SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

People Hire Him Behind The Scenes to Launch Their Crowdfunding Campaigns, $40m Raised with Zach Smith of Funded Today

08 Feb 2016

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Ep 178 Zach Smith, the cofounder and CEO of Funded Today, the world’s leading crowdfunding agency. Listen as Nathan and Zach talk about how to grow a list and what makes a crowdfunding project successful. YOUR $100: Remember to subscribe to the show on itunes then text the word "nathan" to 33444 to confirm that you've done it to enter to win $100 every Monday on the show. Do this now. Stop reading this and do it! Click here to join the top tribe and instantly learn how Nathan made his first $10k at 19 years old: bit.ly/1SynoAg Top Entrepreneurs join Nathan Latka daily inspired by, Art of Charm, Pat Flynn, John Dumas, Entrepreneur on Fire, Chalene Johnson, Lewis Howes, School of Greatness, HBR Podcast, the StartUp podcast, Mixergy, Andrew Warner, AskGaryVee, and the great hosts of BiggerPockets! 3 Key Points: In order to back campaigns that will a nearly guarantee a return, Funded Today utilizes its massive email list to gauge interest and calculate projections for project candidates. Ubiquitous products that are used widely with an interesting backing story are qualities of a project that would perform well in crowdsourcing. Social media customer acquisition channels are invaluable for growing a list. Zach believes that Instagram in particular is the next big thing. Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:00 – Nathan’s introduction to today’s show 01:24 – Zach joins the show. 02:43 – Funded Today built a big list months in advance before launch. 03:31 – RooSport 2, attachable magnetic running wallet. 04:41 – Funded Today built its list for about 10 to 65 cents a click. With about a 30% opt-in rate. 05:33 – Zach’s favorite customer acquisition channels are Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. 06:36 – RooSport 2 spent about 10-15K to build their list through various means. They raised 50K for the product in the first ten days of launch. 08:22 – Funded Today makes money by taking a percentage of all the money raised. 11:49 – They take about 35% of total sales as commission. 13:21 – In order to know which campaigns to back safely, the Funded Today runs a testing period during which they find statistical significance from their list and project growth. 14:09 – Another advantage of using Funded Today’s services is they’re well connected in the crowdsourcing industry. 14:29 – Funded Today has 31 employees and a list of over one million emails. 14:57 – The business made about 8 million in 2015, aiming for 16 million in 2016. 15:32 – Zach’s ideal client is someone who understands the factors that go into running a successful crowdsourcing campaign. 15:54 – Some factors for a successful campaign are: ubiquity, techie-cool, story-exciting. 17:10 – Genuine stories behind crowdsourcing campaigns seem to have greater success. 20:34 – Famous Five Resources Mentioned: Edgar – Nathan uses Edgar instead of other scheduling tools for Twitter because Edgar cycles through content over and over (buffer/others you have to re-input content over and over – time consuming). In the last several months, Edgar has driven Nathan over 3728 clicks that he didn’t have to work or pay for. Here isNathan’s Edgar Content Calendar: Funded Today – Zach’s business @tweetzachsmith – Zach’s Twitter Google Drive and Skype – Zach’s favorite online tools David and Goliath by Malcom Gladwell – Zach’s favorite business books Elon Musk – CEO Zach follows Bio Zach Smith is the cofounder and CEO of Funded Today, the world’s leading crowdfunding agency. The business has raised over 40 million dollars and counting for over 300 campaigns for Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Famous 5 Favorite Book?- David and Goliath by Malcom Gladwell What CEO do you follow?— Elon Musk What is your favorite online tool?— Google Drive and Skype Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— Yes If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be?— You can learn much on your own, find a mentor and try to learn as much as possible from them. Listen to The Top if you want to hear from the worlds TOP entrepreneurs on how much they sold last month, how they are selling it, and what they are selling - 7 days a week in 20 minute interviews! Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop The Top is FOR YOU if you are: A STUDENT who wants to become the CEO of a $10m company in under 24 months (episode #4) STUCK in the CORPORATE grind and looking to create a $10k/mo side business so you can quit (episode #7) An influencer or BLOGGER who wants to make $27k/mo in monthly RECURRING revenue to have the life you want and full CONTROL (episode #1) The Software as a Service (SaaS) entrepreneur who wants to grow to a $100m+ valuation (episode #14). Your host, Nathan Latka is a 25 year old software entrepreneur who has driven over $4.5 million in revenue and built a 25 person team as he dropped out of school, raised $2.5million from a Forbes Billionaire, and attracted over 10,000 paying customers from 160+ different countries. Oprah gets 60 minutes or more to make her guests comfortable to then ask tough questions. Nathan does it all in less than 15 minutes in this daily podcast that's like an audio version of Pat Flynn's monthly income report. Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop

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