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Techmoola are they legitimate?

Techmoola legitimate or not?

We’ve followed Techmoola for some time and had some pretty interesting conversations with the CEO. He claims that there have been a few glitches in their website software when we asked them why the days weren’t changing and why they never seemed to count down to zero. We took multiple screenshots of the company at various points during the year and noticed that not only aren’t the days changing but the amount of funds stays the same. Now it seems the same projects are uploaded with the same amount of funds and the days still aren’t reducing.

So, our big question is are they legitimate campaigns or are they just fishing for people to give money to them and never see the prodcut or the funds again?

This is one of the biggest challenges when using a crowdfunding site. We never know if the campaigns are legitimate, if the funds in the account are legitimately there or if the site will give the funds to the companies after they have raised them.

The best thing to do in a case like this is simply stick with the sites that you know are legitimate. But, if you’re really dying to give to a company because you love the idea, then investigate to see if they exist and ask questions about the project to see if it is even possible. Do they have a prototype or is it simply a dream.

For now we don’t know if www.techmoola.com is legitimate but we have our doubts.

Screen Shots

Cervia Campaign February 20, 2013

Cervia Campaign September 8, 2012

In case it’s hard for you to see. We took a screen shot back 0n September 8, 2012 and saw the cervia campaign with only 25 days left to go and a total of $15,642 funded. Now, some 4 months later or 120 days later, the Cervia campaign still has $15,642 but has a new 42 days left to go. Is this just another glitch? Is the money legitimate and from donors? Is Techmoola a legitimate crowdfunding site?

We can’t say. We can only say that we find it very interesting that the Cervia campaign has more days now than it did back in September of 2012.

February 21, 2013 Category: Fraud No Comments

Crowdfunding for Fraudsters is it really material to the rest of us?

Crowdfunding has been an incredible growth industry since it’s inception not only for entrepreneurs, musicians, inventors, actors, companies big and small, but also for fraudsters leaving the benevolent donors or unwitting investors to fend for themselves against extremely intelligent and versatile predators.

Does this mean that crowdfunding should be shut down or stymied by regulating bodies (the SEC) that already don’t have enough time to stop major fraud from occurring in the corporate world? No! They’re waisting their time and our tax dollars! However, crowdfunders should realize that the rules and regulations the SEC is creating only apply to equity investing crowdfunding platforms and not to donation based crowdfunding platforms, which should be a strong indicator that using a donation based crowdfunding platform is a less regulated industry. That also means that it is also a much easier target for fraudsters that do not have to concern themselves with the SEC rules.

Still, the purpose of crowdfunding is to get a lot of people to donate a small amount of money (immaterial amounts of money) in large quantities. With that being said and keeping in mind the very material fraud that occurs daily in the corporate America, why would we want the SEC spending considerable time drafting rules and regulations on something immaterial to the individual investors or donors? We don’t!

The recent crowdfunding success on Kickstarter.com for the Pebble, a blue tooth watch that interacts with various telecommunication devices, designed by a group of extremely talented engineers that resulted in a $10 million dollar campaign, is a perfect example of how immaterial to each individual investor crowdfunding is, and how important the equity rules and regulations be as flexible as possible. The rules should mostly monitored by the websites creating the venue for crowdfunding, who in turn should be monitored and audited by the SEC with a strong focus on individual donor and investor materiality (in this case immateriality). If crowdfunding for non-equity sites is already working without the SEC involvement, why would we need SEC involvement for equity type crowdfunding sites? Why is the SEC delaying something that only affects individual non-accredited investors a maximum of $10,000?

However, given that the SEC is implementing the rules for equity crowdfunding sites, fraudsters will gravitate to donation based crowdfunding sites.

Currently there are hundreds of crowdfunding sites and the number is growing rapidly.

Here’s some things to think about:

1. How do you know that the crowdfunding site is legitimate?

2. How do you know that they give all the funds to the campaigns?

3. How do you know that they haven’t created some of the campaigns themselves?

4. Is it fraud to hide some kinds of campaigns and promote other types of campaigns. Doesn’t that give you a false sense of security about the site?

