"It's all about execution, not ideas"

Creating a crowdfunding campaign looks easy — but requires serious homework. The truth is, you need to seriously develop your idea before trying to crowdfund your start-up. And that means creating a strong brand and cultivating an engaged community. Why the strong brand first? Because you can’t crowdsource the soul of your business. You have to know who you are, what you’re about, and how you’re differentiated before seeking financial support.

Crowdsourcing your funding in early stage confronts you with the dilemma: profiting from community inputs and fearing that someone might steal your idea. Thomas Hessler, CEO and Founder of UFOstart, says "sharing as much as possible to get feedback and validation is crucial for launching a successful product. You have to work with your community's ideas and need to develop accordingly. Provisional patents offer a way to protect your concept. However, it is all about execution - not ideas." You can't start a crowdsourcing campaign without a convincing and detailed description of your project. Plus, stealth mode can scare off potential investors and contributors. 

Building your community is a essential to a successful crowdsourcing campaign. While crowdsourcing can expand your community, you need at least a committed core group in order to gain traction. Call these people what you will — evangelists, raging fans, true believers — they serve as an initial network for you to leverage.

As Forbes.com contributor Suw Charman-Anderson explains: "You and your fellow creators must develop personal networks before you start fundraising. You should understand which communities your project will appeal to and how you’ll reach those communities.." Connect with them wherever they hang out: on social media, specialized online forums, even (gasp) face-to-face events at brick-and-mortar venues. Understand them. Respect them. Find ways to support and serve them in mutually beneficial, value-added ways. And be up front: let them know your vision, your hopes, your needs. Share your insights and concerns — and invite theirs in meaningful ways.

Being open about your idea and building a core group of supporters - two important factors in establishing a crowdsourcing campaign that has a chance to succeed. Our innovative platform "UFOstart" offers a way to leverage the power of the crowd. By bringing together startups, investors and experts, we are creating the first "Global Crowd Network" for Lean Startup funding. Contact us if you're interested in starting a round on UFOstart!

-bmt

Listen To Your Customer. We're all ears!

As Forbes recently reported (http://onforb.es/RU7n6l), a lean-startup that begins with a great idea is off to a good start; but the sooner you shift your focus to the customer, the better.

In early October, the Entrepreneurs Challenge was happening at the Stern School of Business.  70 teams were on the receiving end of priceless advice from experienced coaches.  This year, the program was focused on the customer. The "customer is king" - to be successful you have to find ways to incorporate their feedback, ideas and critique into your product development. 

“Concentrating on the costumers and the market is probably the only way to be successful,” said Gilbert Sabater, who has been a mentor for ten years.

“I want to see them examine their ideas in depth,” said Lloyd Newman, who has extensive experience in sales and marketing. “I want them to get the facts and come back with hard data.”

That kind of discovery can be hard to manifest. Bad research won’t yield good data. Most customers can’t express exactly what they want, and won’t tell you exactly how they’ll respond to hypothetical situations. Placing an unyielding focus on customer experience is the only way to overcome common obstacles faced by lean start-ups. At some point, most start-ups experience frustration over stalled deals and customers that won’t make a decision.

It’s important to be in a position to examine the effectiveness of your product, which is a different process than examining the effectiveness of your marketing. Your experiments should be conducted with customer feedback in mind, and the results should be measureable. The most reliable way to find out what your customers are thinking is to simply ask them. You need to gather first-hand knowledge of your product through their eyes.

Ask yourself these questions:

• What value am I creating?
• How can I best deliver that value to my target customer?

Conscious experimentation and planning causes you to pay attention to the noise that your potential customers are making, and start treating it like the data it is. You need to be able to diagnose the problems in your sales process. Those little complaints that lead to hard truths are a great place to start. When your business processes sync up with your customers’ needs, your start-up will rise to a new level of success.  

We are working on improving the UX  of our platform. We are trying to build a relevant, attractive and effective product and would love to hear your thoughts! Join us in an UX feedback session to help shape for our product development. Please refer to our facebook event for further information!

-bmt