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Ask HN: Crowdfunding – Best Practice

2 points by protdum ↗ HN
Hi guys, I've been looking at how to raise funds from my small startup and a lot of ppl are pointing that crowdfunding could be the way to go. In most cases I see that ppl have physical products that they give away to those who support the idea, but how about if you're doing online software product? I see that there are also different types of crowdfunding - those where you give equity and those where you give your product away.

Any suggestion, comments, ideas are more then welcome :)

3 comments

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mytailorisrich
My view is that you always want to avoid giving equity. Whether you have a physical or online product does not make much difference in allowing you to give it away for free. In fact it's even easier and cheaper to do with a software product that has no marginal cost. You could consider to give free lifetime licenses to early backers, for example.
protdum
Awesome input! That's that I was thinking. Out product will have freemium and premium subscription. Premium subscription would remove ads and give you the access to premium features. So, I was wondering if I could leverage that over getting backed up by the crowd?
bitcrazy
Since yours is software its much easier to give away freebies. Discount codes, special features, early access features, etc are much easier to do than a physical product. Also its a great way to get feedback and generate buzz on the project.

Echoing the other comment, I would agree to avoid giving out equity. The customer is far less vested in your company's success than you are.