Successfully Funded

Acquire Invest represents the sum total of the skill sets Brian Harstine has built creating companies, managing wealth, and studying Web 3 and blockchain. By tokenizing investments into smart shares, Acquire will train retail investors to use its upcoming app, due later this year, and its transparent, real-time data to get access to investments normally reserved for accredited investors. We talk about Nashville as a burgeoning financial hub, the many life metaphors of golf, and how he'll know he's succeeded when his mom is a daily active user.

As a college student, Chris Dooley learned that a mechanical engineer's job is to solve problems every day. And after running Marvel's Toy Biz division and leading the Roomba's marketing campaign, his fifth startup venture, Puraclenz, is a three-pound filter that can clean the indoor air and exposed surfaces of mold and viruses in a 3,000-square-foot room. We talk about his childhood in Hong Kong (where "everything's a startup") and how his five kids have inspired his 80 (eight-zero!) inventions.

As a child in Trinidad, Trevor Castor read everything -- often at night, by lantern light after the power grid failed. When he had to learn to swim, he taught himself with a book. After years of research into the healthful effects of cannabis, his third company, Aphios Pharma, has patented a nanotechnology drug-delivery platform that helps patients with cancer, infectious diseases, and central nervous system disorders absorb and maintain the pain maintenance of cannabis six to eight times more efficiently.

When he graduated high school at 16 and launched his performing career in his native Venezuela, Daniel established his ability to set a goal and work relentlessly to achieve it. We discuss how his experience and influences as an actor, writer, director, and producer in New York City led to his current role as an L.A.-based entrepreneur and founder of happiTV, the streaming service made by and for members of the LGBTQ+ community.

As Ecco Bella launches Boon Broth, the first vegan alternative to the $1 billion bone broth market, Sally discusses her early roots as an animal rights activist and debunks a few myths about bone broth (and describes how Boon Broth supersedes it in quality). We also outline her plans for expansion and salute her husband, on whom she tests every recipe.

On Episode 234, Jeff Wenzel takes an unfamiliar position -- the guest chair -- to talk with new podcast host Doug French about his new gig as VP for Crowdfunding at KiwiTech. We discuss all that's happened over the last year, a bit of Jeff's backstory that led him to his current position, and how he counsels his rapidly expanding client base in the equity crowdfunding space.

Stay tuned for more stories from inventors and iconoclasts who are launching new ventures, because investors are more commonly drawn to new opportunities when they know more about the person behind the entrepreneur.

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Got a question for Jeff and the team? Send it to https://anchor.fm/successfully-funded/message! 

On Episode 233 of Successfully Funded, I got to reconnect with Shelby Olson from Kickbooster. This time we got to chat about Kickboosters latest tool to help creators, their brand new Pledge Manager. Kickbooster’s Pledge Manager aims to integrate with popular e-commerce platforms, Pledge Manager enables creators to pull products in from their e-commerce store and manage their backer’s pledges as they would order in their store. Creators without existing e-commerce stores can use Kickbooster’s Pledge Manager as an opportunity to set a store up and continue post-campaign sales.

“Creators, specifically repeat crowdfunding creators, don’t want to waste their time setting up products and configuring all of their settings in a pledge manager, just to have to do it all over again when they start selling their product online,” said Evgeny Gotfrid, Product Manager at Kickbooster. “This is a challenge our pledge manager aims to solve.”

Kickbooster’s Pledge Manager leverages the checkout built by parent company, Bold Commerce, to provide creators and backers with a reliable and secure transaction experience.

Pledge Manager also aims to address some of the common complaints creators have about similar products on the market. Kickbooster focuses on a performance-based pricing model, structuring its fees around the funds raised in Kickbooster instead of charging a fee based on the funds raised during the crowdfunding campaign— an approach that is notably different from competing products. The software company also excludes shipping from its fee calculation, something creators are dinged on during their campaign and after with most other pledge management solutions.

Pledge Manager has been in a closed beta for the past few months and is now open for public access. Creators can learn more and register to use the product by visiting kickbooster.me/pledgemanager.

On episode 232 of Successfully Funded, I got to talk with the creators of the Kickstarter campaign, Tidbyt. Tidbyt is a lo-fi smart display that gives you the weather, stocks, transit, and a whole lot more. Use Tidbyt to check the weather, or when your train is arriving. Track your favorite stock tickers, or your Dogecoin holdings 🐶. Tidbyt comes in a solid walnut enclosure and looks pretty great on your desk or bookshelf. Set it up once with your phone, and it stays updated through its own Wi-Fi connection.

On episode 231 of Successfully Funded, I got to talk with Sophie Saget from the Kickstarter campaign Ewilan’s Quest. Ewilan’s Quest will be an animated series. This means that each episode’s plot will connect with the following episode’s plot over one, two, or even three seasons.

Currently, they are in the first stage of the project, and that’s the development stage. Sophie talks about tackling the task of adapting Pierre Bottero’s work into episodes for the series, writing narrative arcs, and laying out the graphics.

On episode 230 of the Successfully Funded Podcast, I got to talk with Conor Lewis from the successfully funded Kickstarter, FORT, Magnetic Pillow Fort. Most blocks and play furniture lack the ✨ MAGIC ✨ that we wanted in our house, so Coner designed the FORT from the ground up to have all the pieces, shapes, and functionality that the modern parent needs. Best of all, it's not your couch cushions! 12 pieces and 5 shapes strike the perfect balance to help keep your kids engaged and your couch cushions intact. It won’t be long until you are building with the FORT too, I mean who doesn’t love a pillow fort?!? Also, on today's episode is a secret unreleased Sugar People cover song. So make sure you stay tuned till the end of the episode.