5. Is all the money real?

6. Is it fraud to put some of your own money into an all-or-none campaign to ensure that you receive the money?

Still, as an individual donor are any of these amounts really material?

February 20, 2013 Category: Fraud No Comments

How to Crowdfund – Video Tips

How to Crowdfund – Video Tips – the teleprompter!

The video is one of the most important aspects of building a campaign and without it you’re going to fail. Sure there are exceptions but lets face it you’re not one of them.

So, you’re going to have to get in front of the camera and give your story to everyone. But, here’s the catch, not only are you going to have to tell your story to everyone, it’s also going to have to be convincing, you can’t make mistakes and you have to be heard.

Then after your done if you’re doing all the video editing yourself, you’re going to have to match the speech to the music. You’re going to need to know what software to use to do that. Or you’re going to be stuck using the camera sound, which really isn’t professional. So, be prepared for take, after take, after take, to get it right. Wow, that seems exhausting and it is if that’s how you’re going to do it.

Professional Video at a minimal cost.

1. You are going to need a relatively nice camera – rent one if this is a one time event.

2. You are going to need to have a separate sound recording system – a separate mic and a recorder. We use the “H1 Zoom handy recorder”, which is small enough to fit in your pocket and very portable. The sound quality is fine. Still, there are others that you can find. And, you’ll need a lapel mic that attaches to the recorder.

3. You are going to need software to match the recorder with the camera – Final Cut Pro is what we’re using. And this is where many people get caught in a very time consuming task.
Matching the sound to the video with multiple takes can be a nightmare. So, here’s our solution that will save you countless hours of time.

4. Purchase and build your own teleprompter system!

First, buy teleprompter software for your tablet device (ipad or other tablet) that allows you to slow and speed up the rolling text and that allows you to mirror the text. This will completely change your ability to present in front of the camera.

Second, from 1/4″ thick hardboard build a box like teleprompter using duct tape as the hinges (you can go more extensive if you have more time). Drill a hole in the bottom of the box for your camera tripod.

Third, purchase first surface mirrored acrylic sheet from www.inventables.com .

Forth, place the acrylic sheet (from #3 above) into the box like teleprompter (from #2).

Fifth, place the camera behind the acrylic sheet and place your

Sixth, place the ipad in front of the acrylic sheet and start playing your script at the speed that you like. Start recording your presentation!

We should mention that most teleprompter devices use text format (.txt) for the scripts and these can be imported from your computer. We use teleprompt + app for the ipad, which cost $14.95.

Not only will this make your presentations much better because you can now place emphasis on words where you want to, it will also cut down on the amount of times it takes you to get the presentation right. This also cuts down on the time it takes to edit the video with final cut pro.

Highlights

Saving you Time and Improve Presentation Quality

1. Use a reasonably good camera that allows you to blur out the background.

2. Purchase Final Cut Pro Software for matching sound and video.

3. Purchase H1 Zoom recorder and lapel mic!
4. Purchase Teleprompter software for the tablet (ipad or other) of your choice that has mirror text capabilities.

5. Build a teleprompter box and use First Surface Mirror Acrylic Sheets.

February 20, 2013 Tags: Crowdfunding
Category: Blog, How to Crowdfund, How To Succeed No Comments

How to Crowdfund – The Perpetual Campaign

What many people don’t realize is that crowdfunding shouldn’t be a one-off attempt at obtaining funding. In fact, quite the opposite. Crowdfunding should become a perpetual source of funding.
Here’s why and here’s a new way for you to look at the success of your campaign?

1. The campaign goal isn’t really to obtain the funds! Instead, the campaign goal is to receive as much marketing and free publicity as possible. Obtaining the money is actually the secondary goal.

2. By making crowdfunding a perpetual effort, you carry over your followers from one campaign to the next and continue to grow support for your work.

