This discussion got started when @Drew posted this comment:
& @Viktor asked:
How long would be ideal?I’d say at least 2 hours so that it reduces the risk of the same thing happening again.It would also give us all a chance to get are investment in.
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My opinion would be not to do the app push notification next time. It made everyone jump in to invest at exactly the same moment and that’s when it crashed as I was on the last page at that stage having had no problems before then 
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I’d agree with a couple hours purely for the community here. And also @Freetrade_Team1 show us more stats please 
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This would be my only gripe
20 minutes was a bit short…
24 hours headstrt…? Which would mean it’ll all go but it was going in less than an hour today so unsure
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How many hours though? 
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I’m thinking minimum one hour would be ideal
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A couple haha two 
I don’t think you’ll make it to a public raise if I’m honest though… 
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I think 1 also. Enough time to spread the load, and complete what should be a simple process
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No matter what there will be unhappy campers! Realistically the remaining amount will be taken within 2 hours I would suggest.
A 1 hour headstart for community members seems plenty.
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I think ideally between 2h-6h. I would definitely not go below 1h.
Also - I think we all learned a huge lesson with what happened yesterday so probably everyone will be rushing in at the same time the moment it opens up again even with the longer private window. So I think the key thing to fix and figure out is how to actually properly restrict early access for the right users only. This is where I would focus. Definitely wouldn’t use a link that can be easily shared left right and centre.
So in addition to early access private window, I would strongly suggest tiering access to it so it’s not a free for all:
- first: actual active freetrade app users (active = users that have made at least one investment)
- then perhaps 30min-1h later: all other freetrade app users, freetrade forum members, newsletter subs etc
- then another ~1h later everyone else
Definitely wouldn’t use a link that can be shared with everyone. Maybe do unique per user links and only one investment allowed with the unique link in early access mode (so that people don’t share their link). Just an idea. But this is the area I would focus on.
Hope this helps
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I very much agree with @judita - “restricted access” should be just that and the tiers suggested are fair and make sense
personally I don’t think getting this perfect will be achievable in short term. something like 24 hours window for community members sounds sensible. Mad rush was due to EIS limit of £2 million. So hopefully would be better post that point(may be little more as people would expect cancellations)
On a completely different note, was limit of 2million was due to 12 month period? I believe freetrade issued shares in Jun & pitched in mid may last year. If there is going to be further delay, does that mean adding another couple of weeks can give freetrade option to increase EIS allowance to £5 million?
This is very helpful, thank you. Tiering is a potential solution we’re looking into.
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Enough for me to get in 
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I already invested, but in my opinion to avoid the same thing the next time you should send the private link only in the app via live chat or via email and give people at least 1-2 hours of private mode.
Sharing the link in the community just makes it accessible to everyone that have internet.
Some tips for people for the campaign reboot:
The forum gave a live link 5 minutes before the email came through… So keep an eye on here as well if you can for a Head start. May not happen again, but who knows.
Crowdcube suspend your account if you try to invest a third time, so best to invest your intended amount over two at most.
The app crashed after the site going from posts on this forum, so have your mobile on hand.
You only pledge an investment. You’ll get an email with the terms of investment, eis allocation, etc to read through at least a week after the campaign closes. You’ll also get an email notifying you at least 24hours before payment is processed. Typically, you will be granted access to the pitch deck(email sent out already for this) , financiala, etc before payment. Access is granted manually, so it depends entirely on Ft to respond. You can cancel all the while, so it’s not unthinkable to pledge now and read the documents later.
Personally, I feel the crash was inevitable. The raise appears the most oversubscribed crowdcube has had, but it’s the 2 million eis cap that made it so competitive. Seedrs had the same problem with tandem, so I don’t think the platform would have made any difference. In a weird way, I’ll be annoyed if it doesn’t crash again, because it begs the question why couldn’t they have traffic proofed the website in the first place? Oh well, I was lucky enough to get in.
Full disclosure, I am an investor in crowdcube and seedrs.
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If you could rely on crowdcube, it wouldn’t matter too much how long, however I doubt they’ll fix much, so you’ll have to manage the traffic for them.
I’d say at least 1 hour for the private investors, but more important than that is to manage which channels you put this out on, control sharing of the link, and don’t like last time release it on all the channels at once. Let people know in advance which channel to watch out for, and try to stagger the visitors so that the crowdcube page can handle it.
You may want to consider capping per investor amounts to say £1000 per investor if you can to let everyone have a go - you can remove the per-investor caps later once the first rush is over.
So something like:
- 0 hours - share link via email (this gives you a little natural staggering)
- 30 mins - share link in the app
- 1 hour - share link on forum
- 1 hour 30 - share on twitter
- 2 hours - public on crowdcube home page, remove per investor-cap
Also a thread on the forum showing latest stats and running commentary might help manage load by avoiding people reloading the very heavy crowdcube page to see what the total is now.
At least this time you’ll have 1400 less people trying to go through the payment flow at once.
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1 day for current investors, 1 day for existing users/community, then public. 20 minutes in the middle of the day isn’t convenient for everyone.
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