SmashFund Review
SmashFund calls itself “the first social crowdfunding network”. Find out how it works today in our SmashFund review.
What Is SmashFund?
SmashFund is a crowdfunding website that promises to be more socially-oriented than competitors like Indiegogo and Kickstarter.
The company is aiming to create “a community of users, like a social network” so that startups have instantly-engaged backers who are ready to fund your passion. The company also promises to help startups by sharing revenue while the community grows.
Each company builds its own community. Then, you leverage that community when you need to crowdfund a campaign.
Currently, SmashFund is invite-only.
Let’s take a closer look at how SmashFund works.
How Does SmashFund Work?
With SmashFund, your goal is to build a community, like a social network, filled with backers who are ready to help work with you to achieve your passion. The website lets you build profiles, project pages, status updates, and other social-oriented features.
As SmashFund explains, “you’ll feel like you are on a social network but amplified with the power of crowdfunding.”
SmashFund also shares revenue. They claim to share “up to 80% of our revenues with our users”, which means that SmashFund may end up being one of your biggest backers.
It starts with something called a socialgraph. The socialgraph, according to SmashFund, is “just a fancy term for a formula which tracks your connections.” That formula keeps track of the people and companies you invite to the network while also tracking viral connections, which are connections that you didn’t specifically invite to the network but heard about your campaign elsewhere.
Your goal is to leverage the power of the socialgraph to build your crowdfunding campaign virally. Your first backers should be your biggest supporters: they’re your friends, family, and close partners. Then, if you have a good product, then you can watch your campaign continue to grow virally over time.
Some of the key features with SmashFund include:
-No time limits
-No goal requirements
-No percentage taken from contributors (although SmashFund charges credit card transaction fees)
-No increased fees for not achieving funding goal
-No annual commitment
-Funds deposited weekly
-Change out your passions and projects freely
-Non-profits are welcome
These advantages are different from SmashFund competitors, where funding campaigns often must meet a certain funding goal and must commit to a set period of time. SmashFund works in a different way, letting your crowdfunding campaign grow virally over time without assigning an arbitrary time limit.
SmashFund also has a mobile app available for iOS and Android.
Should You Use SmashFund to Crowdfund your Campaign?
SmashFund is a new member of the crowdfunding industry. It promises to combine the world of a sharing economy with the crowdfunding industry to create something totally new. By sharing up to 80% of company revenue with users and charging minimum transaction fees, SmashFund also promises to give companies better bang for their crowdfunding buck. Oh, and there are no time limits or goal requirements: your campaign just grows virally through the power of a social network.
It’s an interesting concept that could take off in the near future. We’ll keep you posted on where SmashFund goes next.