The Crowdsourceress: Get Smart, Get Funded, and Kickstart Your Next Big Idea

Description

In the past year, crowdfunding platforms helped generate a staggering $34 billion dollars in funding. But the harsh reality is that the majority of crowdfunding campaigns fail-only 40% meet their goals. And failing means failing hard. If you fall short of your goal by the deadline, not only won't you see any of the money you've worked so hard to raise, but you might actually tarnish your shiny idea. Alex Daly is a hugely successful crowdfunding expert who has run some of Kickstarter's biggest campaigns, from TLC's new album to Neil Young's music player to Joan Didion's documentary "We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live." In this book, she shows you how to: * Build a deep fan base prior to launch * Understand the psychology of why people give and create the right narrative around your project * Find the right platform on which to raise funds * Deal with unfulfilled promises and angry backers * Create intimacy and promote shareability of your project * Best use influence and exclusivity to get funded. Woven throughout is Alex's own entrepreneurial story-the unconventional career path she took to ultimately start her business, Vann Alexandra, thanks to crowdfunding. And she will take readers deep into her most successful campaigns, showing them how she helped them get funded. As someone who's spent lots of time in the trenches, she has learned the hard way how to communicate and connect with people on the Internet-and offers tangible tools to run your own crowdfunding campaigns. Above all, this is a book about how to fully connect with the crowd, get people to pay attention, and inspire them to act.

Alex Daly is the founder of Vann Alexandra-a creative services agency that gets projects financed through crowdfunding-and is the industry's "Crowdsourceress," a name she received in the press for her expertise in crowdfunding. Alex has served on panels at distinguished film festivals and universities and is a featured columnist for the Big Think. Before transitioning into crowdfunding Alex was a producer and production manager; her films have been selected by the world's most prestigious festivals including Sundance and Tribeca. Before that, she was a journalist for numerous publications, including New York magazine and SPIN, as well as the sole researcher for WSJ magazine.

Having seen Alex Daly in action it is no surprise that she has had such success with so many crowdfunding projects.--Eric Ries, author of the New York Times bestseller The Lean Startup Neil Young's Pono campaign is the most successful technology campaign of all time, and Alex deserves much of the credit...The Crowdsourceress will give you everything you need to make your crowdfunding campaign a success.--Phil Baker, COO of Pono The success of our campaigns have been the result of three things: quality content, good storytelling, and crowdfunding management by Alex Daly. I can say with certainty that we wouldn't have surpassed our goals without her involvement, and owning her book, The Crowdsourceress, is like having her 'special sauce' right at your fingertips. --Jesse Reed, Co-founder of the Standards Manual