Tag Archives: StartEngine

British Columbia Ski Resort Raises $10 Million via Equity Crowdfunding Campaign

15 Feb

2,923 crowdfunding investors decided to “Fight the Man and Own a Piece of the Mountain” by investing a minimum of $1,000 each on StartEngine.com 

By Robert Hoskins

Rossland, BC – On August 22, 2016, RED Mountain Resort launched a $10 million crowdfunding campaign on StartEngine.com called “Fight the Man. Own The Mountain.” This was the first time a for-profit ski resort explored equity crowdfunding and nobody at RED knew what to expect in Phase I, of the “Test The Waters” campaign. As of last Thursday morning (Feb. 9), RED hit their $10MM Reservation Goal — an historic achievement within the North American ski industry.

RED Mountain Resort launched a $10 million crowdfunding campaign on StartEngine

RED Mountain Resort launched a $10 million crowdfunding campaign on StartEngine

“We went into this campaign feeling that these were uncharted waters,” says RED CEO Howard Katkov. “But the response was immediate, passionate, and unequivocal. Our choice to plant the flag for independent skiing and snowboarding during a time of high-profile mergers and acquisitions really resonated.”

Since launch, “Fight the Man. Own The Mountain.” has been featured many times in the mainstream press across North America, and has been covered extensively by ski and snowboard outlets. The videos created for the campaign have so far received over half a million views.

Equity crowdfunding is a new style of investment and RED’s choice to accept a relatively low minimum reservation of $1,000 allowed “everyone from Lifties to Learjet owners” to make a reservation for this unique equity financing campaign. (And they did!) RED’s campaign on StartEngine will continue to take reservations as they prepare their auditing and legal documents to be provided to investors for Phase II, which is scheduled to launch in the Fall of 2017.

“Our goal was to hit $10 million in reservations by April, but we managed to hit that number months in advance. We now sincerely hope that a large percentage of the RED fans that pledged their support will convert their reservations to a real investment when the Phase II launches this fall,” says Katkov.

There are two exciting aspects of “Fight the Man. Own The Mountain.” in investment terms. The first is the “Last In, First Out” feature. What this means is that investors in Phase II — whether they’re in for $1,000, $25,000 or more — would receive their investment back before all previous equity investors. The second is the “rewards” associated with each level of investment, from lift tickets, custom skis or snowboards, season and family passes and access to a purpose-built clubhouse and overnight cabins. These rewards are laid out in the StartEngine platform.

RED Mountain is the oldest ski resort in Western Canada and has been the site of many firsts: First World Cup ski race in Canada; one of the largest terrain expansions in North America in over 40 years… This campaign marks another first — the opportunity through equity crowdfunding to own a slice of world-class ski resort for as little as $1,000.

“The groundswell of support from the snow community, the press, and investors has been nothing short of astonishing,” says Katkov. “The success of the campaign, thus far, has been a nice reminder of just how passionate and free-spirited the ski and snowboard community really is. It’s been an incredible winter so far and I’ve had a number of guests come up to me and say they booked their ski week at RED after hearing about us through the campaign. Some of them invested, some of them didn’t, but all of them sensed that we have something special going on in Rossland and needed to check it out in person. And to us, that means more than anything. We can’t wait for what the future holds.”

RED is the last great, unspoiled resort. Located in Rossland, BC, 1st stop on Canada’s famous Powder Highway, RED delivers 2,877 acres of pristine, unfettered skiing. RED recently added nearly 1,000 acres of intermediate to advanced terrain on Grey Mountain.

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Robert Hoskins, a seasoned Front Page PR veteran provides more than twenty-five years of external communications, media relations, digital social media and SEO skills to Front Page PR’s crowdfunding PR and media relations service portfolio.
Robert Hoskins
(512) 627-6622
@Crowdfunding_PR


Mr. Robert Hoskins is a seasoned marketing veteran with a proven track record of helping entrepreneurs, startups, small businesses as well as Fortune 500 corporations launch successful marketing communications campaigns to gain market traction for a wide variety of products and services.
On a regular basis, Mr. Hoskins consults with crowdfunding campaign managers as well as crowdfunding sites, portals and platforms to deliver successful crowdfunding marketing campaigns.
Google search “Robert Hoskins Crowdfunding” to see why Mr. Hoskins is considered one of the industry’s foremost crowdfunding experts that has amassed a huge social media following, which is dedicated to supporting donation-, rewards- and equity-based crowdfunding campaigns.
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Weekly Update 6/13 – Top 10 Title, Crowdfunding Regulation Offerings Update Report

