1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,580 Kevin Mako: Hello, product innovators. Today we learn from the founder of an online crowdfunding platform that has financed hundreds 2 00:00:05,580 --> 00:00:10,260 Kevin Mako: of startups on best practices to raise money via equity crowdfunding for your hardware startup. 3 00:00:13,800 --> 00:00:22,700 Narrator: You're listening to the Product Startup Podcast, the show that helps bring your product idea to life by chatting with successful inventors, 4 00:00:23,100 --> 00:00:32,920 Narrator: product developers, and hardware industry professionals. Our goal here is to get to the bottom of what makes a product successful, from initial idea to getting your product 5 00:00:32,920 --> 00:00:39,860 Narrator: on store shelves, we're taking you step by step to build a functional product and scale your product 6 00:00:39,860 --> 00:00:45,560 Narrator: business. Hosted by Kevin Mako, one of North America's leading experts on hardware development 7 00:00:45,560 --> 00:00:54,400 Kevin Mako: for small product businesses. Now, onto the show. Welcome back, everyone. Today I'm very excited to welcome back Peter Paul Vaughan Hookin to the show. 8 00:00:54,780 --> 00:01:02,900 Kevin Mako: Peter Paul is the founder of FrontFundr, one of North America's top platforms for equity crowdfunding for startups and small scaling businesses. He is a 9 00:01:02,920 --> 00:01:07,200 Kevin Mako: TEDx speaker on investment crowdfunding is a member of the Securities Commission, is an advisor 10 00:01:07,200 --> 00:01:11,640 Kevin Mako: to both the Private Capital Markets Association and the National Crowdfunding and Fentech Association. 11 00:01:12,020 --> 00:01:16,100 Kevin Mako: Simply put, Peter Paul is the person to talk to when it comes to crowdfunding capital for a 12 00:01:16,100 --> 00:01:19,660 Kevin Mako: hardware startup. Today, he's going to share some valuable knowledge on how inventor startups 13 00:01:19,660 --> 00:01:26,620 Kevin Mako: and small manufacturers can use crowdfunding equity platforms to raise capital to grow a hardware product business. Now, on to the show. 14 00:01:27,600 --> 00:01:29,160 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: Peter Paul, welcome back to the show. 15 00:01:29,400 --> 00:01:33,060 Kevin Mako: Hi, Kevin. Thanks for having me again. Well, great to have you back on. A lot has happened 16 00:01:33,080 --> 00:01:41,040 Kevin Mako: in the past year, especially with your company FrontFundr, you guys have funded dozens and dozens of companies and many of our clients as well. 17 00:01:41,160 --> 00:01:42,700 Kevin Mako: So it's pretty exciting to see that 18 00:01:42,700 --> 00:01:51,580 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: happening since we last spoke on the air here. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, lots of has happened, lots of exciting developments in the investment crowdfunding industry. So yeah, 19 00:01:52,060 --> 00:01:55,920 Kevin Mako: very encouraged and excited about it. Very exciting. Now, just for those who didn't hear the first 20 00:01:55,920 --> 00:02:00,620 Kevin Mako: show, can you just give a quick background of how you got to building successful business that 21 00:02:00,620 --> 00:02:06,440 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: you have today. So my, I almost said my previous life was in banking and finance and I moved on really 22 00:02:06,440 --> 00:02:11,460 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: in sort of entrepreneurial space and started working with startups and skill up companies to help them 23 00:02:11,460 --> 00:02:16,140 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: get ready and raise capital and all that and experience how challenging it is for these companies to 24 00:02:16,140 --> 00:02:23,200 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: raise capital, but also how they're using really the traditional sort of archaic ways to reach out to investors. 25 00:02:23,620 --> 00:02:33,360 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: And that combined with what I also, at that time, this was around 2014, 2015. What I saw happening in other geographies like the UK is to actually leverage technology 26 00:02:33,360 --> 00:02:43,040 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: and bring it online. And so that's really where I jumped in the opportunity to develop FrontFundr as essentially an online platform connecting these capital raisers 27 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:52,280 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: with the wider investment community. And the emphasis on wider really. So I'm talking about essentially the public. So we enable startups to raise capital from 28 00:02:52,280 --> 00:02:59,540 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: essentially anyone really starting as little as $250 per investment up to, obviously, you know, however big they want. 29 00:02:59,720 --> 00:03:07,320 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: But it's about Frontfront is really about providing companies better access to capital or entire new pool of capital from the public. 30 00:03:07,760 --> 00:03:14,420 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: And of course, for enabling the public to access these companies. So in that respect, we're kind of democratizing, investing in startups. 31 00:03:14,580 --> 00:03:23,600 Kevin Mako: Well, it's a phenomenal service because anybody who's interested in an emerging hardware startup now has the ability to take part in the equity, 32 00:03:23,780 --> 00:03:29,780 Kevin Mako: which was generally reserved. for engine investors or venture capital funds or so on. It's amazing. 