Crowdfunding: Expectations Vs. Reality

Originally published in Tubefilter.

In November of 2017, my team and I raised just over $12,000 on Seed&Spark (a crowdfunding platform that’s carved an interesting path to its own funding) for the second season of my web series STRAY. We didn’t quite hit our target — Seed&Spark gives you the “Green Light” if you’re able to hit 80% of your goal — but $12K was enough to secure the payout and get things going.

Sounds pretty good, right? Here we were, the creative proletariat harnessing the democratic power of crowdfunding to bypass the film industry ruling class to forge our own future. What a time to be an indie filmmaker! Little did I know I would spend a month asking friends from high school for money.

I knew it was going to be tough — everyone said so — but there was a still a disconnect between my expectations and the reality of crowdfunding. The following is an emotionally accurate representation of that disconnect:

Expectations

EVERYONE: Hey, crowdfunding is tough. You need to plan WAY in advance.

ME (sneering): Thanks, I got this.

Reality

EVERYONE: Hey, crowdfunding is tough. You need to plan way in advance.