Envato Notes

Why You Need to Volunteer At a Startup Event in Your City

Posted: 12 Sep 2013 05:00 PM PDT

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How do you measure the vitality of a startup community and its ecosystem? One way is to count the number of events happening at any given time. Whether you consider yourself a beginner, or have started more companies than there are products on the Envato Marketplaces, there is an event out there for you. Get involved!

A healthy and vibrant ecosystem will result in a diverse range of events in any given week:

Events that range from free to paid, from conferences to networking, from lectures to getting together for drinks.
Events cut across the usual boundaries within and across organisations.

Less healthy ecosystems result in less frequent events:

Events that are far less likely to cater to the entire spectrum.
Events that tend to rely on the organizer rather than take on a life of their own.

If you live in a city where events don’t seem to come around all that often, there is a way you can make it better: Attend all the events you can. Be a joiner, not a hater!

But to really make a difference, consider volunteering to run an event. Everyone will love you for your efforts, and while you're helping the community, you are also making the connections you need to boost your business.

Here are three reasons why you should be volunteering to help run startup events in your city:

1. Build Your Network

It’s hard to fully appreciate the power of an extensive peer network until you actually experience it. Whatever problems you face as you try and grow your business, everything is easier to manage when you have a sizeable network to ask for assistance. You can build a network by attending an event, but you can accelerate the size of your network enormously by running an event.

Everyone knows the people who run the events. Their names go out on the emails. They’re the ones up the front on the microphone introducing the guest speaker. Even the guest speakers—who are generally well-connected and experienced—will remember the name of the organizer of the event, but few of the attendees.

2. Serendipitous Connections

There’s value in just putting yourself out there as someone who can help, without any other expectations. See what happens when you do things for others in the community for no reason other than to be useful.

Rand Fishkin, co-founder of Moz, calls this kind of community involvement “manufactured serendipity." He sets out to meet people “from whom I'm seeking absolutely nothing, and where my goal is merely to be helpful.”

When you do that often enough, good things happen. The payoff might come years later, and the impact might be impossible to quantify, but "manufactured serendipity" is a huge factor in continued success.

Positive results are a combination of skill, smarts, timing, people, and, yes, luck. Manufacturing serendipity is the process of increasing your odds through community interaction and good deeds.

The trick is to remind yourself that when you scratch off a lucky winner, you don't deserve it, but you may inadvertently earned it through some prior combination of wholly untraceable acts. Thus, the logical thing to do is not rest on your laurels, but get back out there and go manufacture some more.

Rand Fishkin, co-founder of Moz

3. Become Part of Something Bigger Than Yourself

Your business is your core concern, and you are right to be laser focused on it. But everyone has the ability to give a little more of their talents and time.

In fact, the overall health of your startup ecosystem is part of your responsibility as it directly benefits you and your business. Without a healthy ecosystem, you won’t have customers for whatever you are building.

At stake is nothing less than the continued economic vitality, and even the very existence of towns, cities and regions.

Brad Feld, author of “Startup Communities”

I’ve had personal experience running an event registration company, and also starting a founder driven not-for-profit that helps drives the events scene in my ecosystem. I’ve discovered that you can make the time for it if you want to.

No startup is an island. If your ecosystem seems a bit underwhelming, and you aren't finding the support and energy you’d like, don't despair. Consider it an opportunity. You will get back, with interest, what you invest in making your community as robust, fun and supportive as possible.

So get out there today and volunteer for a startup event in your city. You won’t regret it!

Crowdfunding Tips: Why You Need a Killer Video

Posted: 11 Sep 2013 11:00 PM PDT

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A website that tracks Kickstarter campaigns has revealed its findings of the four key elements creative start-ups need to get right to maximise their fundraising chances.

Kickspy has collated data from 98% of the campaigns run on Kickstarter with specially designed crawler software. Older, unsuccessful campaigns are only findable by direct URL.

Startup advice publication StartupSmart have shared with us a recent article on fundraising. StartupSmart is a leading news and advice resource for startup businesses, delivering the latest business news, trends, and practical ‘how to’ advice for startups daily. Whatever stage you are in the planning, starting or growing of your new venture, StartupSmart has all the information you need – for free.

Australian-based founder Walter Haas told advice publication StartupSmart the average success rate for a campaign was 50%.

He says the campaigns that matched the following four key metrics had a 70% success rate:

1. Shorter Campaigns Work Better Than Longer Ones

While start-ups may be tempted to create long projects to increase the opportunity to build momentum and drive donations, Haas says short projects consistently perform better because the deadline encourages people to pledge.

"The big simple thing is to make sure the project length is right. Success tends to drop the longer the project goes on. From the stats, we know 20-30 days is ideal, with a 60% average success rate. As the project drags on, your chances of success drop off. At 90 days, the success rate drops down to 30%," Haas says.

2. Good Videos Are Essential

Haas confirmed that a short, clear and engaging video was a make-or-break factor.

"Looking at the numbers, you need to have a really good video," Haas says. "The average success rate is about 50%, but without a good video drops to 35%."

He says videos shorter than three minutes are more likely to be watched through, and having a coherent, concise message is a powerful driver of pledges.

Fast track your video production with VideoHive. Check out our latest collection: Explainer Video Templates for Startups.

Image via PhotoDune

3. Longer Is Better When It Comes to Project Copy

While short campaigns and short videos are important, Haas says campaigns with longer copy and longer FAQ sections have a significantly higher chance of success.

"If you've got under 2000 words in the main description section, your chances of success very quickly drop from 50% to 25%. After 2000 it stays steady at 50% success," Haas says. "This is similar for the FAQ section. Fewer than 500 words is not a good idea, but anything over that and you're at average success rate. It doesn't change the more you add."

4. Seven Is the Magic Number of Reward Tiers

Campaigns that offer seven or more reward tiers maintain the 50% chance of success, whereas those with fewer drop down to 20%.

"You need to have at least seven different reward tiers. It doesn't matter how many you add after that. All the way up to 30 tiers, the stats still show your chance at success stays around 50% to 60%."

This article was written by Rose Powell for StartupSmart.com.au.