In this episode, we’re venturing briefly beyond crowdfunding to talk about investing, specifically how you can start your own profitable investment fund. For that, we’re going to interview our special guest Bridger Pennington, a serial entrepreneur who became a highly-successful investment fund manager. So, let’s talk about how you can replicate his success...

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⭐ During this episode, we detail these takeaways:

 1. Discipline yourself in small decisions so that you’ll do likewise in big decisions.

 2. Live without regrets by taking worthwhile risks even if you fail—and, to the extent that you’re on the right path, persistently continue trying until you succeed.

 3. A great path to wealth is through owning businesses and/or investing in businesses, as long as you aren’t limited by small market sizes and/or tiny profit margins.

 4. As long as you charge your fund investors only for your performance as their fund manager, and not for other reasons, you don’t need to concern yourself with any burdensome state licensure requirements.

 5. Seek out mentors and learn from them, as human capital is more valuable than financial capital.

 6. Discover your obvious disadvantages, disclose them boldly as advantages in less-obvious ways, and find partners who compensate for what you truly lack but need.

 7. You can enhance your wealth by teaching others how to replicate your success; facilitating their long-term success is more valuable than distributing short-term handouts.

✍️ Click here for this episode’s complete show notes!

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👉 We want to help as many people as we can; so, if this podcast helps you, then we urge you to please…

 • Subscribe to it on our website so that you don't miss an episode!

 • Discuss it in our private Facebook group with us and fellow entrepreneurs! Join this group to network for success and to get personalized answers to all of your business questions!

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We rely on YOU to help spread the word!!!

In this episode, we’ll talk with Mindy Zemrak, who is the Emmy-nominated Supervising Casting Producer of ABC’s “Shark Tank.” This award-winning startup-centered reality show debuted in 2009 and has since featured thousands of entrepreneurs, including over a dozen of our past crowdfunding clients. Mindy is now casting for the show’s 12th season, which will premiere this autumn, and she is going to give us her expert perspective about how YOU can succeed on it. So, on with the show…

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⭐ During this episode, we detail these takeaways:

 1. People shouldn’t wait to understand something perfectly before plunging into doing it, as we also learn from our own experience, and practice makes perfect.

 2. Entrepreneurs can apply for “Shark Tank” either through the Internet anytime or in-person at open casting calls, which are held between January and August at various locations nationwide.

 3. Applicants should ideally show passionate energy, have working prototypes, be able to explain succinctly what makes their offers unique, know their numbers, and not necessarily have any sales or positive reviews yet (although these can help).

 4. Applicants are chosen partly for themselves and their story, and partly for their business and their product, and also because they need investment to get to the next step; those who aren’t chosen one year may try again each new year and may eventually get chosen.

 5. Applicants should consider alternative fundraising methods and not rely upon getting featured on “Shark Tank” because 20,000-30,000 entrepreneurs apply for it annually but only hundreds make deals and only 88-108 get featured on television.

 6. Finalists will receive extensive help preparing themselves before they approach a panel of self-made millionaires (who know nothing about them beforehand) to try to negotiate a deal, which usually involves a valuable partnership plus a financial investment; these negotiations will be recorded and possibly condensed into a brief segment for television.

 7. Finalists who appear on “Shark Tank” will get seen before 5-7 million television viewers in what amounts to millions-of-dollars-worth of free advertising, and should prepare to handle a surge in remarketing, sales, cross-sells, upsells, customer-service inquiries, shipping, et cetera, which they can use to expand their business as quickly as possible.

✍️ Click here for this episode’s complete show notes!

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👉 We want to help as many people as we can; so, if this podcast helps you, then we urge you to please…

 • Subscribe to it on our website so that you don't miss an episode!

 • Discuss it in our private Facebook group with us and fellow entrepreneurs! Join this group to network for success and to get personalized answers to all of your business questions!

 • Review it on iTunes to help us reach more people who need it!

 • And tell all of your associates who might benefit from it!

We rely on YOU to help spread the word!!!

In this episode, we’ll focus on e-commerce strategy, especially for bootstrapped startups. And, for that purpose, we’re interviewing an expert growth strategist named John Coyle, who’s going to explain how to identify your competitive advantages, how to capitalize upon them to grow your brand, and how to strategize successfully through the three phases of bootstrapped e-commerce. Let’s dive right in…

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⭐ During this episode, we detail these takeaways:

 1. Startups must devise products that fit the marketplace well and they must maintain at least one competitive advantage in order to survive.

 2. Startups should develop as many competitive advantages as possible, which may include large market size, current market trends, brand image and/or celebrity support, product uniqueness, benefits-versus-costs, figurative deep pockets, and ample relevant data.

