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Show HN: Start a small crowdfunding campaign to prove product demand (funduf.com)
100 points by andygor on Sept 13, 2018 | hide | past | favorite | 35 comments



Hah. I just did this (yesterday) with Kickstarter. Hit 140% of goal in 24 hours.

I made a write up around what I wanted to do. I made a quick video at work summarizing my key points. And I set a $100 goal.

13 people contributed. More than half of them are total strangers.

This does work and can also be encouraging for feedback.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rememberlenny/new-publi...


Very cool idea, congrats -- we're spending more than a month creating a KS campaign, but I like this concept to move super quickly just to get feedback!


Very cool. One micro issue though: the medium link is 404


congrats ! also your grafs are pretty nice :p


that's a cool idea


Cool! Here's some feedback:

- keep in mind you need a privacy page. GDPR is a real thing by now.

- How about adding a pricing/ plans page? Is there something to pay upfront for me?

- There are _loads_ [0] of crowdfunding platforms. What makes your's different to them?

- I really like the simplicity of the design! Great work!

[0] https://www.godaddy.com/garage/top-20-crowdfunding-platforms...


I think "make GDPR compliant" should come much later. Most new businesses fail. In that case, any time you spent on GDPR will have been a waste.


Agreed


> - keep in mind you need a privacy page. GDPR is a real thing by now.

If you're in the US, it's also not applicable


If any European is able to use the page, it needs to be compliant.


No it doesn't, that's not the way the internet works - it's only if you conduct business in the EU. That means, if there is a service / entity which exists in said country.

If a citizen of France in the EU calls on the phone a citizen in China to buy something, the Chinese citizen isn't subject to EU laws. However, the Chinese citizen AND the French citizen is subject to Chinese laws, and the French citizen is also subject to French laws. Plus there's a plethora of international trade agreements.

This is where everything starts becoming strange, because in the case of the GDPR it's an attempt to subject the Chinese citizen to a law from the EU. I.e. this is a debate over sovereignty, the EU citizen should be responsible for conducting their business not the Chinese citizen.

(a) The Chinese citizen never left China

(b) The Chinese citizen never intended to leave China

(c) The Chinese citizen doesn't know the laws of the EU, because they aren't there

(d) The Chinese citizen conducted business in China, because the transaction occurred there (i.e. the money was transferred to the China) <- This is the rub, because where a transaction occurred is actually defined differently in each country


Actually it’s conducting business with EU customers that is the crucial factor. You don’t need an entity in Europe. This is how trade laws work.


Where's that in case law? I have seen plenty of hype around this and I think that's an attempt to get support for this. However, the fact is, no one has actually tested this (yet).

It's basically arguing that the business is responsible for following laws in a place it does not conduct business. It's out of the EU jurisdiction. I'd love to see an entirely U.S. (probably only collecting in USD) based company getting "fined" in a country it doesn't conduct business.


something not having caselaw doesn't make it illegal. it just means it's untested.

In this case I believe @jahewson is correct. They just can't legally _punish_ you for violations until you enter the EU. You've still broken the law in the EU by not handling the data of a EU citizen as legally required by anyone who does business with them.

I understand where you're coming from, and that very much _was_ the way things used to work. The new law changes that. It governs interactions with EU citizens regardless of where they are.


that sounds as if the entire world revolved around europe.


How is this any different from any other crowdfunding platform?


Looks nice but it just links you to a typeform. Probably needs it's own campaign to get started properly


It links to a form, cause we need to moderate campaigns. Just describe your projects and Dima will answer.


You should add a message to the end of the typeform explaining that :)


You are right. Thanks!


Off topic. Is there any service to do a "marketing campaign" for a product launch ?!

So if we have a working app page, we throw $X at it, and see how many users we can get ?


Google AdWords, Facebook ads, Twitter promoted posts.

In my limited experience, Twitter is effective for tech/early-adopter products whereas Facebook works for consumer stuff. AdWords is kind of a middle-of-the-road that seems to require quite a bit of tweaking and attention to get your keywords even in the right ballpark, otherwise it’s useless. The two social media platforms know a lot more about their audiences, so you can do targeting more easily based on interests and demographics.


EDIT : to clarify, i think buying adwords/promotions is a valid skill set, i dont have and am not good at.

And as service, the provider should be able to provide a lot of added value. Knowing good keywords, distinguishing good destinations for different product types, etc.


AdWords?


just fyi, bit.ly doesnt work in china, so i’m not able to use this, but i’m pretty sure that your target market isnt china at this moment.

how does this differ from indiehackers or others? my impression is that the barrier to entry is lower in terms of less forms to fill i.e. 5 minutes, but i was stuck after sending my email.

what kind of volumes do you have in terms of users that are looking for new products?


If you accept crypto-currency, they don't need to wait 3 days until they see the money in the bank account.


Surely if it's in cryptocurrency it will never be in their bank account?


They could choose either to retain the funds as (stable) crypto or sell the coins in order to withdraw USD to their bank account. It's all about choices.


crypto is highly volatile however, and you dont know if you're gonna have the same buying power, a tenth of it, or 5 times of it within a months time.


Take the volatile crypto (e.g. bitcoin or ethereum) and immediately sell them for stablecoins like DAI to retain the buying power. https://medium.com/@james_3093/the-dai-stablecoin-is-a-game-....

Anyway if the fundraising is over a short period of time, maybe even a volatile crypto might do the job.


That's true, especially for physical products.


Or amazon gift cards!


Trycelery.com might be a useful platform too. Not affiliated.


Just submitted a project! What's next?


Good idea.




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