33 00:03:30,200 --> 00:03:38,740 Kevin Mako: Now, anybody, if they're interested in that offering, can get on board for a very small amount of money. So it's an incredible platform. And I've seen it firsthand. 34 00:03:38,940 --> 00:03:48,400 Kevin Mako: I think of one of our clients on your platform, Chai Easy, who raised, I think, close to $300,000 on the platform to build and scale their product, very cool product. 35 00:03:48,960 --> 00:03:55,740 Kevin Mako: And they needed money to grow as many hardware startup to do. So your platform allowed all. kinds of people. 36 00:03:55,940 --> 00:04:04,580 Kevin Mako: I think you had close to 100 different investors that put in various amounts of money to allow these folks to get that raise, which is really incredible. So first and foremost, 37 00:04:04,740 --> 00:04:13,880 Kevin Mako: I want to help people understand the difference between crowdfunding on a platform like Kickstarter and Indiegogo versus crowdfunding for their business on a 38 00:04:13,880 --> 00:04:15,740 Kevin Mako: platform like yours, Front Fund or Start 39 00:04:15,740 --> 00:04:20,640 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: Engine. Can you just describe the difference there so that there's no confusion? Great. Yeah, absolutely. 40 00:04:20,780 --> 00:04:29,560 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: Let's create clarity there because there are indeed, other than they have both the word sort of crowdfunding in it. But, you know, equity crowdfunding or investment crowdfunding 41 00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:35,220 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: is fundamentally different from traditional non-financial crowdfunding, like you mentioned platforms 42 00:04:35,220 --> 00:04:44,720 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: like Kickstarter and Ngo-well, in that through those platforms, you're basically backing an idea and you're essentially making a donation or you're pre-purchasing a product or 43 00:04:44,720 --> 00:04:54,360 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: you donating and you get a certain perk, but you don't have any other interest in that company versus investment crowdfunding is really you're making an investment. 44 00:04:54,640 --> 00:05:03,520 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: So if you invest $500 in a company through FrontFundr, you essentially become a co-owner in that company. So you have upside. 45 00:05:03,760 --> 00:05:10,760 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: So if the company does well, your $500 may well grow into a significant multiple over time. 46 00:05:11,100 --> 00:05:19,160 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: So you're really not just backing the company because you believe they got something, you'd like to see them succeed, but you're also sharing in that potential 47 00:05:19,160 --> 00:05:23,840 Kevin Mako: upside because you're investing in a company, you're becoming a co-owner in that company. 48 00:05:23,840 --> 00:05:30,820 Kevin Mako: I appreciate the differentiation because that's really key for people to understand that on Kickstarter and Indiegogo, you're buying a product in advance. 49 00:05:31,380 --> 00:05:39,020 Kevin Mako: Whereas on FrontFundr, you're investing in the company. And that's a key difference. And it's really important to understand because as you're building 50 00:05:39,020 --> 00:05:43,640 Kevin Mako: a hardware startup and as you're building one of these companies that, you know, whether you're at the idea 51 00:05:43,640 --> 00:05:48,220 Kevin Mako: phase, you've got an invention idea and you're looking or planning ahead for how to finance the scaling 52 00:05:48,220 --> 00:05:56,360 Kevin Mako: and growth of it or whether you've got an existing hardware startup and you're looking to expand And from the perspective of you, the inventor, the ideator, 53 00:05:56,800 --> 00:06:01,940 Kevin Mako: you've got to look at these platforms and understand the differences that they can do. A lot of the time, you can actually do them together. 54 00:06:02,460 --> 00:06:10,140 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: I believe Chai'ezy did do a round on crowdfunding and then did an equity round after with you. So yes, absolutely, Kevin. 55 00:06:10,580 --> 00:06:18,240 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: And so we have more companies that indeed raised through rewards base or no donation-based platforms previously and then came came to us. 56 00:06:18,280 --> 00:06:21,360 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: And actually where there is another sort of. 57 00:06:22,700 --> 00:06:29,380 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: similarity or a similar purpose of both forms of crowdfunding is actually that, you know, 58 00:06:29,840 --> 00:06:36,260 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: companies that raise on fund funder from investors, they indeed become an investor, an co-owner 59 00:06:36,260 --> 00:06:46,160 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: in the company, but they also, of course, become a supporter of their company. So companies that raise on FrontFundr are essentially combining a funding effort 60 00:06:46,160 --> 00:06:55,560 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: with a marketing effort as well. So we have had companies raised on fund funder from, you know, hundreds of investors, even some top thousand investors. 