 3. Startups should stack their competitive advantages when marketing themselves.

 4. e-Commerce marketing for bootstrapped startups normally progresses through three distinct phases, which are firstly gaining traction by urgently developing one profitable revenue stream, then reinvesting profits to develop additional profitable revenue streams, and lastly scaling-up all profitable revenue streams as best as possible.

 5. e-Commerce marketing should usually start with advertisements, which are great for steadily yielding quick responses—especially Facebook ads, which access a vast audience while enjoying advanced features, although Google ads are excellent for targeting prospective customers while they’re shopping for what you’re offering.

 6. Although generating leads for e-mail marketing is still superior for yielding cheap results over the long term, some e-commerce marketers may want to expand into the fast-developing field of messenger marketing.

 7. Influencer marketing can help; influencers sometimes request simple upfront fees, but it’s better to negotiate lower fees in exchange for affiliate cuts, which incentivize sales, plus for authority to use their reviews in other forms of marketing that may increase their followers.

✍️ Click here for this episode’s complete show notes!

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👉 We want to help as many people as we can; so, if this podcast helps you, then we urge you to please…

 • Subscribe to it on our website so that you don't miss an episode!

 • Discuss it in our private Facebook group with us and fellow entrepreneurs! Join this group to network for success and to get personalized answers to all of your business questions!

 • Review it on iTunes to help us reach more people who need it!

 • And tell all of your associates who might benefit from it!

We rely on YOU to help spread the word!!!

In this episode, we’re going to familiarize you with the world of prototyping and mass-production, specifically as it relates to crowdfunding. Whom should you contact? How can you best keep your ideas from being stolen? How can you best ensure quality? We’re going to overview all of these topics and more in this episode with our very special guest, Gaston Liang, who is an expert in sourcing, manufacturing, packaging, and logistics. So, let’s get started…

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⭐ During this episode, we detail these takeaways:

 1. Crowdfunding campaigners should develop their concepts into working prototypes before starting to raise funds to mass-produce them.

 2. Creators should ideally patent their ideas, both in their own country and in their manufacturer’s country, before approaching a manufacturer—and should hire manufacturers through an NNN agreement to minimize their risk of their ideas being stolen.

 3. Creators should consider manufacturing in Asia due to lower costs, may use tools like Alibaba or Jungle Scout or in-person visits to explore manufacturing options for their type of product, should avoid profiteering middlemen like sourcing agents, and should consider both communication and trust when choosing among viable options, plus the ability to accommodate unpredictable order sizes during mass-production phase.

 4. Some manufacturers (like The LGG Corp) can help creators through all phases of production by providing cost-effective professional services like vetting concepts for viability, sketching them, rendering them, engineering and/or designing them into beautiful working prototypes, creating molds to mass-produce finished products, designing manuals and/or packaging to accompany these products, mass-producing and then assembling all of these items properly, warehousing them, shipping them worldwide, and handling legal requirements throughout this process—and it’s advantageous to hire a single agent for all of these tasks who can become intimately familiar with the product.

 5. An average product may require several thousand dollars over 3-4 weeks to be transformed from concept to prototype, which creators may then market-test and perhaps iteratively refine—and it’s ideal to make all errors during prototype phase while it’s cheapest to correct them.

 6. Creators should ideally produce at least 3-5 final prototypes for various purposes, which may include durability testing, product certifications, media production, user feedback, reporter reviews, and packaging design.

 7. Crowdfunding campaigners should avoid being overcharged for molds for mass-production, and should expect to pay 30%-50% upfront for mass-production.

 8. Creators can encourage high-quality mass-production through both effective project management and hired third-party inspections.

 9. Although manufacturers may ship finished products temporarily to creators to store and then mail to consumers, creators may hire professional fulfillment agencies like ShipMonk to perform these tasks, instead, but it’s generally both cheapest and fastest for creators to hire a manufacturer (like The LGG Corp) that performs these tasks.

✍️ Click here for this episode’s complete show notes!

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👉 We want to help as many people as we can; so, if this podcast helps you, then we urge you to please…

 • Subscribe to it on our website so that you don't miss an episode!

 • Discuss it in our private Facebook group with us and fellow entrepreneurs! Join this group to network for success and to get personalized answers to all of your business questions!

 • Review it on iTunes to help us reach more people who need it!

 • And tell all of your associates who might benefit from it!

We rely on YOU to help spread the word!!!

