We would like to reach out to interested illustrators and graphic designers everywhere to participate in our contest to come up with a new look for our logo.

We are building a multifaceted marketplace within which each facet or vertical will be defined by its own color theme. We have decided to make the chameleon with its ability to change colors our mascot so each vertical can feature a chameleon in that vertical's color. The homepage chameleon will be a blend of all nine colors, sampled below:

If you think you are up to the challenge, please head on over to our contest page, sign up, read the contest details, and submit.

There can only be one winner of the top prize but we will also be making a small payout to each of the first five participants in our contest who submit original designs.

More design contests will be launching soon. So keep an eye out for them. Also, don't forget that we are builidng a creative platform that will support the illustrators and other creatives who join Crowdzu in multiple ways.

December 23, 2015

We are a New York based creative marketplace and we will be launching our first logo design contest at the beginning of the new year. We are looking for talented Graphic Designers and Illustrators to join us and participate in this contest.

If you decide to join Crowdzu, please make sure you select the "I am a graphic designer" option so we can inform you when this and other design contests go live. The pay-out amount for this contest will be approximately US $305 after all fees are deducted.

Additionally, we will pay US $10 each to the first 5 designers who submit acceptable, original chameleon designs even if they do not win the contest.

Please email us at [email protected] if you have any questions.
 

There are many reasons why we are the ideal platform for filmmakers some of which will become more apparent as we launch additional verticals in the coming months. Before I describe the additional services and features these new verticals will bring to our platform, let's start at the beginning.

One of the Crowdzu founders spent part of his career as a filmmaker and television content producer. He then went on to create WILLiFEST, a large New York-based film and music festival. Two of the three co-founders of Crowdzu, with help from the third, have successfully bootstrapped and grown this festival into a filmmaker favorite.

Partly because of this background, we set out to create a platform that was especially "filmmaker-friendly." Soon, in addition to crowdfunding your latest project with us, you will be able to crowdsource the right music/songs for your film. You will be able to find product placement deals to help fund your film. You can get costumes designed for your period piece. And last, but not least, you can either find special video talent or find freelance video gigs.

If you haven't already checked out the Crowdzu explainer video, you can see it here:

What are you waiting for? Join Crowdzu today and invite your friends. Good things are coming to our platform by the end of the year.

Hello there! We are looking for you to crowdfund your big idea on Crowdzu. Your only cost will be the transaction fees charged by our payment processor Stripe.

To qualify for this special offer you must be based in a country supported by Stripe (See answer to first question here). You must also be raising money for a creative or entrepreneurial endeavor, and you must either have a following and/or have a product that you can get (or we can help you get) press coverage for. For inventions, you must already have at least a functional proof-of-concept prototype.

Why us? We offer a better platform experience. This means, at the time of pledging, your supporters can:

• Pick product color, size, etc. (Who woulda thunk?! No more post-campaign surveys to find out what your supporters really want)
• Pick multiple rewards and/or quantities using our goodie bag check-out system
• Pay for international shipping (and you can notify your supporters when their rewards are shipped with the click of a button)

All of the above helps eliminate many of the post-successful campaign headaches you end up with on other crowdfunding platforms.

We also allow you to set a threshold success amount plus multiple funding goals.

Best of all, we offer assistance in building your campaign, sending out newsletters, etc. We can also help with your social media and marketing push. All of these services will be offered at no cost to you. Of course, in the end it is your effort that will make your campaign successful but we will support you in these efforts.

Normally, we would collect a 4% success fee. So why are we doing all this for free now? Well, we want you to experience the Crowdzu difference and help spread awareness about our platform as we develop the ultimate Creative Marketplace. So this will be a win-win situation for all of us.

At this moment we are accepting no more than twelve hand-picked campaigns into this pilot program which we will extend as we see fit. You will be working directly with me and/or one of the other co-founders of this platform. So if you have the next great invention or idea that you would like to crowdfund write us about it today at [email protected]

Did you know that if you successfully crowdfund a film on Crowdzu, we will offer you a free New York City premiere of your work. Yes, we are the folks behind the Williamsburg International Film Festival/WILLiFEST.