13 Jun

Top 10 Equity Crowdfunding Campaigns Have Raised $711,196 Since May 16th Using Title III, Regulation Crowdfunding

By Robert Hoskins

Austin, Texas – Here is a update of the first round of Title III, Regulation Crowdfunding campaigns that launched on May 16th, almost a month ago. In aggregate, the crowdfunding campaigns have raised $711,196.  And that figure would be much higher if we included the all 40 of the equity crowdfunding campaigns that have been approved by the SEC for issuing Title III offerings.

To give crowdfunders an idea of which platform is raising the most money, we added up the totals for each platform and so far, WeFunder is ruling the roost with 61% of all money raised:

  1.  WeFunder.com            $433,094
  2.  NextSeed                        $112,500
  3.  StartEngine                     $91,302
  4.  SeedInvest                      $74,300

                                     Total: $711,196

Why are some companies raising a lot of money and others are struggling?  It comes down to how much money these crowdfunding campaigns are spending on marketing.  Its hard to raise money unless campaigns are spending money on advertising, email, PR, social media and website marketing to raise awareness for their campaign and its products or services. Simply listing a campaign on a fundraising portal is not enough and why 60% of rewards-based campaigns fail.

For example, check out the profiles below to see their company websites, their social media credentials on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter and then Google their founders names and company names to see what they have done to promote their company in the news media.

It will be easy to see what management teams have done the proper prep work and planned effective marketing campaigns and which teams haven’t even been able to cobble together a simple company website.

If a management team can’t build a simple website, how in the world can they run a successful business?

One founder commented that, “They didn’t build a website because they wanted everyone to focus on their crowdfunding campaign profile.”

Most investors will read everything they can about the company, their products/services, news stories, research reports, industry analysts projections for the marketplace, etc., etc.

The goal should be to provide enough information to remove all the fear, doubt and uncertainty from the investment sales equation and give them the urge to invest before they even start reviewing the SEC financial disclosure information on the crowdfunding portal’s website.

For example, let’s take at look at NextRX.  They are on the StartEngine platform.

The good news is that they have a website, but not one shred of industry facts, figures or industry growth projections to support the fact that the Medical and Recreational Marijuana industry is currently the fastest growing industry in the United States and is expected to reach more than $22.8 billion in revenue in the next 4 years. Not one single fact about the 16 additional states that will probably sign new cannabis regulations into law during 2016 that will take the U.S. from 4 legal markets to more than 20.

Is providing some research on local or national marijuana industry markets important? Hell yes.

As an investor, I want to know, in detail, about my possibility of earning a nice return-on-investment for buying shares in their company. I would love to say this is why they haven’t raised any money, but its not.  A smart investor relations team would use their current banking problem and turn it into an opportunity to expose the hurdle they face with setting up an escrow account and use the example to try and put more pressure on the financial banking system and the U.S. Government to remove marijuana as a Class One drug so banks don’t have to worry about breaking federal law.

Why not provide a Marijuana Pitch Video like this one? It practically makes the investor want to jump in before it’s too late! If the big investors are doing it, then I certainly don’t want to miss out on the next big industry that is almost guaranteed to boom in the U.S.

Why not include a Marijuana Industry Analyst Report like this that projects a $22.8 billion industry in the next 4 years. It would be kind of like investing in a liquor company right before prohibition ended.

As a reporter, perhaps I want to write a story based on the marijuana’s industry’s potential growth. But the company’s management team has failed to provide a media kit with company backgrounders, executive head shots, bios, press releases, market research, white papers, photos, graphics, etc., which means they are very inexperienced business executives and have never worked in a big corporation. To me this means this company will mostly likely fail as business because they certainly do not understand marketing, which is the key to all sales growth.