61 00:06:55,720 --> 00:07:05,700 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: So they raised capital from those thousand investors. But I also got a thousand brand ambassadors that want to purchase their product, perhaps already have. And of course, 62 00:07:05,780 --> 00:07:09,080 Kevin Mako: we'll likely tell their friends and families, say, hey, this is cool. You should look at that. 63 00:07:09,200 --> 00:07:16,160 Kevin Mako: And rightly so, because of course, they literally have a vested interest because they became a co-owner in the company. That's really powerful. 64 00:07:16,160 --> 00:07:24,880 Kevin Mako: I don't think a lot of people think about that when they're doing equity crowdfunding, that extra benefit of building. And we talk about a lot on the show, building communities. 65 00:07:25,480 --> 00:07:32,340 Kevin Mako: This is a great way to expand your existing community to bring a whole bunch of new individuals along that become brand champions. 66 00:07:32,740 --> 00:07:41,280 Kevin Mako: And what a powerful way to do it than people who are financially vested in your company and, of course, have a personal vested interest in your company succeeding. That's right. 67 00:07:41,760 --> 00:07:47,860 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: Peter Paul, let's talk in more detail about what it takes to succeed when doing or 68 00:07:47,880 --> 00:07:57,320 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: planning for an equity crowdfunding raise, especially as a hardware startup. Yeah, so a couple of things here. And the first thing to recognize really when you're 69 00:07:57,320 --> 00:08:03,200 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: thinking about raising capital on through investment crowdfunding is you're not outsourcing your 70 00:08:03,200 --> 00:08:12,900 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: funding. So you're not launching your raise on FrontFundr. And, you know, we give you the in the capital raise a call when the money is in. Like it doesn't work like that. 71 00:08:12,960 --> 00:08:21,000 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: It's really from from preparation to execution, to closing, it's hard work for the capital raise themselves, for the entrepreneur themselves. 72 00:08:21,280 --> 00:08:30,800 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: So you need to basically recognize and have the, let's say, the bandwidth to support your raise and to get out your key messages and to really invest in the campaign. 73 00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:39,560 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: And the more you recognize the value of creating that and leveraging, you know, an existing community and tapping new communities, the more obviously that has a value 74 00:08:39,560 --> 00:08:49,480 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: ad for capital raises on FrontFundr. Now, the second thing is for any company. really, but particularly for hardware companies, it's important that you have something 75 00:08:49,480 --> 00:08:56,820 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: to show and tell, really. So if you have a product, if you have a prototype, ideally you already have done sales, 76 00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:06,840 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: so you have proof of concept that the attraction, that typically is it's easier to convey your message to your perspective in investors, say, hey, look, this is our product. 77 00:09:07,340 --> 00:09:14,700 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: We're already done X amount of sales. And so you can make it really concrete and it's easier for them to get excited about it and to understand what you're doing. 78 00:09:14,920 --> 00:09:23,880 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: Thirdly, I would say, is really what we're doing with FrontFundr is providing entrepreneurs a stage really to go literally go public. 79 00:09:24,400 --> 00:09:31,260 Kevin Mako: And so what we do is to help craft the key messages and to amplify those messages throughout the campaign and to really 80 00:09:31,260 --> 00:09:37,880 Kevin Mako: reach as many people as possible that may be interested to invest. I really appreciate you breaking it down into those three pieces. 81 00:09:38,020 --> 00:09:47,040 Kevin Mako: Equity financing requires work, especially in a crowdfunding avenue, really in any avenue. Raising money requires work, no matter what way you do it, and crowdfunding 82 00:09:47,040 --> 00:09:51,540 Kevin Mako: equity should be thought of as no different. Two, specifically to hardware companies, you need 83 00:09:51,540 --> 00:09:59,280 Kevin Mako: something to show. Pre-sales, if you have a phenomenal, you have pre-orders, maybe, but ideally getting even further down the line, or at least show some sales. 84 00:09:59,460 --> 00:10:06,700 Kevin Mako: And then third, reaching as many people as possible through a platform to amplify that go public community, as we talked about 85 00:10:06,700 --> 00:10:11,920 Kevin Mako: earlier, those three elements are very important as you build out your campaign, even in the 86 00:10:11,920 --> 00:10:16,980 Kevin Mako: planning stages, you should be thinking about those three and think about how are you going to execute well on each of those three pillars. 