DevReady Podcast E36 - Making Crowdfunding Work for Your Business with Matt Vitale

Summary: Our guest on this episode of the DevReady podcast is Matt Vitale, Co-founder of Birchal equity crowdfunding. Matt and the other co-founders combined their knowledge from their different industries to create Birchal with the goal of making the site mainly focused on the companies and facilitating a seamless process for the transaction from beginning to end. Birchal was an integral part of the lifting of the Australian government’s restrictions on equity crowdfunding several years ago, and they continue to impact related legislation as the company and the industry continue to grow in popularity and scope. The Birchal team has a very specific process for reviewing companies who are interested in posting campaigns on the site which includes both objective and subjective filters to ensure that the idea is viable before it is presented to potential investors. Through the expression of interest process, companies are able to gauge interest and receive pledges before ultimately launching their campaigns. Birchal is Australia’s leading crowdfunding platform, accounting for more than half of the monies invested through crowdfunding last year. For more information about hosting a campaign on Birchal or if you have further questions for Matt, don’t hesitate to reach out. Topics Covered: ● How Birchal was formed ● Equity crowdfunding ● How government regulation has impacted and continues to impact the industry ● The process that companies go through in order to post campaigns on Birchal ● Which businesses should pursue crowdfunding ● Getting feedback from interested investors ● Guiding companies to appropriate valuations ● Crowdfunding as a vehicle for fundraising ● Which campaigns are successful during COVID ● How to handle investors who are ready to cash out their investments ● The healthy tension between the company and their investors Key Quotes ❏ “It took about 5 years for the government to realize it wanted to do this and then pass the legislation to do it.” (2:55) ❏ “Looking back, it was a very effective execution of building technology for what is often a fairly complicated process.” (4:39) ❏ “It’s all about finding the relevant audience for each company and treating each campaign as a discrete project.” (9:47) ❏ “It’s all about momentum.” (15:16) ❏ “When we started the platform, we decided to quite deliberately describe the businesses that we want to work with as those that have a strong consumer proposition.” (18:58) ❏ “It’s about finding an audience that will derive benefit from your success.” (20:58) ❏ “Things are worth what people are willing to pay for them.” (22:38) ❏ “You want to give them enough information so they’re interested in you and then have this opportunity for engagement.” (26:29) ❏ “Every campaign that we host has at least a handful of investors that are investing over $10,000.” (31:27) ❏ “Crowdfunding is still open for business.” (37:24) ❏ “The trouble that we have is with the law.” (44:54) Contact Matt: https://www.birchal.com/ matt@birchal.com