6/13 Weekly Title III, Crowdfunding Update:


1. Taxa Biotechnologies (genetic plant engineers)

Crowdfunding Platform: WeFunder

Amount Raised:  $221,115

2. The Legion M Entertainment (media company)

Crowdfunding Platform: WeFunder

Amount Raised: $188,229

3. Native Hostel Austin (Luxury hostel in Austin

Crowdfunding Platform: NextSeed

Amount Raised: $112,500

4. MF Fire (an app-drive, low emissions wood stove)

Crowdfunding Platform: SeedInvest

Amount Raised: $63,300

5. Bloomery SweetShine (distillery)

Crowdfunding Platform: StartEngine

Amount Raised: $58,800

6. Gigmor (Connecting bands with venues and gigs)

Crowdfunding Platform: StartEngine

Amount Raised: $17,505

7. Urban Juncture (developing commercial real estate)

Platform: WeFunder

Amount Raised: $11,950

8. Treasure State Internet (fiber optic installation)

Crowdfunding Platform: WeFunder

Amount Raised:  $11,800

 

9. GameTree (Social network for gamers)

Crowdfunding Platform: StartEngine

Amount Raised:  $11,060

10. StartMart Cleveland (Coworking space)

Crowdfunding Platform: SeedInvest

Amount Raised: $11,000

11. Graphic Armor (personalized condoms)

Crowdfunding Platform: StartEngine

Amount Raised: $3,937

12. NextRX Inc (Medical marijuana network pass)

Crowdfunding Platform: StartEngine

Amount Raised:  $0 (on hold because escrow account closed by bank)

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Top 10 Title III, Regulation Crowdfunding Offerings Ranked on the Amount of Crowdfunding Raised

18 May

Searching for the Hottest New Title III, Regulation Crowdfunding Investment Opportunities?

For fun, we thought we would keep track of the first wave to Title III, Regulation Crowdfunding Offerings to see who has raised the most money to date. The current crowdfunding campaigns are ranked in order by the amount of money they have raised as of May 24, 2016 at 4:00 pm.

After the first week, it looks like crowdfunding campaigns with lower investment amounts far outpaced larger investment requirements.  The same is true of lower crowdfunding investment goals. For example, GameTree has a minimum investment of $100 and a fundraising goal of $100,000 and barely two weeks into their campaign they are 90% funded.

If you’d like shop around and make your first non-accredited investment in a Title III, Regulation CF offering, please review from the offers listed below.

You might also check out their company websites, their social media credentials on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter and then Google their founders names and companies to see what they have done to promote their company in the news media.

It will be easy to see what management teams have done the proper prep work, planned effective marketing campaigns and the others that haven’t even been able to put together a simple company website.

If they can’t build a simple website, how in the world can they run a successful business?

Here is also a quick snapshot of what Title III Crowdfunding Platforms have raised the most money:

  1.   WeFunder.com            $243,871
  2.   StartEngine                  $142,602
  3.   SeedInvest                     $74,800
  4.   NextSeed                        $26,900

Total: $461,273


1. The Legion M Entertainment (media company)

Crowdfunding Platform: WeFunder

Amount Raised: $120,611

2. Taxa Biotechnologies (genetic plant engineers)

Crowdfunding Platform: WeFunder

Amount Raised:  $111,860

3. MF Fire (an app-drive, low emissions wood stove)

Crowdfunding Platform: SeedInvest

Amount Raised: $40,900

4. Native Hostel Austin (Luxury hostel in Austin

Crowdfunding Platform: NextSeed

Amount Raised: $26,900

5. Bloomery SweetShine (distillery)

Crowdfunding Platform: StartEngine

Amount Raised: $35,700

 

6. GameTree (Social network for gamers)

Crowdfunding Platform: StartEngine

Amount Raised:  $90,360

7. Treasure State Internet (fiber optic installation)

Crowdfunding Platform: WeFunder

Amount Raised:  $8,800

8. StartMart Cleveland (Coworking space)

Crowdfunding Platform: SeedInvest

Amount Raised: $7,000

9. Gigmor (Connecting bands with venues and gigs)

Crowdfunding Platform: StartEngine

Amount Raised: $14,905

10. Urban Juncture (developing commercial real estate)

Platform: WeFunder

Amount Raised: $2,600

11. Graphic Armor (personalized condoms)

Crowdfunding Platform: StartEngine

Amount Raised: $1,636

12. NextRX Inc (Medical marijuana network pass)

Crowdfunding Platform: StartEngine

Amount Raised:  $0

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