Did you know “run out of cash” is the second most reason why startups fail? As a small business, you are surrounded by a plethora of challenges and finding the market opportunities and maintaining the liquidity are the topmost. While finding the market opportunity is the matter of research, crowdfunding is a popular way to maintain the cash flow. It can generate startup capital, though you must have a strong sense of communication and enough proof to support your startup ideas.
So, if you have invested all your savings and still need additional funds to take your startup venture to the next level, you need to take your ideas to people. There are crowdfunding sites that make crowdfunding for startups possible and easy to accumulate funds. However, you cannot use any crowdfunding sites randomly to raise funds.
The nature of your business will help you determine which sites can make your mission possible. So, we have rounded up the best crowdfunding sites that will help you gather funds, irrespective of your needs. Let’s explore one by one.
Kickstarter
If you are anyway related to creative arts or are an artist, filmmaker, designers, photographer, Kickstarter can help you raise excellent funds for your projects. Even though Kickstarter is a highly competitive crowdfunding platform, it has helped around 15 million artists, filmmakers, musicians, designers and other creative arts enthusiasts raise funds. More than 143,000 projects successfully raised over $3.7 billion funds since its inception.
Getting your selected by Kickstarter is considerably challenging, though if you have something genuinely inspiring, then it’s a platform for you. The platform charges a 5% fee for a successful campaign. However, we recommend you read its fundraising guidelines carefully before making a final call.
Indiegogo
Indiegogo is the best-known crowdfunding platform worldwide after Kickstarter. Initially started to support theatres and cancer treatment, the forum now allows campaigns from various industries, including tech and innovation.
At Indiegogo, you can initiate reward-based crowdfunding campaigns without any timebound. More 650,000 projects raised $1 billion in funds through its live crowdfunding campaigns and marketplace for innovative products. For every successful fundraising campaign, the platform charges 5% total collected fund as a fee. If you have creative ideas related to tech and innovations, then you can gather good funds with this platform.
Fundable
If you are startups with genuinely innovative ideas and want to expand your business, Fundable can bring some excellent opportunity for your initiative. The platform does not charge a percentage of funds. Instead, it uses a different approach. It charges a flat monthly subscription, and you are allowed to start a campaign as long as you are a subscriber to the platform.
If you want to raise funds by taking pre-orders for your products, you can raise upto $50,000 funds under the reward program. However, if you’re going to raise upto $50,000 to $10 million for your products, services or B2B business, you can utilize their equity program and seek investment from backers. All these can be done with a mere $179/m subscription plan, excluding a 3.5% + $.30 processing fee per transaction.
GoFundMe
If you want to raise funds for any social cause, then Indiegogo’s sister site GoFundMe is the site for you. You don’t have to pay anything for any funds raised for a cause. It helps people who look for charities and causes. Using the platform, they can put themselves to the right cause.
If you need funds for a genuine cause, the site can help you with your initiative for no fee. However, the success rate is low, and it requires you to put extra effort to bring your needs to people’s notice.
Patreon
If you are from the creative field and want a vital income source, then Patreon is the site for you. The site helps podcasters, video creators, writers, and musicians raise funds. However, it’s not suitable for any technology startups with high capital needs.
The site charges a 5% to 12% fee excluding translation fees. You can also choose to subscribe to its membership for a minimum monthly payment or pay per-project basis. It’s a great source of earning admirers and income sources. Because people who fund your project as your fan and they like your artwork and like to see more like it. If you are above 13 and have exceptional skills to inspire others, you can post your creative arts here and get funded. With this site, you earn both funding and followers.
LendingClub
Startups with successful business ideas can get help with the LendingClub crowdfunding site. The site allows you to get a personal loan up to $50,000 while business loans upto $300,000. No, it’s not a bank; instead, it connects lenders with investors. If you want a loan for personal or business purposes, you can connect with investors here by subscribing to the site.
However, to get loans from investors using LendingClub, you need to pass a couple of criteria. For example, your business must be 12 or more months older with $50,000 annual sales. Your business has no recent bankruptcy report, and you own at least 20% of the business.
The most valuable part of this site is that you can get business loans for one to five years terms with no monthly payment or penalties. That means you can choose to pay the total sum after the term period is over—the site charges between 1.99 and 8.99% as a fee. If you are exploring this site for loans, go through the guidelines carefully before making a final call.
iFundWomen
iFundWomen, as the name suggests, work for women entrepreneurs. The purpose of starting a crowdfunding website was to create a platform as a fundraising ecosystem” to support women startups or small businesses owned by women. The site offers a guide, coaching, marketing support with ton other services to women entrepreneurs.
Running a startup or other venture poses significant challenges for women entrepreneurs. Accumulating funds is one of them. The site iFundWomen takes a bow to support small businesses primarily owned by women. If you need extra capital to lift your startups, this site can be a great help.
The site charges 5% as a fee of the total fundraised from this site. This excludes transaction fees. Most importantly, the site spends 20% of the total money it earns as funding fees for supporting campaigns and women entrepreneurs’ welfare.
Final Thoughts
When it comes to starting a business, you may have plenty of business ideas, though turning it into a successful endeavour takes sheer hard work and patience. More than that, any business venture, at its initial stage, needs enough capital to strengthen its root and survive the ever-rising competition. To get funds seamlessly, you can also consider creating your business plan that strongly validates your idea. Good ideas earn you good funds.