In this episode, we’re going to revive the subject of what to do when your campaign goes wrong—in this case, so terribly wrong that you actually need to restart it. So, we’re going to talk all about the mechanics of re-launches, both voluntary and involuntary. So, if you ever receive one of those dreaded notices that your campaign has been suspended, then don’t panic—we’ve got your back! Let’s get started…

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⭐ During this episode, we detail these takeaways:

 1. Creators should remember that failure is normal, avoid any irrational expectations, stay humble enough to progress, work hard, and resist discouragement.

 2. Creators should solicit feedback from backers (and perhaps others) anytime campaigns are not performing ideally, and use it to determine how to improve.

 3. Creators shouldn’t fear to re-launch campaigns whenever they need serious revisions in their product, timing, goal, and/or presentation—and, in doing so, creators should keep their backers fully informed and treat them similarly to pre-launch leads.

 4. It’s important for crowdfunding campaigners to both know and follow the rules for their respective platforms, and to render it sufficiently obvious to reviewers that they’re doing so.

 5. A campaign’s relative popularity statistically increases the likelihood that people will notice any rules-violations that merit suspension.

 6. Kickstarter is notorious for sometimes suspending suspicious campaigns without either warning or explanation, and it will never reinstate suspended ones for any reason whatsoever—but it does make mistakes, and creators can sometimes negotiate with it to re-launch.

 7. When faced with suspension, determine the reason, appeal this decision, inform your backers, preempt the cancellation if possible, re-launch on Kickstarter if possible, remobilize your backers upon re-launch, and then proceed as before.

✍️ Click here for this episode’s complete show notes!

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👉 We want to help as many people as we can; so, if this podcast helps you, then we urge you to please…

 • Subscribe to it on our website so that you don't miss an episode!

 • Discuss it in our private Facebook group with us and fellow entrepreneurs! Join this group to network for success and to get personalized answers to all of your business questions!

 • Review it on iTunes to help us reach more people who need it!

 • And tell all of your associates who might benefit from it!

We rely on YOU to help spread the word!!!

We’re back atcha today with another good one that includes a very impressive guest who is also literally live on Kickstarter right now! Our client Dale Backus has developed a wildly-popular phone grip that has been raising thousands of dollars per day to challenge a complacent industry leader. Let’s see what we can learn from his crowdfunding story…

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⭐ During this episode, we detail these takeaways:

 1. Entrepreneurs don’t always pioneer new markets but sometimes substantially improve existing products by providing new-and-better competition.

 2. Although it’s usually best to start with a minimally viable product (MVP), some products require more-than-minimal functionality to effectively compete.

 3. Crowdfunding can provide a wealth of useful data, including data that helps with manufacturing forecasts.

 4. Customer surveys should be worded very carefully in order to obtain accurate actionable data, or else they might lead surveyors astray.

 5. Backer updates and other communication should be authentic in presenting both the product and its creator.

 6. Effective marketing can’t compensate for a flawed product, but a great product will benefit from effective marketing.

 7. Successful startups need to continue to improve their products/services or else they might allow competitors to overtake them.

✍️ Click here for this episode’s complete show notes!

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👉 We want to help as many people as we can; so, if this podcast helps you, then we urge you to please…

 • Subscribe to it on our website so that you don't miss an episode!

 • Discuss it in our private Facebook group with us and fellow entrepreneurs! Join this group to network for success and to get personalized answers to all of your business questions!

 • Review it on iTunes to help us reach more people who need it!

 • And tell all of your associates who might benefit from it!

We rely on YOU to help spread the word!!!

As promised, we’re going to break out our newly-minted Ultimate Crowdfunding Pre-Launch Checklist! And, after this episode, we’re going to give it away to you for free… no catches. And you can start using it to prepare yourself to take your next big idea to the next level. So, hang in there until the end and let’s get started!

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⭐ During this episode, we detail these takeaways:

 1. Entrepreneurs should commit to success, improve both their character and their competence, obey the Golden Rule, build a good team, lead them well, and focus on customers.

 2. Crowdfunding campaigners should offer the crowdfunding community a minimally-viable tangible product that is sufficiently new to them, that is neither too “niche” nor too localized, that has been refined through market-testing into a functional prototype, that enjoys an appealing form, an easily-pronounceable positive name, and adequate legal protection.

 3. Crowdfunding campaigners should set minimal funding goals (and consider “stretch” goals) while assembling rewards packages from their core product up to pricier options, each with persuasive descriptions, plus prices ending in 9; prices should accommodate production costs, platform fees, marketing costs, collection/transfer fees, data management, “free” packaging/shipping, returns, taxes, and the unexpected, along with both “early bird” and bulk discounts.

 4. Crowdfunding campaigners should join Kickstarter and/or Indiegogo, familiarize themselves with these websites’ rules and features, back some projects, and plan to launch on Kickstarter if at all possible.

