Startup Revolution

Crowdfunding Is Marketing Now

Scooped a post yesterday about #Startups using Contests and Games to sidestep traditional PR. Sidestepping is necessary because "traditional PR" lies in tatters on the ground. Crowdfunding isn't crowdfunding.

I had a good friend complain that it would take him as long to crowdfund as to raise money for his startup with VC. I didn't think of it at the time, but the correct comeback is, "Don't think in OR think in AND".

We tend to zero sum everything. Don't think of crowdfunding as zero sum, you do it INSTEAD of something else. Think of crowdfunding as an AND. You create crowdfunding AND you distribute a press release AND you create a social campaign AND so on.

What I love about the Pebble Watch crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter is not that they were able to raise $11M, though that is pretty cool. I love the way Pebble used OPP (Other People Platforms) to solve every startup problem from distribution to celebrity endorsements.

Crowdfunding your marketing forces a level of creativity it may not achieve without the exercise of crowddfunding, so don't think of crowdfunding as crowdfunding think of it as one of the very important tactical "AND" moves in your marketing plan.