Why Pennyseed?
Why another crowdfunding platform? There's already Patreon, Kickstarter, Gofundme, Gumroad...
Though there are several ways for people to monetize online, each have their pros and cons:
- Pay-per-Media
- Money comes from users
- Hard to Share and reach more people
- Price is arbitrary due to no overhead
- Worry about Piracy and Torrenting
- Subscriptions
- Users pay a regular fixed amount
- Users can access all content
- Users still pay even if no new content is created
- Users have to subscribe for a period just to watch a single piece of content, cancelling after
- Streaming
- Users pay a regular fixed amount
- User payment is distributed amongst creators based on streamed content
- Pay-per-Stream model can be exploited
- Rewards replayability over quality
- Incentivizes Creators to exploit fans to stream their content multiple times for cheap prizes
- Users have to subscribe to an entire Network even when they just wanna watch 1 or 2 creators' content
- Advertising
- Content can be free
- Can Share and reach more people
- Incentivizes Creators to generate clickbait content
- Money comes from sponsors, not viewers
- Creators are beholden to sponsors, compromising content
- Donations
- Money comes from Users
- Content can be Free
- Quality over Quantity, since more content doesn't mean more donations
- Users aren't sure how much to pay (nor how much the Creator needs/has)
- Unstable income due to irregular donations
- Users can be emotionally manipulated into donating
- Crowdfunding
- Money comes from Users
- There's a clear goal for users to reach
- Content can be Free
- Once passed the goal, anything extra could've gone to other Creators they supported
- Winner-takes-all approach where few popular Creators get the bulk of the potential pledges
- Irregular pledge amounts lead to pandering to large pledgers who contribute most of the funding
- Merchandise
- Money comes from Users
- Free advertising from wearers
- Users who want to support the Creator may not want that particular product
- Creators are incentivized to sell cheap products for high prices for greater profits
- Manufacturing & Shipping Fees
...but then we realized something:
- Problems
- Arbitrary Pricing with no guarantee of a stable income
- Little incentive for supporters to encourage others to contribute
- Creator has to do extra work for money (merchanidise, commissions, side jobs, etc)
- Insight
- The Creator wants everyone to enjoy it
- Most of the money goes to living expenses
- Fans aren't paying for Content - they're paying for Future Content
- Solution
- A "Split-the-Bill" Model that divides the Funding Goal by the number of Pledgers
- Specify a minimum number of pledgers to ensure a maximum possible pledge amount so pledgers aren't scared of paying too much
- A Minimal Design that doesn't try to be a Social Network
- Benefits
- Creators are guarenteed the Exact Amount they specify
- Pledgers are incentivized to share the Campaign to reduce their Pledge Share
- Minimal Design allows for a wide range of emergent applications and extensions
How does it work?
- Sign in
- Create a Stripe Account to receive payments
- Create a Campaign specifying the following:
- Funding Goal
- Reason
- Deadline
- Minimum Number of Pledgers
- Pledgers login, add their payment information, and pledge to your campaign
- By the end of the deadline:
- If the minimum number of pledgers are met, all pledgers are charged (funding goal)/(number of pledgers) and the campaigner gets exactly how much they set in the funding goal
- If not, then no charges are made and life goes on :(
By the deadline, if the Minimum number of Pledgers is met:
- Each pledger is charged (Target Amount)/(Number of Pledgers), which is sent directly to the Campaign Creator
Otherwise, if the Minimum Number of Pledgers isn't met:
- Nothing happens; life goes on
You can check out our FAQ for more details