CrowdIt launch draws national attention

Springfield-based CrowdIt LLC has hit the crowdfunding scene, and in the early days of its launch, the website has drawn national attention and a bevy of projects spanning the U.S.

CrowdIt.com launched its fundraising platform June 4, and by June 13 it had 41 projects with some level of funding. CrowdIt – which was created by business partners Jason Graf, Paul Freeman and Markus Pope with backing by Baron Venture Capital LLC – utilizes the collective social fundraising technique and eventually aims to provide professional advice, peer review, collaboration and networking for project starters.

Now operating out of Missouri State University’s downtown business incubator, The eFactory, CrowdIt’s first phase launched March 6, as the company sought to make a name for itself and collect project starters, or “dreamers.” CrowdIt promised a $10,000 donation to the top-grossing project during the 75-day first-round window.

“Our goal was to start with about $3.2 million in funding requests. We started with $7.2 million,” said Freeman, CrowdIt’s chief financial officer.

Leading the pack is a project to fund a CrossFit gym in Cave Creek, Ariz. With seven contributors, or “believers,” the project had earned $3,675 of its $15,000 goal as of June 13, with 65 days left.

The current highest-grossing local project, which is also the second-highest grossing initiative on the website, would help Axumite Trading Co. distribute Ethiopian coffee in the U.S. The Springfield-based company, which has an agreement in place for exclusive distribution rights to To.Mo.Ca. Coffee, of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is seeking to raise $10,000. The project has collected $1,637 via 36 believers.

Led by Roger Wasson Jr. of Elite Promotions Inc., the idea was spawned from trips to Ethiopia – Wasson and his wife have two adopted children from the country – and visits to the To.Mo.Ca. coffee shop in the country’s capital city, according to the project’s CrowdIt.com page. Wasson declined to be interviewed for this article in order to protect the identity of a business partner featured in a video on the project page.

CrowdIt founder and CEO Graf said the crowdfunding site had 181 approved projects, as of June 13, and another 494 in some stage of the process but not yet ready to be placed online.

Springfield-based Raw Marketing LLC – an eFactory neighbor led by Graf’s fiancee, Tara Rawlins – is handling CrowdIt’s social media and email marketing services, as well as online search rankings.

Additionally, CrowdIt made a key move with the hiring of Boulder, Colo.-based Catapult PR-IR, Graf said, leading to national positioning, messaging and press contacts. CrowdIt has been mentioned in Wired and Entrepreneur magazines, and through Catapult, a press release about its startup made the rounds through PR Newswire, winding up as far as the Wall Street Journal website.

“We are promoting CrowdIt by building relationships with key reporters and influencers, citing the key differentiators that make the company stand apart from other crowdfunding companies in the marketplace,” Catapult co-founder Terri Douglas said via email. “These attributes have really caught a lot of attention by the media and other influencers.”

After the initial press release, Graff paid $50 through PR Newswire’s iReach service to secure a 15-second digital ad spot in New York City’s Times Square. The payment guaranteed at least one spot on May 28.

“It ran nine times that day,” he said of the placement at the Reuters building on the corner of 43rd Street and Broadway.

One hiccup in the launch is CrowdIt’s plan for experts to provide advice to project organizers. The company planned to have a “suit” section on the site where the dreamers could get tips from attorneys, manufacturers, crowdfunding consultants and marketing professionals, but there have been technological delays.

Graf said the company now expects to roll out the suits within the month, along with peer review, collaboration and networking tools.

“We’re trying to turn it into a good thing and do a rolling launch,” Graf said.

Graf said CrowdIt would generate revenues when project deadlines hit. Dreamers select between two methods when posting projects.

One is a full-funding plan, in which the project owners pay 5 percent of their goal, if it is reached, but earn and owe nothing if they come up short. The second is a partial-funding plan, where the dreamers pay 10 percent and keep the remaining contributions if they come up short or the standard 5 percent to CrowdIt if they reach goal.