Jacine Rutasikwa is the Co-Founder of Matugga Distillers. The company uses the finest ingredients from Africa to handcraft an award-winning collection of Scottish rums from scratch at its distillery in Livingston – Scottish Craft, African Soul! You can find out more about Matugga here.
Matugga has successfully completed two crowdfunding campaigns. Their first campaign was a donations and rewards based campaign which raised £13,611 in donations from 70 supporters in 28 days. This was followed by an equity crowdfunding campaign last year which raised over £300,000 from 355 investors, smashing their target and valuing the company at over £1.5 million post money.
It’s fair to say that at Matugga they know a bit about crowdfunding now! But Jacine says that whilst the second campaign raised almost 30x more money than the first campaign:
“They were both equally exciting and terrifying at the same time, regardless of the amount raised! There can be a fear factor in crowdfunding, but the only way to get over that fear is to get out there and do it.”
Jacine and her team worked hard to get a good action plan pulled together for their first campaign and advises carefully following the steps that crowdfunding platforms suggest to you – trust the recommended process because it works. Especially useful was taking the time to draw a map of all their contacts.
She also focused on developing strong imagery that was evocative and bursting with authenticity and passion, crucial for connecting with the audience they wanted to raise funding from. Supporters want to see a genuine story from the business owner about her passion and vision. Be human and real!
They were also very creative in what they offered as rewards for their first donation and rewards campaign…not just offering their rum as rewards (Jacine was up till all hours making her own rum-infused cakes!).
Jacine says that crowdfunding did take up a lot of her time so advises you to make sure you set aside enough time to plan and run your campaign, whilst not losing sight of running your business at the same time.
And she also says you need to step forward and lead from the front, being accessible and visible to everyone as the front-face of your business. So, if at this early stage you may feel a little uncomfortable doing that, make sure you connect with a group of people who are crowdfunding at the same time as you will get a lot of support and confidence-boosting from your fellow crowdfunders.
And Jacine’s top three tips for you as you start your crowdfunding campaign?
- Be well prepared with everything before you launch – it’s all in the planning so give yourself plenty of time to get ready for launch.
- Leverage your community. We spent a lot of time mapping out all our contacts and it was time well spent.
- Have an engaging video for your campaign. It was probably the most important asset that we prepared (aside from our list of contacts!).
And to inspire you, a message of encouragement and support from Jacine:
“Now is the time to powerfully share your story … to win the backing that you deserve to turbocharge your company’s growth goals. Best of luck everyone!”
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