 5. Crowdfunding campaigners should allow at least 2 months to prepare, avoid campaigning during either December or possibly August, expect unexpected delays, launch either in-season or when ready between Monday and Wednesday (except on major US holidays) while it’s still morning in the USA, campaign for 30-45 days, and finish between Wednesday and Friday before it becomes evening in the USA.

 6. Crowdfunding campaigners should practice their “sales pitch” to perfection, appealing to both emotion and reason by showing-and-telling both features-and-benefits through plain honest conversational language friendly to a global audience, supported by positive reviews, and then translate that pitch into persuasive campaign media.

 7. Crowdfunding campaigners should familiarize themselves with analytics, and arrange as many pledges as possible in advance from personal or business contacts, e-mail leads, social-media fans, social-media influencers, reporters, and others, while preparing to engage in post-launch marketing plus effective customer service.

✍️ Click here for this episode’s complete show notes!

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👉 We want to help as many people as we can; so, if this podcast helps you, then we urge you to please…

 • Subscribe to it on our website so that you don't miss an episode!

 • Discuss it in our private Facebook group with us and fellow entrepreneurs! Join this group to network for success and to get personalized answers to all of your business questions!

 • Review it on iTunes to help us reach more people who need it!

 • And tell all of your associates who might benefit from it!

We rely on YOU to help spread the word!!!

In this episode, you’re going to hear from our very own in-house legal counsel here at Funded Today, Thomas Alvord. He’s going to give you the insider’s look at everything you should be considering when it comes to business law, contracts, and just running your new business. So let’s get started…

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⭐ During this episode, we detail these takeaways:

 1. Entrepreneurs should prioritize developing a viable business over protecting themselves legally, as the latter is pointless without (and funded by) the former, and they should expect legal issues to grow in proportion to their business size.

 2. Entrepreneurs in the USA should minimize their taxes by chartering a “holding company” to own their business, limit their personal liability by incorporating their business (perhaps initially as an LLC that transitions eventually into either a C corp or an S corp), obtain a federal EIN for their business, and transact all business in its name.

 3. Business owners should choose their first hires (who may become their biggest competitors) carefully, hire them with non-compete agreements, and always treat their employees well.

 4. Business owners should compose brief clear contracts with good mechanisms for resolving disputes, and always try to resolve disputes amicably before resorting to either arbitration or expensive lawsuits.

 5. Business owners should seek legal counsel as necessary, but minimize use of lawyers, as they are expensive and may sometimes prioritize their own interests above their clients’ interests.

 6. Crowdfunding campaigners should ensure that they are not violating any intellectual property rights before launching campaigns, but avoid paying excessive attention to filing for trademarks and copyrights and patents (which may include provisional patents).

 7. Amazon sellers should obtain US trademarks, which will enable them to enhance their Amazon listings with valuable “enhanced brand content.”

✍️ Click here for this episode’s complete show notes!

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👉 We want to help as many people as we can; so, if this podcast helps you, then we urge you to please…

 • Subscribe to it on our website so that you don't miss an episode!

 • Discuss it in our private Facebook group with us and fellow entrepreneurs! Join this group to network for success and to get personalized answers to all of your business questions!

 • Review it on iTunes to help us reach more people who need it!

 • And tell all of your associates who might benefit from it!

We rely on YOU to help spread the word!!!

As promised, we’re bringing on one of our past clients, namely Rob Peck of AquaVault. He’s got a very unique perspective and I think you’re going to love it. So are you ready to learn directly from an actual Kickstarter creator who raised over $200,000 on a project? What about learning more about how to absolutely crush a “Shark Tank” appearance? Or are you just curious about the day-to-day hustle-and-grind of entrepreneurship? If so, then today’s episode is for you! Let’s get started…

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⭐ During this episode, we detail these takeaways:

 1. Entrepreneurship involves faith, capital, and persistence despite figurative headaches.

 2. Entrepreneurs should identify a sufficiently-common problem (while noting that cures are easier to sell than prevention) that nobody else is solving well enough, innovate a product to solve that problem, and engage in market testing (perhaps at trade shows) to ensure that their product is actually desirable, as well as to refine it—and such feedback will prove whether-or-not an idea is truly worth pursuing.

 3. Entrepreneurs may use crowdfunding not only to raise funds to start mass-production, but also to obtain both feedback and “brand ambassadors,” plus to show proof-of-concept that can leverage a better deal on “Shark Tank.”

 4. Entrepreneurs may use “Shark Tank” to get both a good deal and good publicity, but should note that they likely won’t ever get televised unless they show something sufficiently different and/or entertaining that will appeal well to television audiences.