87 00:10:17,360 --> 00:10:24,840 Kevin Mako: So for today's show, let's break down those three. Let's start with building the product itself and getting some sales. What I've seen in the past 88 00:10:24,840 --> 00:10:33,740 Kevin Mako: is that it doesn't necessarily mean you have to have a globally recognized product. The key is just to show that some users somewhere have actually pulled 89 00:10:33,740 --> 00:10:40,960 Kevin Mako: out their credit card to buy a unit and then ideally down the line said they love the unit, some reviews. And it doesn't have to be a 90 00:10:40,960 --> 00:10:44,920 Kevin Mako: lot. I think that's one of the big misconceptions. We talk about proving that you have sales. People 91 00:10:44,920 --> 00:10:48,580 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: look at it and say, well, not that profitable yet. We're not profitable at all. That is not the key 92 00:10:48,580 --> 00:10:57,760 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: when it comes to hardware, at least as you're raising funding to build or scale a startup. The key is just to show some sales and even more important great reviews. 93 00:10:58,020 --> 00:11:07,940 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: Absolutely. The investors understand that you're raising to take it actually your company and your product to the next level of commercialization and further development, right? 94 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:15,280 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: That's why they're investing. But for them to understand your product and get excited about it if you can show it if they can see like okay you've already 95 00:11:15,280 --> 00:11:20,640 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: booked some successes uh you got some traction that obviously gives them confidence like okay hey hey 96 00:11:20,640 --> 00:11:24,660 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: there's there's there looks like there's really something here i want to support this company and 97 00:11:24,660 --> 00:11:30,240 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: jump on board so yeah you definitely don't need to show global sales yet and etc it's really just 98 00:11:30,240 --> 00:11:36,020 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: really to to make it tangible and and easier to get investors excited about it and in fact you know 99 00:11:36,020 --> 00:11:40,360 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: you can be quite creative there and we've seen that with a significant number of companies on our 100 00:11:40,940 --> 00:11:48,520 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: that you can also combine the investment opportunity with the actual product, right? So you can sort of attach perks to an investment. 101 00:11:48,980 --> 00:11:56,720 Kevin Mako: So you could say, hey, if you invest $500, you get a box of these drinks delivered. And if you invest a thousand, you get something more. 102 00:11:56,840 --> 00:12:03,380 Kevin Mako: You can be quite creative with offering your investor the opportunity to actually experience the product as well. 103 00:12:03,440 --> 00:12:10,600 Kevin Mako: But I guess that comes to your other point that crowdfunding for equity funding requires work. So let's jump into that one a bit. 104 00:12:10,680 --> 00:12:16,520 Kevin Mako: too, because again, that's one of the big misconceptions that, and it's the same with Kickstarter and Indiegogo. We see that with clients all the time. 105 00:12:16,640 --> 00:12:22,120 Kevin Mako: They assume that because they've now launched on the platform, all of a sudden, all this money is going to roll in. But it is just 106 00:12:22,120 --> 00:12:28,960 Kevin Mako: a platform, now a very powerful platform, whether it's crowdfunding actual physical products or crowdfunding for equity. 107 00:12:29,440 --> 00:12:32,660 Kevin Mako: The platform is incredibly powerful, but you need to enable that. 108 00:12:32,900 --> 00:12:42,200 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: And you need to do the work to actually make that be as prosperous as it can for you. So why don't break down the work element and what some of the key elements of like planning 109 00:12:42,200 --> 00:12:50,420 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: and execution that you've seen that leads to the best results in terms of a campaign financial performance. Sure. Yeah. 110 00:12:50,640 --> 00:12:54,400 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: So first of all, obviously, it starts with preparation. Sometimes the companies come to 111 00:12:54,400 --> 00:13:03,440 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: us and say, okay, I want to raise X amount of money and you know, I want to raise ASAP. Can we can we launch next week, two weeks, you know, and you don't want to do that 112 00:13:03,440 --> 00:13:12,320 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: really unless you really are ready to do so and you got your whole, you know, your act together. So we always recommend, like, take time to prepare your campaign because, 113 00:13:12,340 --> 00:13:21,060 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: you know, it's just literally, if you raise on FrontFundr, compare it to going on stage and you're doing your performance, now, unless you want to do a 114 00:13:21,060 --> 00:13:29,200 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: complete, you know, improvising show and you're very good at it, but it's not going to work when you raise capital. You need to basically prepare and craft your story. 115 00:13:29,300 --> 00:13:36,620 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: You need to prepare your campaign as well. You need to think through, like, okay, throughout the campaign, what are the key messages that I want to convey? 