Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Category Archives: Fintech and Networking Events
Raising capital: Getting off the ground via crowdfunding
Vancouver Sun by Brian Morton | August 12, 2013
Anti-robot concept one of several money-raising successes to be discussed at Indiegogo conference
Vancouver artist Jonathan Tippett needs to raise $150,000 to get Prosthesis, the anti-robot, up and running. Or at least walking.
So he turned to crowdfunding, an emerging trend in raising money that involves soliciting donations over the Internet for projects or even causes.
“It hinges around the pursuit of physical mastery and the age-old impetus for humans to master physical skills,” says Tippett of his anti-robot, a 100 per cent human-controlled, two-storey tall, 3,500-kilogram, four-legged, wearable walking machine that is being built by volunteers at the eatART Laboratory in Vancouver and slated for completion in August 2015.
“Having no automated control system, and relying entirely on the skill of the pilot for its operation, Prosthesis is the world’s first sports robot.”
Tippett’s concept is one of several crowdfunding successes to be highlighted in Vancouver on Tuesday by Indiegogo, one of the most popular crowdfunding sites, which is hosting its first Vancouver session at the Roundhouse Community Centre.
Tippett said his project requires a crowdfunding campaign in order to get completed.
“Details aren’t finalized, but I think we’ll offer (donors) opportunities to operate the machine,” he says.
Tippett is among a growing list of people and organizations turning to crowdfunding sites to raise funds for everything from artistic ventures to business start-ups, even to purchase videos allegedly showing a big-city mayor smoking crack cocaine.
According to the National Crowdfunding Association of Canada, the global crowdfunding industry is predicted to accelerate to $5.1 billion in 2013. Canada, with over 52 crowdfunding portals, is Indiegogo’s second-largest market, with the number of active campaigns increasing by 213 per cent in the last year. A successful campaign must involve engaging people, said Indiegogo founder Danae Ringelmann.
“The pitch should have a video. The video should have someone talking about their project and not just what it is, but why it needs to come to life,” Ringelmann says.
“And you want to offer unique and custom perks to get funders excited about contributing.”
Continue to the full article --> here
Halifax Event Wrap Up: Crowdfunding, What it is and how to Benefit from it
Posted by Andy Osborn on August 8, 2013
Our thanks goes out to Milan Vrekic and Volta Labs for hosting a panel discussion yesterday on, Crowdfunding, What it is and how to Benefit from it. The event featured a terrific panel including Andy Osburn (CEO at Equals6.com and Atlantic Advisor to NCFA Canada), Julia Rivard (Partner at Norex and Pursu.it), and Abel Lazarus and Tanya Wiltshire (Nova Scotia Securities Commission). Attendance was around 30 people for the lunch and learn and resulted in a great exchange of view point and questions on the current state of crowdfunding in Nova Scotia, Canada and beyond.
Andy provided some background on crowdfunding in general and some specific experiences regarding the Equals6 Student Scholarship crowdfunding platform, which has been recently launched. Julia provided a number of great pointers and interesting facts for prospective campaigners based upon her experience thus far with Pursu.it. These include the following:
- Include a campaign video that is 2.5 minutes or less - shorter content is better
- Have a clear funding target based on a tangible need explained
- Clear deadline (campaigns shorter than 40 days are the most successful)
- Asking amounts must be well defined, well communicated and make sense to the crowd
- $25 is the most common donation
- Have a minimum of 3 perks and a maximum of 8 perks
- 70% of donations come in from personal networks of connections to personal networks
Tanya and Abel led a great discussion on the current state, challenges and complexities on the regulatory landscape in Nova Scotia and Canada regarding equity crowdfunding. It was terrific to have them on the panel and great to be able to gain direct insight from the regulatory perspective.
Event Pics
Panelists Andy Osborn of Equals6.com, Julia Rivard of Pursu.it, Abel Lazarus and Tanya Wiltshire of the Nova Scotia Securities Commission.
Special thanks to Volta for being the venue sponsor.
Source: NCFA Canada
Kickstarter now open to Canadian projects. Up-and-coming Workshops
CBC News | Last Updated: Aug 6, 2013 2:16 PM ET
Crowdfunding campaigns can launch as soon as Sept. 9
Canadians who want to crowdfund a film, video game or other project can now start building a page on Kickstarter, for public launch as soon as Sept. 9.
