Julie Forand's Moss Graffiti Kits raised over $10,000 on Indiegogo while she was still enrolled as a student in OCAD's Industrial Design and Sustainability program. She is not alone. Toronto students are becoming increasingly drawn to this entrepreneurial tactic while they are still attending classes full-time. Crowdfunding is a new anomaly that can catapult an unknown venture from relative obscurity to massive revenue generator. Forand's company, Sprout Guerrilla, aims to implement a new mode of urban expression through renewable gardening graffiti. She was attracted to the crowdfunding model because of the "direct link to early adopter consumers," she explained. 

 

"It was a good place to start for a market test and get feedback from people who understand that this is a new product and a small start-up business. People who are willing to participate in crowdfunding are open to take a chance on new ideas and supporting their growth and development." Other modes of funding would work, she reasoned, but they're less fixated on the end user. Transparency in terms of methodology and intent are intrinsic to this model, and the measurable response to a crowdsourcing campaign is a clear barometer of success.

 

Mike Lovas was still in school for a Bachelor of Design in Industrial Design at OCAD U when he started PUSH, an app-enabled fitness device that tracks and analyzes strength performance at the gym. Lovas offered a test group their own device to try out in beta mode, which caught the eye of athletes, competitive sports teams, strength coaches from the NFL, NHL, MLB and European pro soccer, as well as athletic directors from NCAA schools. "We did really well with that," he said, "so a lot of those people fed into our crowdfunding campaign."

PUSH's indiegogo campaign exceeded their $80,000 goal, capping off at $133, 812. This funding, coupled with grants and other investment, has PUSH poised for a big official release in 2014.

 

"Crowdfunding is a great way of validating your idea in the marketplace before you have a physical product," explained Lovas. "It's a great validator. It's also a great marketing tool, as long as you do it right. If you just put up a video on a crowdfunding page and just sit back and twiddle your thumbs, it's going to flop. As soon as you can start prepping, it's important to get a blog or get some sort of engagement in whatever community you're trying to sell in, to be some sort of authority or trusted or respected person in that community. Whether its blog or video blog or commenting regularly on a community, Twitter feed, or Facebook—somehow getting implanted in the community that your product will be placed in—that's a long term thing that's good to do early."

 

David Kwok is the CEO of SAGE (Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship) Canada. They've recently started showing enterprising high school students how they can utilize the fundraising methods of crowdfunding to elicit parental and community support while building a business model and ascertaining what elements of their project work and which need further tweaking. Students, who often lack the professional connections of their more established peers, can benefit greatly from this tactic, which evens the playing field and allows anyone with a decent idea and some outgoing social media skills to secure financial backing for their ideas.

 

Students need to be aware that time constraints can be the most pressing element of a crowdfunding campaign. They must do the work building up awareness among their own networks (parents, friends, family & community) prior to the campaign launch. Crowdfunding campaign pitches must be "concise, personal, and raise about 30 per cent of your campaign goal in the first 30 hours after going live," said Indiegogo's vertical education vertical lead, Breanna DiGiammarino.  

"You really need that momentum from your closest community in order to rally that secondary network." Also, campaigns that have a video component are "114 per cent more successful than those without." Also, successful campaigns rely on an "audience that cares, a compelling pitch, and a strong promotion strategy," said DiGiammarino. Students "should avoid the "'create it and they will come approach' where if you launch a campaign the world is going to come and support it. That is a fallacy in that you need your audience supporting you first." Students have an advantage by accessing the built in communities of their schools and neighbourhoods. 

 

Kwok sees SAGE's foray into crowdfunding with high school students "as an opportunity not only to help them develop their business to find the funding, but to help develop that brand within the community. Something that we taught them was community is essential within a local business. They thought it was really interesting the way that they could involve their community at the same time as getting this funding and not only that, but they're getting the product to people who were supporting them, people that would also help promote their products for them."

 

Relying solely on crowdfunding will likely never surpass multiple-streams of revenue raising, but it can be an incredible tool for building public interest and lending validity to an idea or product. For younger students especially, who may face a challenge in getting their ideas taken seriously, crowdfunding could be the ticket to lending validity to their project ideas. "Crowdfunding campaigns require a lot work," said Foran. "Be prepared. Do your research and plan ahead. It's a great tool if you work it properly."