116 00:13:36,620 --> 00:13:42,480 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: What are the themes around, my company and my products and service that I want to highlight. So you want to prepare that. 117 00:13:42,680 --> 00:13:47,520 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: And we as front of our work with issuers to, with capital raises to prepare that. So we have a 118 00:13:47,520 --> 00:13:52,980 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: designated campaign management team that helps you in that phase to get the key messages 119 00:13:52,980 --> 00:14:01,560 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: route, messages ready to help with preparing, you know, a video that's often used by companies and other investment materials, et cetera. So that's one. 120 00:14:01,680 --> 00:14:07,860 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: So it's about preparing really the campaign properly. Do you find the video is a big part of the equation these days? 121 00:14:07,980 --> 00:14:11,820 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: as it is with Kickstarter and product crowdfunding campaigns. Definitely. 122 00:14:12,780 --> 00:14:21,660 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: It is, you know, if you look at the video is obviously in campaigns, has by far the highest engagement. And people watch the video. 123 00:14:21,900 --> 00:14:27,580 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: In fact, some investors are basically sold only on the video. I'm not saying that's necessarily a good thing. 124 00:14:27,720 --> 00:14:36,800 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: I think you should read more and go through the investment opportunities and properly inform yourself as an investor. But the video is, of course, an easy way also, 125 00:14:36,800 --> 00:14:43,620 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: but to really meet the company and meet the team and get excited about it. So, yeah, video is really important. 126 00:14:43,920 --> 00:14:52,700 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: So then the next step is indeed, of course, the actual execution of the campaign, which is, you know, again, imagine that you are on stage, you know, every day. 127 00:14:53,040 --> 00:14:58,660 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: And so you want to engage your audience, you want to get them excited about your company. 128 00:14:58,960 --> 00:15:06,220 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: And as I said, throughout the campaign, talk about different aspects and themes around your company, your products, and perhaps also updates. 129 00:15:06,800 --> 00:15:14,540 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: is great if you have exciting developments during your campaign that you can share. And so, so that's really during, during the campaign to engage your audience. 130 00:15:14,740 --> 00:15:21,780 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: There are always investors that watch your video and read through the investment opportunity and decide, like their early adapters, decide and jump in. 131 00:15:22,060 --> 00:15:29,920 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: And you always have a significant group of investors that sort of starts following you and sort of, you got to get them more excited and then they jump in and invest, right? 132 00:15:30,020 --> 00:15:37,380 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: And we FrontFundr helps with that process. So we enable companies to post updates, to reach out to people that are following their campaign. 133 00:15:37,680 --> 00:15:44,820 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: So that's really, it's about taking investors through this process, and some will invest right away, some will sort of invest during the process. 134 00:15:45,040 --> 00:15:53,820 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: And of course, during closing, and this is really important for closing, you see it usually also sort of increased traction and those investors 135 00:15:53,820 --> 00:16:00,960 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: that decide last minute, like, I want to get in and sort of perhaps a phoomal effect, certainly if the race is doing well and overfunding, 136 00:16:01,080 --> 00:16:06,100 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: like, hey, I don't want to miss out on this. So that's really during your domain. then post campaign. 137 00:16:06,400 --> 00:16:15,100 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: This is also important to understand and ties into the fact that raising capital through investment crowdfunding through our platform means 138 00:16:15,100 --> 00:16:21,680 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: that it's a combined funding and marketing exercise. So you're creating, as you mentioned earlier, you're creating, you're building 139 00:16:21,680 --> 00:16:31,540 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: this community and you want to obviously keep your community excited about it. So post-raise is important to regularly follow up with your investors. 140 00:16:31,720 --> 00:16:40,340 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: Send them updates. We recommend at least quarterly. Communicate with your investors, not hearing from you at all is always a bad thing. Like, hey, what's happening? 