As firm supporters of the creative community, we decided to build an online creative marketplace, a one-stop shop where you can raise money for your projects via our Funding vertical, monetize your talents via our various crowdsourcing (Design, Photos, Music, Video, and Fashion) verticals, offer your digital creations for licensing via our Market vertical, and find gigs and full-time/part-time creative jobs via our Jobs vertical.

Join Us!

We are in the process of ramping up our development, and if you are a creative, we would love to have you join us so we can notify you as the verticals you are interested in go live.

Signing up is as simple as clicking on this button on our homepage

...and then filling out this form:

The whole process will take you less than a minute.

You can reach me at the email address in the image above if you have any questions.

Please spread the word. We are super-excited to be working with you!

Like many other web startups, we recently faced the challenge of accepting payments and making pay outs as our first vertical - (Crowd)Funding - went live. We considered many of the usual suspects including PayPal, WePay, and the newer kid on the block - Balanced Payments.

In the end we chose to go with Stripe after considering feature sets, customer reviews, and relative maturity of the business. We would like to give you some insight into why we think this was the right decision for us.

Stripe was originally developed by developers so they could accept payments - that back story appeals to the geek in us - but they have come a long way since then.

Stripe's forms, like their website, are beautifully minimalist in their execution. We love this.

We have reached out to Stripe's support folks a couple of times with questions and received responses in a timely manner.

We are a marketplace and our funding vertical requires us to facilitate the flow of payments from supporters to our crowdfunders after our platform commission is deducted. For us, Stripe Connect provides the perfect crowdfunding solution. FYI, even though this is not a white-label solution, our crowdfunders can sign up for their Stripe Connect account directly on our platform. Project supporters are not required to create Stripe accounts.

We had originally intended to accept crowdfunding projects from around the globe. Now with the implementation of Stripe Connect, we are restricted to accepting campaigns whose owners are based in the following countries:

1. Australia
2. Belgium
3. Canada
4. Denmark
5. Finland
6. France
7. Germany
8. Ireland
9. Italy
10. Luxembourg
11. Netherlands
12. Norway
13. Spain
14. Sweden
15. Switzerland
16. United Kingdom
17. United States

We have decided to accept this limitation and expand our coverage as Stripe Connect expands theirs.

Our other verticals will have service requesters and providers from all parts of the world. We will use Stripe's Transfers API to accept and hold payments, and issue pay-outs for these crowdsourcing verticals. The users of these verticals will not be required to create their own Stripe accounts and can therefore be based anywhere as long as they have bank accounts that can accept (international) wire transfers.

To summarize, we chose Stripe over their competition because:

1. they offer the right tools we need to run our business efficiently
2. they are reviewed well by other users
3. they respond in a timely fashion to questions and support requests sent via email
4. they are established
5. they have a Python API library
6. their design sensibilities match ours
7. they have a comprehensive and easy to use dashboard

If you would like answers to more specific questions with regard to our Stripe implementation, please write us at [email protected]

Crowdzu is a full-featured, rewards-based crowdfunding platform on its way to becoming a larger creative marketplace.

We would like to work with you directly on crafting and launching your crowdfunding campaign on our platform.

In most cases, it simply isn't true that your campaign is more likely to be successful if it is launched on a well-known platform. Too often you hear stories of the runaway success of some campaigns and you think that that is how crowdfunding works. The fact is that unlike regular news where, for the most part, only bad happenings are covered, when it comes to crowdfunding news, for the most part, only the good stuff is covered. You can check out this almost real time update of the success and failure rates of Kickstarter campaigns and make up your own mind.

The number one lesson you can take away from the high failure rate of campaigns is that crowdfunding is not for everyone or for every concept.

During the crowdfunding panels we held over the last two years, we repeatedly informed our attendees that there is no such thing as free money. The people behind successful campaigns have worked incredibly hard.

As you may know there are crowdfunding platforms on which you can launch just about any campaign.

We do it a little differently. You submit a short text-based pitch to us here, so we can make sure that your project falls within our creative, technology, entrepreneurial or social good category requirements. We also use this opportunity to ascertain that your idea is crowdfundable via a rewards-based platform. We provide you with guidance and feedback. Wouldn't you appreciate human interaction from the get-go instead of canned form letters?