3. After every campaign you gain invaluable insight into your target market and learn what works and doesn’t work with your product or strategy. This too is more valuable than the funds that you may or may not receive.

4. Every time your run a campaign you get better and better at running it. Essentially you become an expert at crowdfunding!

5. There’s no such thing as bad publicity.

6. You can run as many campaigns as you like.

So, before you write-off running a campaign be sure you understand all the benefits of the perpetual campaign and as all of the campaigners we’ve talked with say – Just run it!

February 19, 2013 Category: How to Crowdfund, How To Succeed No Comments

Choosing Your Crowdfunding Site!

Choosing Your Crowdfunding Site!
Choosing the crowdfunding site that you’re going to use for your campaign is one of the most essential decisions for making a successful campaign. Given the ever changing atmosphere of crowdfunding, you really have to be aware of the changes in the industry before you throw your campaign onto a site.

Currently the two largest players in the crowdfunding arena according to our research are www.kickstarter.com and www.indiegogo.com. (other than not-for-profit crowdfunding). But which one should you choose for your campaign? The answer is that it depends. Here are some things to consider:

What makes a crowdfunding site popular?

a. Name Recognition (Brand)

b. Length of time in the industry

c. The amount of followers or subscribers currently on the site.

d. Amount of successful projects and the dollar amount of the successful projects.

e. How easy is it to search the Crowdfunding site

February 19, 2013 Tags: Crowdfunding
Category: How to Crowdfund, How To Succeed No Comments

How easy is it to search the crowdfunding site

How user friendly is the search functionality on the Crowdfunding Site?
How easy is it to search through the crowdfunding site is a key question you should be asking yourself every time you think about launching a campaign.

If you can’t find campaigns easily on the crowdfunding site then how will anyone find your campaign on the same crowdfunding site? They won’t!

Some of the best branded sites have extremely poor search capabilities and as such we recommend avoiding them completely.

Be sure to watch our video on how user friendly is the search functionality to see the most user friendly site www.indiegogo.com. This website search capabilities are exactly what you should have in any crowdfunding site.

Here’s why:

First, many of the top campaigns are immediately visible.
Second, the campaigns are easily searchable, and the browse button is excessively visible.
Third, the focus is on the campaigns and not on the instructions on how to create a campaign. The instructions should not be the focus of the site. Instead, they should be secondary and intuitive.
Forth, the search should be flexible and robust allowing you to search by type and by city at a minimum. The stronger the search the easier it will be to find your campaign!

Sadly many well branded crowdfunding websites simply haven’t understood that the campaigns are the focus and the ability to easily browse through and filter them is essential for not only a campaigns success but the crowdfunding websites success. Clearly if the campaigns aren’t making any money then the crowdfunding site isn’t making any money either. And, even if they are making some money with improved search and filter capabilities these sites would be generating more revenue for bot the campaigns and themselves. As such, if they don’t have strong search features, strong filter features and visibility for campaigns, don’t launch your campaign on the site!

Remember if you can’t be found you’re not going to make any money!

February 19, 2013 Tags: Crowdfunding
Category: How to Crowdfund, How To Succeed No Comments

How to Crowdfund – Name Recognition

When it comes to name recognition in the crowdfunding business, there’s really one name that sticks out above all others – KICKSTARTER.

KICKSTARTER ingeniously captured the essence of crowdfunding with one word and propelled itself to the top of the industry (with a bit more work than just the name).

Crowdfunding essentially is getting lots of people usually through the internet to kickstart your project, idea or dream through small donations from everyone.

In fact, many people have heard of kickstarter without even understanding what crowdfunding is.
With that said, starting a project on kickstarter means that whether someone knows what you’re doing or not, they have heard of the site where you’re listed and know vaguely where to go to start looking for you.

Kickstarter has recently made some controversial decisions related to what kinds of campaigns it will or won’t allow on its site. This change in direction may end up being a good move or a bad move for kickstarter in the long-run. On the one hand, it allows kickstarter to focus on quality projects and projects that fit it’s mission, on the other hand, it could alienate some people and damage its name. Only time will tell what the long-term affects will be.

