So it's been a long six months and we have been meeting investors and venture capital firms across US, India and Middle East.
This is all part of the process to get some funding for us, as would be the same for countless other travel startups.
NB: This is an opinion by Vineet Budki, co-founder and vice president of marketing and alliances at Guiddoo.
During this journey people advised us to slow down our momentum and conserve, in order to last longer until some capital investment arrives.
But wait, a startup that slows goes on to die - at least, in our opinion.
We at Guiddoo decided to look at a different model.
The point is that we need funds to manage the growth of our content, product and operations until we can (hopefully) explode with super growth.
At this time it is all about maintaining momentum and keeping the company stable.
Exploring new options
So we found the world of crowdfunding – using the equity and reward-based model.
Here is some background as to how these crowdfunding models work.
Equity crowdfunding is a platform where people take a share in your startup in return for their investment, almost acting like mini-VCs.
Backers using the reward-based crowdfunding system get perks - in other words; consumers "invest" in the project to get products or services from the startup at a future date.
We looked into a variety of available options, including Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Crowdfunder, etc.
After a initial test on one of the platforms we decided to launch our campaign on Indiegogo.
Actually doing it
Something interesting to note here was that we chose this particular service because it was not a pledge model but a real contribution model and you actually get the funds faster in your account after the campaign has ended – so, hassle free!
We planned to raise working capital for the next three months (which is roughly $20,000) and keep doing it every three months until reinforcements in the form of investors arrive.
In return the customers would get travel coupons, which we buy at a discount from an aggregator.
We also throw in the Guiddoo app for a lifetime, which will have 1,400+ destinations across 20+ sectors which include monuments, museums, festivals etc.
It's been a week and our first campaign is live with over $3,000 or 15% of the goal already raised, and things are looking on track for goal fulfillment.
Something interesting to note here is that we have discovered that the people who have bought the perks are actually using it as a way to plan their trip three months in advance by supporting, as well as being happy to help a travel startup.
Conclusion
The internet has thrown in a new way of fund raising for startups like us, in the guise of crowdfinding through Kickstarter and Indiegogo.
The model can be useful for entrepreneurs who have a bootstrapper mentality, or want to keep moving, whilst at the same time as raising outside capital.
There are, of course, a few words of caution.
Similar to how a startup would consider any other marketing campaign, crowdfunding has to be well researched and planned.
It can fail, too.
On the other hand crowdfunding has the potential to bring in some working capital, which can be offset against product in the vouchers.
It also has the potential to capture some prospective customers, expose a brand to a wider group of people and free PR across multiple geographies, not least via word-of-mouth.
In short: keep going, keep innovating (on everything, including how you raise money), and keep building!
NB: This is an opinion by Vineet Budki, co-founder and vice president of marketing and alliances at Guiddoo.
NB2: Crowdfunding image via Shutterstock.