Once your pitch is approved, we provide assistance in  the following areas as needed:

• Feedback on your pitch video
• Choosing the right rewards
• Setting your threshold and other funding goals
• Usage of social media channels and emails to promote your campaign
• Adapting your website, if you have one, to spotlight your campaign
• Crafting the body of your campaign
• Proofreading your campaign

Our goal is to offer top-notch service to the users of our platform. You will always get proper responses to your emails and, as we grow, we intend to have staff in place to assist our crowdfunders. Right now you get to work directly with one of the co-founders.

Referrals are available if you need help with:

• creating your pitch video
• developing a large, genuine and engaged social media following
• legal matters including IP, incorporation, etc.
• accounting/tax matters

Please note that we cannot guarantee your success but together we can work hard at achieving it. After all, our success is directly tied to your success.

Questions? You can check out our crowdfunding FAQs for more information about our platform. Please also feel free to email us directly at inquiries[at]crowdzu.com.

This panel was part of WILLiFEST 2013.

The Panelists:

• Terra Renee, Founder & President, African American Women in Cinema
• Eve Pomerance, Senior Producer at & Co-Founder of Major Motion Pictures
• Angela Tucker, Writer, Director & Producer.
• Annette Danto, Filmmaker & Professor in the Department of Film, Brooklyn College
• Stella McGovern, Co-Founder of Crowdzu & WILLiFEST Team Member

The Moderator:

• Joanna White-Oldham, Founder, Center for Active Learning

Learn more about the panelists here.

Whether you’ve got an idea for a script floating around in your head, or you’re working on a project that you need a little guidance with, this panel has the answers to all of your questions.

Topics discussed included:

• Project Development – Getting the idea on paper
• Casting – Getting the right actors
• Budgeting – The No/Low budget project
• Funding – Crowdfunding strategies and finding grants
• Marketing – Getting people to see your work

We are building the ultimate crowdcentric marketplace. This  means that you can use our website not just to raise money for your projects like you can on Kickstarter but you can also reach out to a global crowd for many of the creative services you may need.

Crowdfunding and crowdsourcing at Crowdzu, while completely different services, are not mutually exclusive.

Let me walk you through a hypothetical example:

You are a filmmaker and you use Crowdzu for all of the following

• raising money for your next movie project (Funding)
• licensing the perfect indie song for your film (Music)
• crowdsourcing costume design (Fashion)
• crowdsourcing cool animated credits for your film (Video)
• raising additional money through brand integration or product placement (Brands). A detailed description of this category is beyond the scope of this blog post.

Here's another possible scenario:

You are an inventor and use Crowdzu for the following

• raising money to bring your product to market (Funding)
• crowdsourcing your logo and the design of your website (Design)
• crowdsourcing cool packaging design for your new product (Design)
• crowdsourcing an animated video for your product's website (Video)
• placing your product in a soon-to-be-popular independent film as part of your marketing strategy (Brands)

All our crowdsourcing verticals (Design, Photos, Music, Video and Fashion) work very similarly. If you are looking to source creative services, you have to decide on a prize amount,  describe what you are looking for in a "brief" using our tools and forms and, when ready, launch the contest. Creatives who are part of the Crowdzu community will respond to the challenge and when the contest ends, you get to pick a winner.  We do not charge contest-holders to launch competitions on our platform but we take a small percentage of the prize money awarded to winning creatives.

We have used illustrations, accessible through our homepage, to graphically represent some of the types of creative services you can source in each category or vertical. They are also included below.

Design
Examples include logos, packaging design, album and book covers, t-shirt design, illustrations and artwork for comic books and graphic novels, and uncoded website design. All rights to any original winning work is transferred from the creative to the contest-holder once the prize money is collected by us and assigned to the creative.

Photos
Our Photos category also follows the brief-based contest model. This means that contest-holders can describe the photo(s) they are looking for and set prize amounts rather than having to pay fixed licensing fees and having to go through a library of hundreds of pictures. The photographer/creative will retain all rights to winning photos and will simply grant the contest-holder royalty-free usage rights. Photos in all types of categories and of varying specifications can be sourced this way.