However, close on the heals of the kickstarter name is indiegogo. Indiegogo is another site with a great name and has grabbed the indie or independent movement by storm. Whether this is what sparked the name indiegogo or not only the founders can tell us but their name has also generated a large group of followers. We’re also sure they were happy to allow the campaigns that were turned away from kickstarter onto their site.

So, when looking to start your campaign, given the name brand recognition of these two top industry players, it would be wise to start your campaign with one of these top players or with a site that has a similar name brand recognition as these two. Others that we find have a strong name brand recognition are www.crowdrise.com, www.crowdfunder.com and www.rockethub.com.

Still name brand recognition doesn’t do everything for you and there are other things that a crowdfunding site needs before you launch your campaign with them. Be sure to check out our next post on the length of time in the industry to see who’s been around the longest and see what they’ve been able to accomplish in such a short time. Length of time in the industry is another key performance indicator for the crowdfunding site that you’re going to want to use when launching your campaign!

February 19, 2013 Tags: Crowdfunding
Category: Blog No Comments

Epi Injectfor food allergies featured on indiegogo is a medical device saving lives!

Epi Inject for food allergies featured on indiegogo is a medical device saving lives!

A Medical Device that save lives!

Do food allergies haunt you? Does carrying a big epinephrine pen around disturb you?

Well, Epi Inject is a life saving treatment device for food allergies that has to be one of the smartest ideas we’ve seen on www.indiegogo.com. It solves a very awkward problem with the current epinephrine injection methods and in doing so it saves lives. Instead of the bulky awkward needle that had to be quickly pushed into your leg, the Epi Inject is a small spring powered needle that is easy to use and it looks great.

This is clearly an easy product to fund.

Whether funding for the patents is found on indiegogo or not, the devices is a fantastic improvement over the current manual injection system for food allergies.

Pharmaceutical companies such as Mylan Specialty should be very interested in this invention.

So, if you’ve got food allergies, life just got a little easier!

Here’s what the inventors had to say on their www.indiegogo.com campaign:

OUR STORY:

Maria Pitallano and I, Erin Fong, are industrial designers who teamed up in our last year at California College of the Arts to design two products to help
those with food allergies. Throughout this project, we heard many stories of
how food allergies affected people physically, socially, and mentally, including
how children have cried because they could not eat the provided food due to
a nut allergy and how a woman was too afraid to use an epinephrine injector
on her friend even though he was going into anaphylaxis. These stories made
us realize how terrifying food allergies are and how it is a fear that people
should not have to live with.

My partner, Maria, was already aware of the dangers of food allergies, being a mom who has to take every precaution with what her daughter eats because
she has several food allergies. However, in the Summer of 2011, Maria’s 4
year old daughter ingested a food normally thought to be safe, that happened
to have a cashew puree ingredient. Her daughter spent 3 days in the pediatric
ICU. Despite all of the work she had done with Erin on this subject, and fully
aware of the importance of administering an Epipen immediately, she was
still too afraid to inject her daughter. Instead, she took the risk of getting her
daughter to the emergency room on time.

OUR GOAL:

After spending a year developing these products, we have received many email messages from people, sharing their troubling stories with us and
desiring a better solution for themselves, family, and friends. Having an
allergic reaction can happen at anytime and anywhere, so our goal is
to give people a peace of mind that regardless of where they are, they
will be confident that the epinephrine needed to treat anaphylaxis is not
only available to them, but that they can intuitively, confidently and easily
administer it. We plan on achieving this goal with our two injectors that will
together cover both public and private locations.

PRODUCT DETAILS:

Epi Inject is a new type of treatment delivery system for people who have food allergies and received the Spark International Concept Design Award.

