This is a message from Mark Baker, the cofounder of JumpStartCity.com
We Want to Give Away Our Fully Functioning Crowdfunding Site
I am one of the co-founders of JumpStartCity.com. We want to give it away to someone. Can’t believe it? Not a joke. We’re looking for the most qualified person who will be able to take this site and grow it into the multi-million dollar platform we know it can be. We are inviting any entrepreneurs to submit a pitch to us to take over the site. The only catch is that we want to maintain an equity position in the company. How much? We will require at least 25%, but you pitch whatever you want beyond that.
Where is the site at now?
Jump Start City is a crowdfunding platform that we built from scratch (not a template) with all original coding. The site is written in PHP with a MySQL database & it is currently hosted on a top of the line dedicated server. Since the site’s launch on June 1 we have had over 250K pageviews & 45K unique visitors.
The site launched with 63 crowdfunding projects. So far, 13 projects have entered the active funding stage & raised approximately $60K. The other projects are still in either the 1st stage (elevator
pitch) or the 2nd stage (promotion) & will be entering the active stage soon.
Soon Moveo’s electric foldable scooter will enter the active funding stage with a $1.65 million funding goal. Shortly after that will be ReKixx (SharkTank) & Robo3D Printer (raised $600K on Kickstarter & going for a 2nd round of funding).
JSC has a unique approach to crowdfunding that make it a strong candidate to seriously compete with Kickstarter. First, the 3 stage funding model (elevator pitch, promotion stage, active stage) ensure that projects get noticed before they enter the funding stage. Another key feature is the Promoter Leaderboard.
Each project creator designates a set of regular rewards (can be purchased) & a set of Promoter Rewards (which can only be won). Members of JSC signup to be a Promoter of an event. They then get a unique link which they share with their social network & beyond hoping to drive many new backers. The most successful Promoters move to the top of the leaderboard & win great rewards. You can see how successful this model has been for our first event, TiBolt.
In fact, the Promoters have recruited over $23K (40% of the total pledges). A 3rd unique feature is the opportunity for the community members to get paid. Project creators can contact high ranking members of the site directly to get their project in front of them. These members get paid each time they are contacted by a creator. This feature will become a big deal as the number of projects on the site increases & some members start earning hundreds (or thousands) of dollars a month. The creators love the ability to be contact directly as well, which is usually prohibited on other crowdfunding sites.
Why are we doing this?
We have invested a huge amount of time & money into JSC. Why are we giving most of it away? There are 2 factors. 1) Both Billy & I work full-time jobs. JSC has grown into more than a full-time job for both of us, so for months we have been working extremely long days trying to keep up. It now needs someone with undivided attention, particularly for marketing & PR. We just don’t have the time or financial resources to do justice to the quality platform that JSC is.
2) We want to see JSC go as far as possible. We started JSC because we were frustrated with the crowdfunding options. Kickstarter is arbitrarily restrictive & forces every creator to prove that their idea is a “project” & “creative”. Not everything worthy of crowdfunding fits this mold. Even when it does there is still a decent chance Kickstarter will reject it with almost no explanation. That is frustrating & we’d been on the receiving end of this too many times.
Indiegogo is the default “go to” site for those that get rejected by Kickstarter & has decent traffic, but it is a different type than Kickstarter. Because Indiegogo allows “causes” the site is very cluttered with people asking for money. In a nutshell, people don’t just browse Indiegogo because of all the clutter to wade through.
Consequently, creators end up having to bring almost all of their own supporters to their project on Indiegogo. We want there to be another good option: JSC. The site needs someone who can drive hundreds of thousands of visitors. This will require greater connection and financial resources that we have. We want someone who has a clear plan to either use connections & publicity or financial resources (to advertise) to bring the visitors JSC needs.
In short, we want to see JSC succeed to its fullest potential & we believe there is an entrepreneur out there who can see the same outstanding potential in the site & its unique platform that we do. Once the SEC finishes the rules for the “Jumpstart Our Business Start Up Act” the world of crowdfunding is going to get very exciting & explode with even more potential than there already is! We have also sketched out a plan to utilize our unique platform in the “Daily Deal” business that is currently floundering with companies like Groupon & Living Social.
What needs to be done?
The site development is complete. Of course, there are still some bugs to work out (this is a newly built platform). But the vast majority of the development is complete. We have a developer who is eager to continue working on the site as needed and is a great resource. (In fact if anyone is looking for a coder for anything I’ll give you a great recommendation).
There are 2 areas that need attention. 1) Driving traffic to the site. It is crucial that these first 63 projects on JSC succeed to prove the model & encourage new future businesses to choose JSC over Kickstarter or Indiegogo. 2) Recruiting new projects. This is highly dependent on the first item. With a high success rate of first round projects, convincing others to use the platform with its unique features will be an easy sell. We worked very hard to recruit the initial 63 projects. But, recruiting another 63 will be much simpler with a good track record. However, this work needs to start now rather than in 2 months.
Are you up to the challenge?
If you are still interested, we’d love to hear from you! This is the opportunity of a lifetime. We aren’t “selling the site” and so we aren’t expecting any upfront payment (though feel free to include this in your pitch if you’d like). We do expect an equity position in JSC in exchange for giving you the site. We will only
consider pitches that offer us at least a 25% equity position. The more attractive your offer is, the more
likely you are to be the one we choose. We will also be heavily taking into consideration your likelihood of making JSC into a long-term successful platform. We also expect a large percentage of the profit
(minimum 50%) for the 63 projects currently on JSC.
Your pitch should include:
1) Your offer: (a) the long-term equity position you will give us (minimum 25%), (b) the percentage of
profit from the original 63 events (minimum 50%), (c) any additional offers/incentives.
2) Your plan: How will you move forward if you get JSC? How will you market it & drive traffic? How will
you recruit new projects? Both a solid short term & long term perspective are important.
3) Your bio: Why are you the one we should choose? Your experience? Connections? Resources? Why do
you stand out from all the others sending pitches?
Because of the huge potential of JSC & because we are offering to practically give it away, we anticipate a
massive response. Please send us your pitches ASAP as time is of the essence. This is no defined end when we’ll stop accepting pitches, but as soon as we find the right person or team, we’ll make a deal. Send all pitch materials to mark@jumpstartcity.com.
