea in exchange of rewards and recognition.

Crowdfunding is now emerging as an effective funding avenue in India with a transaction value expected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2018-2022) of 28.0% resulting in the total amount of US$21.7 m in 2022. Thus, entrepreneurs can derive huge benefits through this emerging avenue of fundraising which can help them to flourish in the market, if necessary efforts and dedication is put in.

Let see how crowdfunding is advantageous to new entrepreneurs.

Access to swift startup capital

Entrepreneurs usually end up with countless rounds of banks visits and offices of investors which indicates that raising capital is not an easy task. Crowdfunding helps you to save the time and energy you otherwise have to spend on negotiating and prospecting funds from these institutions. Moreover, if you raise investment through other means you may have to lose your equity in the company. Whereas crowdfunding helps entrepreneurs to raise funds from community of people by simply allowing them rewards and perks along with having no equity to give up and no money to pay.

Effective form of Marketing

Crowdfunding is much more than just getting your project funded as it helps you to connect to the people and introduce your vision to the market. A good crowdfunding campaign offers you to reach numerous channel and in order to raise more funding, you tend to market your product more effectually which makes crowdfunding an effective marketing tool.

Social media being an essential component of the crowdfunding process allows you to get a good traffic to your sites and social media pages, creating a demand for your product at a much earlier stage. And once you generate required funds you will get assurance regarding your marketing strategy and validation of your idea.

Reach to large audience

Before you even go public, crowdfunding helps your company go global by enabling you to reach beyond boundaries.Raising funds through crowdfunding helps you target large group of people backing your offering. Moreover, it helps to create a loyal fan base. Investors do not just become your customers but also boost your customer base by extending their word of mouth to their connections.

Validating the idea

Showing investors the validation of your market at such early stage is very difficult. But, crowdfunding helps you to influence investors by giving them a proof of your concept. Letting them know that you had a successful crowdfunding campaign makes them realize about your product’s credibility. A successful campaign tests the public’s reaction and verifies the track of one’s progress confirming that you are on a right way!

Feedback and expert’s guidance

Feedback is really important to attest one’s journey of entrepreneurship. A startup goes with numerous activities sinking their money much before they understand about the product’s demand. Crowdfunding helps entrepreneurs find what their audience exactly thinks before eve spending a penny. The feedback you receive may help you crating your product a better and stronger proposition which may end you up with much more success and letting your venture to prosper.

We understand that entrepreneurs step out with big visions and dreams in their eyes. Crowdfunding caters you a way to bring out your venture to life. It serves as a superb avenue for entrepreneurs for funding their startups and helping their project grow. So treat yourself and your startup with crowdfunding to realize your dreams that go far beyond your imagination. Have a throw at your competitors and get an early edge over them by grabbing the associated advantages of crowdfunding.

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