The Epipen, one of the only treatments currently available for allergic reactions, has proven to save lives by administering the epinephrine that
will reverse the symptoms of an allergy attack. Because death can happen
in 10 minutes, epinephrine gives the person enough time to wait for the
paradmedics to arrive. However, an astonishing number of people with food
allergies refuse to carry it because of its bulky size, the stigma attached to
carrying a medical device, and the fear of having to stab themselves with a
needle.

Do Food Allergies Haunt You – Breath a little easier with Epi Inject

February 19, 2013 Tags: Crowdfunding, Indiegogo
Category: Cool Crowdfund, Indiegogo new No Comments

How to Crowdfund – Covering Your Costs

I was recently asked if I would run campaigns for people and charge them money for running the campaign. And, after giving it some thought the answer was and is no! My reason for not doing it should help you when preparing your campaign.

First, there wasn’t enough margin in preparing the campaign and running the campaign.

Covering the cost of a full time position running the campaign and filming the campaign would be very difficult. Running a campaign is a full time job, which lasts between 30 and 60 days (two months). Filming a campaign involves professional video editing and matching sound to the video, which is very time consuming. Then doing the math, even on a successful campaign with a mid-sized funding amount, there is very little hope in recovering the costs of running the campaign. Only for an extremely high priced campaign or an extremely successful campaign would running a campaign on a full time basis and producing the video for the campaign (for a percentage of the profits and a fixed price) be able to recover the costs for the time involved.

With that in mind, when running a campaign including the cost of running the campaign should be a key consideration when you’re deciding what crowdfunding site to use.

Kickstarter – All-or-None campaigns
On www.kickstarter.com the campaigns are all-or-none campaigns, which means that if you don’t succeed in obtaining all the funds for the campaign then you don’t get anything. This makes it very difficult to cover the costs of making and running the campaign.

Indiegogo – Flexible Campaigns.

Whereas, www.indiegogo.com allows you to run a flexible campaign that allows you to obtain any of the funds that you make from your campaign. By receiving some of the funds for the campaign you’re given the opportunity to at least cover the costs of running the campaign.

Again, this is only one of the key items to consider when choosing your crowdfunding site but the amount of work that you have to put into running the campaign shouldn’t be ignored.

February 18, 2013 Tags: Crowdfunding
Category: How to Crowdfund, Indiegogo new, Kickstarter New No Comments

A Bright Idea featured on Kickstarter

Helios Bluetooth Light Controller (LC1) is definitely a bright idea that is being featured on kickstarter. Will they reach their $300,000 goal with only 18 days left and only $8,197 raised for an all-or-none campaign?

The project definitely has merit and they have a reasonably good video. So, why don’t they have the support necessary to reach their goal?

This scenario reminds me of a question I had when at our first Crowdfunders of LA meetup. What’s more important the video or the marketing. I immediately answered the marketing of the site and everyone quickly came on board. The video can be amazing but unless someone sees it, then it is worth anything. As soon as the right people see the video and can propagate it, you’re golden.

So, why has the Helios Campaign reached its goal of $300,000? You tell me but we have our strong suspicions.

In any case, check out the video and here’s what they had to say about their project:

“A lot of people have been talking about smart-light control with Bluetooth. We’ve done it.

What if your environment responded to you? Imagine waking up in a gently lit room in the middle of winter instead of the pitch black. Or your office lights turning on as you arrive in the morning and off when you leave at the end of the day. At Helios we envision people living and working in such a world and it is our mission to make this a reality.

Our light controller, the LC1, lets you control your lights from your smartphone and allows your environment to detect your presence and respond to you. We currently support iPhone, iPad and iPad mini models with Bluetooth 4.0 and will be adding support for Android devices in early 2013.

