By: Victoria Marshman, Co-Founder of Mave & Chez
I wanted to dive a bit deeper into our decision to launch on Kickstarter, a crowdfunding platform and why the power of crowdfunding is so profound for a startup. Whether you’re curious why, or have hopes of launching your dream idea one day, think of this blog as a “tell all” of what our experience has been like launching with the power of crowdfunding.
Launching a new business is no small undertaking. It’s taken us over two years to make our dream a reality of creating ergonomic, stylish slippers (aka Maves), and getting ready to launch Mave & Chez.
What is Crowdfunding?
What the heck is crowdfunding anyways?
Crowdfunding is a way for companies to raise money by collecting small, individual contributions from a large pool of supporters through online platforms such as Kickstarter, GoFundMe, and social networks.
Mave & Chez is specifically using donation/reward based crowdfunding – we have set a fundraising target and are asking supporters to back the campaign, and in exchange you will receive Maves in just a short few months at an extremely discounted price.
Launching a product is EXPENSIVE. You simply can’t do it without additional capital unless you have a serious reserve of personal savings. Financial institutions, investors and traditional forms of loans most likely won’t provide you with the capital you need as you are pre-revenue and not able to show that there is a need for your product just yet.
For my co-founder Dani Kagan and I, the pandemic hit us pretty hard. We were running two successful event planning companies pre-pandemic. With events virtually disappearing for two years, we lost the majority of our business, and had to act fast to pivot, and get Mave & Chez, our pandemic idea off of the ground.
We’ve weighed the pros and cons of many types of fundraising, and believe that Kickstarter is the way to go. Keep reading to hear more on why.
The Power of Community
There is nothing more powerful than rallying together a community of like-minded people in support of an aligned mission. We’ve seen it time and time again.
As some of you may or may not know, this is not my Co-Founder Dani and I’s first rodeo. We also co-founded City MOGULS – a platform to support, connect & motivate entrepreneurs through events, mentorship and networking. We built a community of passionate, like-minded entrepreneurs motivated to support one another and give back while doing it.
Together, we have raised $250k to support Canadian at-risk youth based charities, and have served over 250 North American start-ups during a global pandemic, and inspired entrepreneurs to go after their dreams.
Together, we can do anything.
What are the Benefits of Launching on Kickstarter?
We’ve created Maves from scratch – it’s taken a lot of research and development to perfect the design and construction of the slipper.
We’ve also taken into consideration hundreds of opinions and feedback from slipper fanatics to meet all of their deepest desires and needs and more.
What’s great about launching on Kickstarter is you’re able to:
Build buzz and excitement about your brand and the product you are launching
Gain invaluable customer feedback and insight on your product design
Generate enough capital to order your first run of inventory
Prove the concept and need for your product in the market
By launching with the support of crowdfunding, we’ll be able to rally together this incredible community of Mavens to support getting the first run of Maves off the ground, all while collecting invaluable feedback from YOU! We believe all women deserve luxury. Our mission is to empower women to be bold and build a legacy.