U.S. crowdfunding giant Kickstarter announced on its blog Monday that effective immediately, Canadians were invited to click on the "start your project" button on the company's homepage. Canada has now been added to the U.S. and U.K. in the drop-down menu that pops up.
What is crowdfunding?
Crowdfunding allows projects ranging from films to unique consumer products to gather small individual amounts of money from a large number of people. Often, funders are promised a "reward" such as a copy of the final product. For example, the Veronica Mars movie collected $5,702,153 from 91,585 "backers," who contributed an average of $62.26 each in exchange for rewards such as a copy of the shooting script or a "Veronica Mars – The Movie" T-shirt.
The New York City-based Kickstarter announced in June that it would soon start allowing projects from Canadian creators. As of Tuesday, the company's own statistics say it has helped raise $627 million for 109,294 projects since it launched in 2009, including the high-profile Pebble smartwatch, Ouya gaming console and Veronica Mars movie.
Kickstarter takes five per cent of the money raised by projects that meet their fundraising target, while another three per cent plus 20 cents per pledge typically go to the company that processes the payments. Funders do not pay the money they pledged and Kickstarter does not receive any money for projects that don't meet their fundraising goal.
In conjunction with its Canadian launch, Kickstarter is hosting a series of meetups and workshops across the country over the next few weeks, which are posted on its Canadian homepage. As of Tuesday afternoon, events in Toronto and Montreal between Aug. 8 and Aug. 13 were sold out.
Links and Resources:
Kickstarter Events in Canada: We'll be in Canada the next few weeks hosting Kickstarter meetups, workshops, and more. If you have a project in mind and want to run it by us, or if you just want to learn more about Kickstarter, we hope you’ll come out and say hello!
| Toronto | August 8th, 2013 | Kickstarter School: Film | Sign up! |
| Toronto | August 9th, 2013 | Kickstarter School: Film | Sign up! |
| Montreal | August 12th, 2013 | Kickstarter School | Sign up! |
| Montreal | August 13th, 2013 | Meetup | Sign up! |
Continue to full article -> here
Webinar Saskatchewan (Aug 21, 2013): Crowdfunding 101 – What It is and Where To Start
NCFA Canada Ambassador | Suzanne Paschall | July 26, 2013
CROWDFUNDING WEBINAR:
Join SEDA and Grow Our Region for this live webinar presentation to learn about crowdfunding and how it can benefit your business and community.
Date: Wednesday, Aug 21, 2013
Time: 1:00pm - 2:00pm
Where: Online (Registration)
Sponsor: SEDA (Saskatchewan Economic Development Association)
Presenter:
Suzanne Paschall is Editor in Chief and Owner of Indie Ink Publishing in Saskatoon, which has been experimenting with crowdfunding to mitigate risk, improve the cash flow of book production, and to build advanced marketing buzz and audience for indie authors and their books. To date, Indie Ink has launched two campaigns for their Spring 2013 titles: The New Rockstar Philosophy and Eating Myself Crazy.
In this presentation, participants will learn:
- What is crowdfunding and what it can achieve your business or community
- The three most common and legal types of crowdfunding
- Examples of crowdfunding in Saskatchewan
- Lessons learned in launching a crowdfunding campaign
Suzanne Paschall
Editor in Chief, Indie Ink Publishing
You won't want to miss this webinar presentation. Special guest speaker, Suzanne Paschall is a member of the National Crowdfunding Association of Canada and a local Saskatchewan ambassador for the NCFA.
Register for this live Webinar --> here
The National Crowdfunding Association of Canada (NCFA Canada) is a cross-Canada crowdfunding hub providing education, advocacy and networking opportunities in the rapidly evolving crowdfunding industry. NCFA Canada is a community-based, membership-driven entity that was formed at the grass roots level to fill a national need in the market place. Join our growing network of industry stakeholders, fundraisers and investors. Increase your organization's profile and gain access to a dynamic group of industry front runners. Learn more eBrochure | Prezi or contact us at casano@ncfacanada.org.