The LC1 can:

Turn your lights on, off, and dim them
Turn your lights on when your smartphone is detected
Turn your lights on, off, and dim them based on the orientation of your smartphone, e.g. rotate your smartphone to dim the lights
Activate based on time (circadian-friendly mode)
Be controlled from a wall switch if your smartphone is not present
Flash your lights when sound is detected, a.k.a. party mode!
Getting started

You don’t need to hire an electrician or IT specialist to get started. (Read: no wiring or network configuration is required!) It’s literally as easy as screwing in a lightbulb. Just follow these steps:

Remove the bulb from the light you want to control
Screw the LC1 into the light socket
Screw the bulb into the LC1
Download and run our app on your smartphone
Click on your LC1 in the app
Control your light!
R&D and production plan

We successfully built the first LC1 6 months ago. Since then our attention has been focused on the details to ensure that we deliver the product on time and on budget. We’ve dug into every dark corner, stress tested the prototype, identified suppliers and manufacturers and reached an agreement with a local company to assemble, test and package the product. We’ve also partnered with Finger Food Studios to develop the next version of our mobile app. We have over 30 years of hands-on experience and are ready to start production and deliver a high-quality product to our supporters.

Here’s a more detailed description of what has been done up to this point in time.

The process began when we ordered a development kit from Texas Instruments to evaluate the Bluetooth low energy (BLE) interface to the iPhone 4s. Preliminary schematic and PCB designs were completed and parts, including rev A PCBs, were ordered to build 10 prototype devices. With the prototypes in hand we began developing firmware, revising the hardware design and thinking about the enclosure. We contracted an experienced mechanical designer to work on the enclosure and obtained 3D printed samples that were evaluated for fit and finish. The completed prototypes were submitted to the FCC for radiated and conducted emission pre-scan and the CSA was contacted to discuss the safety and regulatory requirements of the LC1.

With the design well underway we turned our attention to production of the device. This included: sourcing and costing all hardware components; evaluating the assembly process including testing, labeling, packaging and shipping; issuing a request for quotation to select vendors to assemble, test and package the LC1; and determining the best method to ship the product. The result was us selecting a vendor, touring their facility and checking their references. Basically, we’re ready to go!

Once we achieve our funding goal on Kickstarter we’ll establish contracts with our partners and vendors to set up the production-line tooling and begin manufacturing devices. A preliminary batch of LC1s will be produced and sent to the CSA and FCC for testing in May 2013. Any required changes will be made and the beta version of the LC1 will be manufactured and shipped to our beta-level supporters in June 2013. Once the results of beta testing have been reviewed, required changes will be made and we’ll begin production of the final LC1 and limited edition devices. These will be delivered to our supporters in August 2013.

Model: LC1 (to be given a better name by you upon successful funding!)
Description: Wireless light dimmer for Edison Standard E26 light fixtures

Electrical
Input: 120 VAC 60 Hz 60 W max.
Output: 120VAC 60 Hz 60 W max. (non-inductive load)

Communications
Standard: Bluetooth 4.0 – Bluetooth low energy
RF transmission frequency: 2402 to 2480 MHz
Range: 30 m

Enclosure
Material: high pressure injection mold thermoresin in accordance with UL 746C
Colour: pure white
Texture: polished
Dimensions: 49 mm ∅ x 56 mm H
Weight: 45 g
Extends bulb by: 35 mm

Safe operating conditions
Ambient operating temperature: 0-50 deg. C
Relative humidity: 5-95% (non condensing)

Regulatory
Regulatory compliance: CSA/UL and FCC

Current supported devices
Apple devices with Bluetooth 4.0 (iPhone 4s and newer, iPad 3rd generation and newer and iPad Mini)

Additional videos

Steve shows off some of the LC1′s features in our tech demo.

Greg builds a batch of LC1s from scratch in our assembly video.

RISKS AND CHALLENGES Learn about accountability on Kickstarter

Procurement:
To mitigate the risk of components not being available we’ve identified reputable vendors that will deliver on time.

Assembly:
We’ve partnered with experienced professionals to create a preliminary design of the tooling and assembly line. The design is driven by volume and will be finalized upon successful funding of the project.

Quality:
We’ve obtained material samples from suppliers, built prototypes and evaluated their quality and durability.

Funding:
We’ve developed a great product for you and now we need your support to bring it to market!

February 17, 2013 Category: Cool Crowdfund, Kickstarter New No Comments