141 00:16:40,680 --> 00:16:43,960 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: I get concerned. And you regularly update them and tell them what's 142 00:16:43,960 --> 00:16:53,780 Kevin Mako: going on. And so that keeps them excited. And they continue to also work for you to promote your products and service. Hey, look, I'm a share of this company. 143 00:16:53,940 --> 00:17:02,180 Kevin Mako: Check out this product. And so it's really post-raised as well where companies can benefit the fact that they have raised capital from a significant community. 144 00:17:02,440 --> 00:17:10,440 Kevin Mako: I love the fact that you mentioned updates both during and after because it's one of the easiest things that a hardware company can do. Keep in mind that while you're raising 145 00:17:10,440 --> 00:17:14,600 Kevin Mako: funding, you're also building your hardware business. You might be doing product design updates or 146 00:17:14,600 --> 00:17:20,240 Kevin Mako: tweaking prototypes, breaking things, fixing things, setting up enhanced production, setting up new 147 00:17:20,240 --> 00:17:25,000 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: partners, influencers. I mean, there's a zillion things you might be doing in the background. One of the 148 00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:29,860 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: easiest things you can be doing is just taking those wins and doing a quick update online. And I imagine 149 00:17:29,860 --> 00:17:38,240 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: through pretty much any of the platforms that I've seen, there's entire systems built just to be able to very quickly and easily give those updates and send those to the community. 150 00:17:38,460 --> 00:17:47,520 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: Totally. And we indeed. We've offered, we build the same through the FrontFundr platform. We make it very easy for capital raisers to communicate 151 00:17:47,520 --> 00:17:56,600 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: with their investor base and send out updates through our platform. And everything I'm saying here is what we as FrontFundr 152 00:17:56,600 --> 00:18:00,900 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: ourselves have experience as well because it's sort of we walk the talk we've been you know 153 00:18:00,900 --> 00:18:10,720 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: drinking on whiskey if you like and we raised our company our platform multiple times ourselves for FrontFundr because ultimately we are you know scale up company now that 154 00:18:10,720 --> 00:18:17,020 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: race through investment crowdfunding and so what is really exciting to see and is to with my investor community 155 00:18:17,020 --> 00:18:26,080 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: and i now have close to thousand investors that you know i check in with them at least quarterly often in between as well with certain updates for developments. 156 00:18:26,840 --> 00:18:34,600 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: And it's engaging. I have shareholders that reach out to me or to my team and say, hey, you know, I got this 157 00:18:34,600 --> 00:18:39,080 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: company maybe that fits on FunFunder or, you know, I'd like to introduce 158 00:18:39,080 --> 00:18:48,360 Kevin Mako: this to a new group of investors in my network. And so it demonstrates really the power of having a community to have literally a vested interest 159 00:18:48,360 --> 00:18:55,420 Kevin Mako: in your company because every time they send a company to you, they're doing the sales or favor as well, because after all, they're a crow owner in your company. 160 00:18:55,480 --> 00:18:59,980 Kevin Mako: And that communication that you touch on can bring into something very powerful, which we talk 161 00:18:59,980 --> 00:19:08,520 Kevin Mako: about as well a lot on the show, especially as hardware companies are scaling, and that's feedback. So now you've got hundreds of potentially thousands of vested, 162 00:19:08,960 --> 00:19:14,320 Kevin Mako: financially interested people in your product. If you keep that communication going, it's going to be a two-way street. 163 00:19:14,460 --> 00:19:21,820 Kevin Mako: As you start to send out updates, you may get very pertinent and relevant information sent back to you that could help you in all sorts of things, 164 00:19:22,180 --> 00:19:25,800 Kevin Mako: which is why I'm also a firm believer that even if the update isn't necessarily a good update, 165 00:19:26,100 --> 00:19:32,580 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: if you relay this information to your group, first of all, you'll build a lot of trust with them. Second of all, they'll understand the delay that's happening 166 00:19:32,580 --> 00:19:39,340 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: because you came out in front of it as opposed to making excuses coming up behind it. And then finally, you may have somebody in that group that says, 167 00:19:39,380 --> 00:19:43,380 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: I know how to solve that pain point for you. Or here's a connection that might be able to help you with that. 168 00:19:43,460 --> 00:19:49,440 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: All of that was just done by doing simple and regular updates. Totally. You bring up a really important point is that it's great 169 00:19:49,440 --> 00:19:56,860 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: if you have always success stories to share around your company. We all know that they're not always all success. They're always challenges. 