www.crowdfundconnect.com

Platform Overview

What can CrowdFund Connect do for your company ?

CrowdFund Connect designs, builds and manages funding portals for broker/dealers to post curated deals that connect companies seeking funding with investors.

We manage the technology that tracks and manages all transactions allowing our broker dealer partners to do what they do best, assist quality companies with

connecting to their investor network.

What format will my crowdfunding website follow: donation, equity, loan/debt, or rewards ?

Crowdfunding is a very broad term and comes in many different shapes and sizes. “Equity” crowdfunding to the general public (non-accredited investors) is not yet available in the US. But it is available in some other countries. And selling actual shares of companies requires major planning, legal and financial professionals, and a lot of capital. However, donation and reward-based platforms are active and flourishing all around the world. Although all of these models are considered crowdfunding, they are actually very different models and need to be handled appropriately.

Should I build my business from scratch or use crowdfunding software and solutions ?

Dozens of startups have already built sophisticated crowdfunding software and platforms for businesses. They make it easy for you to launch your own branded platform with custom templates, and usually have payment processing already integrated. However, you will have to pay fees, and perhaps even a percentage of the funds your crowdfunders raise. It’s obviously a tradeoff and something you will have to consider. Building your own platform will probably save you time and money in the long run, but getting it up and running from scratch is no small feat.

Do I have enough time to do this on my own or do I need a team ?

Crowdfunding requires careful planning, social media skills, technical skills, networking, and time. The consensus among crowdfunders, not surprisingly, is that simply creating a campaign and waiting for people to come to you will fail. The same idea applies to both projects and crowdfunding businesses and services. Just as you need to utilize your own personal network to get your crowdfunding pitch to go viral on blogs and social media websites, you will have to do the same for your platform or service. New platforms are being launched every single day so you need to make a serious effort to stand out. Therefore, expect to have to pay for advertising and marketing your own crowdfunding platform or service. Sure, some individuals have been successful on their own- but these cases are the exceptions rather than the rule. Online crowdfunding- whether in the form of a campaign or actual business- is tough.

What are the legal and compliance implications of starting a crowdfunding business?

You will be raising money, or at least facilitating the process of raising money, potentially from people all over the world where laws vary. It’s not something you want to do without first consulting a lawyer and an accountant. It’s better to be safe and set everything up properly- you don’t want to run into problems down the road. Get it right immediately before your business grows. If you ultimately decide to launch something online, make sure you have the proper technological foundation in place (security, speed, performance, etc.).

These points really just scrape the surface of the crowdfunding world, but hopefully they will get you thinking about what really goes into setting up an online crowdfunding business. Check out our other articles and our resources page for more crowdfunding tips, tools, and advice.

Address Contacts

530 Lakeshore Drive Chicago, IL 60611 (312) 957-8553questions@crowdfundconnect.com

Randy Shipleyrshipley@crowdfundconnect.comVince Pitettivpitetti@crowdfundconnect.com

www.crowdfundconnect.com