 5. Entrepreneurs should perpetually reach out to relevant retailers and reporters and interest groups and such.

 6. Entrepreneurs should note that growth is both expensive and challenging; they may want to form specific long-term plans to leverage what they already have in order to obtain loans to fund what they know for sure will work, and they should always seek deals that are mutually-beneficial to all parties involved.

 7. Entrepreneurs should manage others with the right balance between oversight and autonomy.

✍️ Click here for this episode’s complete show notes!

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👉 We want to help as many people as we can; so, if this podcast helps you, then we urge you to please…

 • Subscribe to it on our website so that you don't miss an episode!

 • Discuss it in our private Facebook group with us and fellow entrepreneurs! Join this group to network for success and to get personalized answers to all of your business questions!

 • Review it on iTunes to help us reach more people who need it!

 • And tell all of your associates who might benefit from it!

We rely on YOU to help spread the word!!!

Have you ever wanted to listen to an actual Kickstarter creator who raised over $100,000 on a project? What about learning the ins-and-outs of a successful appearance on “Shark Tank”? Or, are you just curious about the life of an entrepreneur? If so, then today’s episode is going to literally rock your world! Let’s get started…

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⭐ During this episode, we detail these takeaways:

 1. Desire is vital, and positive thinking is helpful, but thoughts without action accomplish nothing; thankfully, it’s never too late to apply yourself, excel, and achieve success.

 2. If you’re feeling frustrated with trying to find a solution to your problems in the marketplace, then others may feel similarly, which could indicate a good entrepreneurial opportunity, which you may explore through both market research and product development.

 3. It helps to prepare oneself through both research and practice before doing something important, and to do it with an experienced partner for support.

 4. Crowdfunding campaigns are good for not only raising funds but also validating ideas.

 5. Crowdfunding campaigners need to market themselves to attract attention, and should prepare to defend their intellectual property against cheap knockoffs.

 6. “Shark Tank” can provide a startup with mutually-beneficial partnership plus great publicity, but only if the “sharks” respond favorably to it; otherwise, it could hurt.

 7. “Shark Tank” might accept your audition, record your appearance before its “sharks,” and even buy equity in your company, but won’t necessarily show your segment on television unless NBC can edit it to appear sufficiently dramatic.

✍️ Click here for this episode’s complete show notes!

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👉 We want to help as many people as we can; so, if this podcast helps you, then we urge you to please…

 • Subscribe to it on our website so that you don't miss an episode!

 • Discuss it in our private Facebook group with us and fellow entrepreneurs! Join this group to network for success and to get personalized answers to all of your business questions!

 • Review it on iTunes to help us reach more people who need it!

 • And tell all of your associates who might benefit from it!

We rely on YOU to help spread the word!!!

What does it take to manage customer service? Why is customer service more important now than ever before? And finally, what are the best ways to ensure that you, too, can provide world-class customer service? Let’s dive right in…

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⭐ During this episode, we detail these takeaways:

 1. It’s hard to maintain superiority in products/services indefinitely and, whenever your competitors offer comparable benefits-and-costs, customers will rely upon other factors to make purchasing decisions, such as how well they know and like and trust you, plus how well you treat them.

 2. Customer service is vital in encouraging customer loyalty, along with positive reviews, which are the most powerful form of marketing—and customer-centered businesses tend to thrive.

 3. Service starts with actively nurturing love for our neighbors as ourselves, which naturally leads us to act in accordance with the Golden Rule by seeking mutually-beneficial business relationships, and it also starts with us and then works outward through our organizational structure.

 4. Customer service is mostly an operations job not a sales job (although it may benefit from some salesmanship), and it should remain part of everyone’s job even if dedicated specialists are hired to oversee it.

 5. Customer service improves whenever it’s measured, including through brief customer-satisfaction surveys.

 6. Customer service generally involves setting proper expectations, communicating effectively (which may involve audio or visual communication), and proactively resolving concerns with empathy—and empathy is facilitated by avoiding presumptions, listening well to understand, and maintaining a positive attitude despite challenges.

 7. Customer service in crowdfunding involves effective use of welcomes, updates, comments, surveys, and farewells.

✍️ Click here for this episode’s complete show notes!

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👉 We want to help as many people as we can; so, if this podcast helps you, then we urge you to please…

 • Subscribe to it on our website so that you don't miss an episode!

 • Discuss it in our private Facebook group with us and fellow entrepreneurs! Join this group to network for success and to get personalized answers to all of your business questions!

 • Review it on iTunes to help us reach more people who need it!

 • And tell all of your associates who might benefit from it!

We rely on YOU to help spread the word!!!