170 00:19:57,240 --> 00:19:59,540 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: And if you share those as well, and for the reasons 171 00:19:59,540 --> 00:20:03,000 Kevin Mako: you're indicated, and one of the key ones you mentioned is you create a lot of trust with that. 172 00:20:03,340 --> 00:20:06,600 Kevin Mako: You know, it's not like I only hear from them when things are going well. I also hear when there 173 00:20:06,600 --> 00:20:12,080 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: are challenges. And that gives me, it creates trust and confidence, right? Like, okay, so sure, there are trainers as well. 174 00:20:12,300 --> 00:20:18,900 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: And to your point, perhaps you have people in your investor community may be able to help with that as well. So it's definitely an important point. 175 00:20:19,440 --> 00:20:27,600 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: about the last one now and that's reach by using a platform to extend the reach as far as possible with that public opening of your equity financing. 176 00:20:27,860 --> 00:20:36,040 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: Yeah. So it's literally an opportunity to reach out to the public. That is really the exciting developments we see. An opportunity in the market 177 00:20:36,040 --> 00:20:41,060 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: is that we already see, of course, how the public markets, so investing in public companies 178 00:20:41,060 --> 00:20:49,420 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: and trading in public companies has become available to the public now through, you know, online broker's platforms and all that. So what we're doing with, 179 00:20:49,440 --> 00:20:57,460 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: with FrontFundr saying, hey, you know, you can also do that for investments in the private markets, you know, in private companies. 180 00:20:57,720 --> 00:21:05,600 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: And so for companies, that means that if you have a platform where you can literally reach out to any member of the public and you can bring them 181 00:21:05,600 --> 00:21:13,780 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: on board as an investor, it's extremely powerful. Because again, for the entrepreneur, it means access to an entire new pool of capital. 182 00:21:14,160 --> 00:21:22,020 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: But for an investor, it's, and this is where we often speak about, you know, the democratization of investing in startups. Like, you know, why is it 183 00:21:22,020 --> 00:21:30,500 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: traditionally that startups are sort of identified by traditional investors like angels or VCs or other privileged investors that have access to these deals? 184 00:21:30,640 --> 00:21:37,700 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: And then when those companies do really well and they go public, if they haven't been sort of acquired along the way, then finally the public can invest. 185 00:21:37,780 --> 00:21:46,420 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: But we all know that in the meantime, all the hockey stick growth has been realized previously and ends up in the pockets of these early stage investors. So what we're saying is, 186 00:21:46,420 --> 00:21:51,520 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: why don't we bring the public that actually many of them also help build these companies as customers 187 00:21:51,520 --> 00:21:56,440 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: perhaps you know why don't we bring those to the table from the very from the very beginning and 188 00:21:56,440 --> 00:22:02,340 Kevin Mako: enable them to share in a potential upside as well and so so that is indeed it's for it's it's really 189 00:22:02,340 --> 00:22:08,260 Kevin Mako: reaching out to the public without limits basically and because the minimum investments are 190 00:22:08,260 --> 00:22:15,900 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: typically low you know as low as 250 dollars it also becomes way more accessible of course through the wider vested community. 191 00:22:16,220 --> 00:22:21,660 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: And what are some of the best ways that you have seen to amplify that network reaching out 192 00:22:21,660 --> 00:22:30,260 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: to existing customers or putting out ad campaigns or what have you seen that's really work to drive that engagement to the platform? Yeah. 193 00:22:30,640 --> 00:22:39,180 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: So it's usually a combination, of course, of activities, right? So you already mentioned one is for companies that have a, companies that have a community 194 00:22:39,180 --> 00:22:48,180 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: and engagement, companies to first think, of course, what does my community look like? who can I reach reach out to that's already familiar with our company and indeed perhaps 195 00:22:48,180 --> 00:22:54,380 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: already a customer companies that have no community at all and no footprint and social media or 196 00:22:54,380 --> 00:23:02,680 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: anything it's it's it's it's it's not impossible we have to be aware that we'll have to build that right that takes