Megathread - Crowdfunding

Iā€™ll let the founder explain directly :wink: :arrow_heading_down:

Heā€™s as transparent as founders get, by the way.

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Hi guys,

I cannot mention what company it was, but we shared the case transparently on Linkedin here.

Also, this is not client churn, but a loss of a potential contract.

btw, we are excited about our partnership with Seedrs, and you can hear Joel (their CPO) talk all about it in the video on our Seedrs campaign which is in private mode until Monday :wink: CityFALCON | EIS Crowdfunding Opportunity | Seedrs

Let me know if you have any questions.

Ruzbeh Bacha
Founder and CEO,
CityFALCON

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Crowdcube is targeting quantity rather quality by deciding to prioritise scaling rather than adding a secondary market. But are we sure that whatā€™s good for Crowdcube is good for crowd investors? Only a system involving carry would align Crowdcubeā€™s incentives with those of the crowd investors. Seedrs makes money only when investors make money. This is not the case for Crowdcube. Carry is also the solution used in the private equity industry.

There are a few things I like on Seedrs compared to CC besides the secondary market. Seedrs allows private conversations with the companies w/o usage of e-mail as its handled directly on their platform. Additionally, non-UK companies raise money in their national currencies (usually EUR) and overall, the invested amount is charged on the day of the investment, which allows for better control of FX exchange rates. With CC it takes ages and itā€™s unpredictable when the amount will be charged.

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Breaking News: Fintech entrepeneur Goncalo de Vasconcelos, will be doing an AMA (ask me anything) on Freetrade's community

Goncalo de Vasconcelos, pictured above

About Goncalo

Goncalo is the founder of Syndicateroom, one of the leading equity crowdfunding platforms in the UK. Syndicateroom has seen over Ā£215million invested into startups, and has been especially succesfull funding life sciences startups, but has also invested in the likes of Urban Jungle (Fintech), Luckytrip (Travel) and Recycling technologies (Cleantech). Goncalo stepped down as CEO recently to focus on his new venture, but remains on Syndicateroomā€™s board of advisors.

Goncaloā€™s new venture is an insuretech starup called RNWL, focussed on saving consumers money when it comes to renewing insurance - it has already received regulatory approval from the FCA. RNWL will soon be launching a crowdfunding campaign - you can register for the waiting list here. As syndicateroom now only facilitates fund (i.e. no investing in startups directly) investments , Goncalo must choose between Seedrs and Crowdcube for the crowdfund - drop by for the AMA if you want to share any thoughts on which he should use.

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logos for syndicateroom and RNWL, pictured above

About the AMA

Goncalo will begin answering questions this Monday at 8pm, and itā€™s expected the answers will last around one hour. The AMA will open for questions shortly prior to Monday, so we can gather as many questions as possible. Iā€™ll be moderating the discussion. More information to follow soon, so stay tuned.

This AMA will hopefully be the first of many, and is part of a casual partnership with Freetrade to make their community the go-to place for all things around equity crowdfunding, from news to research and much moreā€¦

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A post was split to a new topic: Allplants crowdfunding

I am a minnow! Some of those numbers are giving me a nosebleed given the average investment on those platformsā€¦

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Does a website/database exist anywhere tracking companies that have crowdfunded (latest raises, valuation points etc)? Would love it if it did.

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I think Ecf.buzz keep a database for all that

Thanks, will check it out

Hi Andrew,
It looks like youā€™ve been to Rnwlā€™s pre-registration page for our upcoming crowdfunding! Great to see and thank you! I wouldnā€™t worry too much about those numbers. All investors, small or large, are welcomed. Thatā€™s the whole point of crowdfunding!

In fact, I go much farther than that. 100 investors of Ā£100 each add far more value than one investor for Ā£10,000 for a B2C company like Rnwl. Freetrade community is the perfect example of precisely that! Of course we also have the larger ticket investors and they add their value too. Bring on 1,000 investors of Ā£100 and see me jumping up and down of happiness!

Crowdfunding itā€™s all about getting your current and future customers to help you building a great business. Their feedback as passionate early adopters is incredibly valuable. Again, just look at this forum!

Donā€™t forget to sign up to be one of the first to hear about our crowdfunding round when it goes live. Weā€™re at the beginning of our journey and the valuation reflects just that.

Thanks a million,
Goncalo (founder of Rnwl)

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The result of your twitter poll were pretty clear. Whatā€™s the point of running a poll if 90% of the votes do not help you choosing which platform to use?

@Fintechlapi In fairness, the chairman/founder of Seedrs asked/rallied shareholders to vote on that twitter poll, whereas crowdcube didnā€™t, so the results could naturally be a bit skewed/biased! Not that this is cheating or anything - to have such dedicated shareholders is a testament to their service.

Still, this community is probably crowdcube-biased (as thatā€™s where freetrade crowdfunded), so in my opinion it would definitely be interesting to see how a poll from this community works out too, just to get a balanced view.

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A post was split to a new topic: Symmetrical Power crowdfunding

Can I ask why do we have a founder of a company that is about to launch a raise, on this thread promoting the raise? Iā€™m not comfortable with that (sorry Goncalo nothing personal mate). Crowdfunding discussions yes, promoting your own company erm no!

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3 posts were split to a new topic: Hoptroff London crowdfunding

Yikes, that escalated fast

So just an update on that AMA:

It seems to have been cancelled by the forum moderators following spam complaints in relation to posts surrounding the AMA, and then slow traction on top of that (I thought it had a decent lift off, but maybe thatā€™s just me). Crucially, I pushed for the AMA against FT top brassā€™ concerns, so thatā€™s entirely on me. :grimacing: Never intended it as an ā€˜adā€™, and I always want to approach things with a balanced view, though i see how it didnā€™t come across this way.

I have no affiliation with Goncalo beyond having used his platform Syndicateroom - i speak only out of immense respect for what heā€™s done in this space, as well as his transparency and drive as an entrepeneur.The way things went is no reflection on him, and I recommend you check out Rnwlā€™s crowdfund when it launches. Not advice. :man_teacher: Capital at risk. :chart_with_downwards_trend: Do your own research. :computer:

Whilst iā€™m not going to let it discourage me, this setback kind of made me realise that any crowdfunding news platform (whatever you want to call it) would only work on a dedicated site (where iā€™m not stepping on any toes), so iā€™m going back in that direction. I might post one last time here as iā€™ve been working on something, otherwise iā€™m calling it a day on this thread. Obv feel free to chat amongst yourselves. Tara for nowā€¦ :wave:

P.S. Seedrs won the poll - go figure?

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Thatā€™s a shame. I was looking forward to the AMA. Goncalo has very hard earned insight in equity crowdfunding space.

More generally, feels like comment flagging is getting a bit out of hand.

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Thatā€™s a shame as I found your post interesting and useful.

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Thatā€™s a real shame. Iā€™ve always liked the founders amaā€™s on Monzo and found them super interesting and insightful.

Iirc Freetrade had one via Monzo and benefitted from it with regular posters, so it seems somewhat shortsighted to not allow it here.

Nevermind. All the best @anon1435622 - drop me a DM with the new project.

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