Event Halifax (Aug 7, 2013): Crowdfunding > What it is and how to benefit from it
NCFA Canada | Andy Osburn | July 25, 2013
CROWDFUNDING EVENT
Where: Volta - Halifax Startup House, Halifax, Nova Scotia
When: Wednesday, August 7, 2013 @12pm - 1pm (ADT)
Join crowdfunding experts, Andy Osburn and Julia Rivard, for an open and engaging discussion regarding the current state and future of crowdfunding. The discussion will cover the various types of crowdfunding, the future for equity crowdfunding in Canada and Nova Scotia and their own experiences in building crowdfunding platforms.
Speakers:
Julia is partner at Norex. Julia and her partner Leah Skerry have launched Pursu.it, a crowd-funding platform for Canadian Athletes which has raised over 100,000 for athletes in less than eight months. The platform is now being built to license out to other organizations who want to run their own crowd-funding campaigns and will be available this fall.
Andy is CEO at Equals6 and Atlantic Advisor to the National Crowdfunding Association of Canada. Recognizing that many students today face serious financial roadblocks to education, Equals6 has launched a new crowdfunding service to help its members pay for school. Students can create online scholarship campaigns that include contribution levels as low as $10 and rewards for campaign backers. Students can easily promote their campaigns through Equals6 and social networks.
Register for this Crowdfunding Event on Eventbrite now --> here
Social Causes and Crowdfunding: live updates from the International Startup Festival in Montreal
Posted on July 12, 2013
Watch the recorded Google hangout as Craig Asano, Marty Gunderson, and Sunny Shao of NCFA Canada speak with Heri Rakotomalala of Seeding Factory, who joined live from the Crowdfunding tent at the International Startup Festival in Montreal. NCFA and Seeding Factory discuss social cause crowdfunding projects, such as La Pleb's flash mob style crowdfunding campaign to raise $1,000 in one day for the community of La Megantic from the train explosion disaster. Over 13% has been raised at the time of posting from in-person donations alone at the Crowdfunding tent, but you still have time to contribute before the end of the day July 12 by clicking here.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PNQcF2nwUY[/youtube]
Event Toronto (July 13, 2013): HiveWire Crowdfunding Workshop [NCFA Member Discount]
hosted by HiveWire on July 13, 2013
Event Details:
Event: Crowdfunding Workshop Start: July 13, 2013 9:00 am End: July 13, 2013 4:00 pm Venue: Centre For Social Innovation (4th Floor, Alterna room) Address: 215 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, ON,M5T 2C7, CanadaRegister here to receive 10% NCFA Member Discount
Description:
Interested in using crowdfunding to help raise funds for your business, organization, or project? Deciding to create a crowdfunding campaign is truly only the beginning of an intensive process. We’ll provide you the crowdfunding essentials alongside proprietary information that you need to plan, execute, and successfully see your crowdfunding visions through to completion. You will learn the practical information, strategies and tips to help you reach your fundraising goals. In addition we’ll give you a set of tools that can help you achieve best practice in your crowdfunding campaign. Crowdfunding is not easy, but with our assistance you can conduct the careful planning and rigorous execution that you need to achieve success.
This is an interactive workshop where you have a chance to share your own ideas and receive feedback and guidance. You will leave with an understanding of the crowdfunding industry, have all the tools and knowledge you need to execute a successful crowdfunding campaign, and have fresh ideas as to how you could better leverage crowdfunding. You will leave with the confidence, knowing you are ready to make your campaign a success!
Content:
The Fundamentals:
- Crowdfunding Overview
- Market Overview
- Platform Selection
- Campaign Best Practices
- Data insights
- Case Studies
Campaign Content and Preparation:
- The Story Arc (What/When/Why/How you communicate)
- Making your video
- Designing rewards that matter, stand out, and work
- Budgeting for your campaign
- Choosing your target Raise
- Testing your campaign
- Assessing your network strength
- Case Studies
Marketing your campaign:
- Planning your marketing campaign
- Prepping your networks
- How to leverage your networks
- Communications plan: How to market along your story arc (social media, frequency, transparency)
- Strategies to leverage your social media network
- Marketing beyond social media
- How to turn backers into champions
- Real world events
- Time management & workflow during your campaign
- Tracking & Iterating your marketing plan
- Case Studies
Tools you get to take home:
- Campaign excel spreadsheet tools
- Crowdfunding: The Document.