time we can help with that but we but we 197 00:23:02,680 --> 00:23:12,340 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: have to really do that sort together secondly um what works really well is is is to be very clear in you know what are 198 00:23:12,340 --> 00:23:22,320 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: the key messages around your company, your product, and that you want to bring forward, right? So to define those well, and then choose the media to do 199 00:23:22,320 --> 00:23:31,980 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: that. And again, it's a combination of, you know, social media, organize events for prospective investors. We help our capital 200 00:23:31,980 --> 00:23:38,940 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: raises with that. So we organize our monthly pitch perfect events. And then we bring companies that raise on front on there. 201 00:23:39,080 --> 00:23:45,640 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: And so it's another opportunity to, to talk about their company and their products and their capital raise, 202 00:23:47,140 --> 00:23:54,140 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: identify people that are, let's say, influencers, you know, that have a community in it themselves, you know, 203 00:23:54,220 --> 00:24:02,320 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: to work those individuals that perhaps are already investor in the company or a customer but also have a significant community to reach out to. 204 00:24:02,420 --> 00:24:06,820 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: That certainly works well as well. So again, it's a combination of these different activities, 205 00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:15,840 Kevin Mako: but what is most important, Kevin, is to throughout the campaign to be visible, to be present to and again, that's important because there's not 206 00:24:15,840 --> 00:24:23,520 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: only important because you want to reach a new community of people, but also because typically people sort of say, hey, this is interesting, I'm going to start following that. 207 00:24:23,680 --> 00:24:26,560 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: And then they hear more about you and then they get a better understanding. 208 00:24:26,800 --> 00:24:33,700 Kevin Mako: And then you help them to basically make an investment decision. Sounds like it's a bit of a snowball effect. Yeah. The more you do, the more that these compounding 209 00:24:33,700 --> 00:24:41,140 Kevin Mako: interrelated variables start to help each other. And then the campaign start to grow and let's call it somewhat go viral. Totally. Go viral. Yeah. I mean, that's, 210 00:24:41,140 --> 00:24:45,340 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: that's obviously the best. Like you're indeed because, you know, you've got traction with investors and they, 211 00:24:45,600 --> 00:24:52,220 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: and you encourage them to share it in their networks and then you get that snowball. Well, that is a lot of information jam packed in there. 212 00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:59,620 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: Peter Paul, how do folks find out more about FrontFundr for those listening in? And of course, as always, I'll put all the links within the show notes below. 213 00:25:00,200 --> 00:25:04,980 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: But for those on audio only, Peter Paul, if you can just shoot that across for everybody. Great. Absolutely. 214 00:25:05,120 --> 00:25:09,980 Kevin Mako: Well, the easiest to get in touch with us is obviously to go to our website and that's FrontFundr.com. 215 00:25:09,980 --> 00:25:19,920 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: so FrontFundr, DR, so without the e, FrontFundr.com. And both for capital raisers, you'll find out how it works and learn more about whether it's suitable for your company. 216 00:25:20,320 --> 00:25:26,260 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: And of course, for investors, it's easy sign up. With name and email, you can start basically exploring opportunities. 217 00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:30,580 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: And of course, we're present on the social media channels as well. Peter Paul, always a pleasure to have you on the show. 218 00:25:30,740 --> 00:25:34,900 Peter-Paul Van Hoeken: Much appreciated for all your words of wisdom. Thanks again. Take care. Thanks, Kevin. Thank you. Bye-bye. 219 00:25:35,140 --> 00:25:45,080 Narrator: Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Product Startup Podcast, the show that teaches you what it really takes to bring your product to market and turn it into a big 220 00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:51,580 Narrator: success. This podcast series is brought to you by Mako Design + Invent, the original and 221 00:25:51,580 --> 00:26:01,300 Narrator: leading firm in North America to provide global caliber in-to-end physical consumer product development to startups, inventors, and small product business clients. 222 00:26:01,500 --> 00:26:09,520 Narrator: If you're looking for product development help on your invention, head over to MakoDesign.com. That's M-A-K-O-D-E-E-O-D-E-Eyne 223 00:26:09,600 --> 00:26:18,560 Narrator: for a free consultation from one of Mako Design's Ford Design Studios from coast to coast. Thanks for listening and see you next time.