Music
Contest-holders in the Music category can source songs or musical arrangements and instrumental pieces for use in films, television shows, online or private videos, video games and more. Like the Photos vertical, the contest-holders can set prize amounts for these contests. The winning creative will continue to own all rights to the musical composition and will grant the contest-holder a royalty-free usage license.

Video
This vertical is a blend of the Design and Photo/Music category. If pre-existing work is licensed, ownership will remain with the creative. If original work is created in response to a contest, the winning creative will transfer all rights to the work to the contest-holder. This is where you come if you are looking to source all types of short live-action or animated videos. Typical uses of this vertical would be for crowdsourced commercials, music videos, film credits and training videos.

Fashion
The Fashion vertical is an extension of the Design category. Unless otherwise agreed, winning fashion designers will transfer all rights to the contest-holder. Fashion contests may be used to source one-of-a-kind occasion wear and accessories, costumes for film and stage productions and seasonal lines for fashion houses and garment manufacturers.

It feels like we are always running to and from meetings and events. And despite New York being our home, or may because of this fact, we seem to come across "new" sights ever so often. I placed new in quotes because while these are things we haven't seen before, they may be old hat for our fellow city dwellers. We are, after all, startup founders who mostly think about startup-y stuff. In other words, we are cave-dwellers :)

So here are some sights of NYC that we found interesting listed in the chronological order we came across them.

This is not an Old Navy store but rather a retro and kitschy but cool advertisement for one a few blocks away. If it weren't already taken, "Come fun, come all," could have been our tagline.
Where we were headed: A networking event for startups
Location: Junction of Lafayette, East Houston and Mulberry

I think you can find this wall of light-up handprints of fame at every Planet Hollywood but this was the first time I came across it. My first thought was, "Wow, Sylvester Stallone has such small hands!"

Where we were headed: Home after attending a "future of music" event during Internet Week.
Location: 45th & Broadway in Times Square.

These next two pictures were taken before and after, so to speak.

I suddenly came across these bouncy people. I have no idea if this was a promo for a new type of exercise equipment, a Meetup group get-together or what. I took this picture, looked back literally a few seconds later and they were gone with not even a puff of smoke left behind to mark the spot. Aliens? Sure, why not?!

The interweb is full of cats. The second picture is my contribution. We found this lost kitty on the sidewalk and found a home for her in a nearby large planter. She looked kinda happy as we walked away.
Where we were headed to and from: The pre-Small Business Expo networking event
Location: Around 48th Street & 8th Avenue

Of course, I had heard about the push to build more bike lanes (Yayy for New York!) around the city but because we dwell under a rock in our previously referenced startup-cave, I had missed whatever hype there was about CitiBikes. And then voila! There they were in front of me one day in all their blue glory. How totally awesome and as I found out, affordable too... unless you happen to somehow lose one of them. Learn more about them here.
Where I was headed: Back to the cave after a very productive meeting
Location: 22nd & Broadway

We hope you enjoy this brief video introduction to the new Crowdzu Marketplace offering the best in crowdsourcing and crowdfunding:

We were one of 400+ exhibitors at New York Tech Day this year. We would like to give a special shout-out to NYC Dev Shop, the folks behind Tech Day who did an amazing job in putting together such a large event and ensuring that the day went smoothly.

Our booth was mobbed all day and we took the opportunity to offer attendees a sneak peek at our soon to be launched Crowdzu Marketplace platform. The feedback we got from the hundreds of people who stopped by our booth was overwhelmingly positive with many people stating that they cannot wait to be able to use our new site. Please use the Feedback button on our preview website to let us know what you think.

Our new platform will be open for business soon. Please join our mailing list so you can stay abreast of our latest news and developments.

I am a bit late posting this but better late than never...

Our panelists this time were filmmaker Sara Bailin, Atit Shah (President of Create Entertainment), documentarian Megan Sperry and Michael Helman (Co-founder of Crowdzu and WILLiFEST). The panel was moderated by Path to Passion TV host Dipalee Rathod. Brief bios of everyone involved can be found here on our Meetup page.

The panel was hosted by our frequent venue partner Showbiz Store and Cafe.

And now, without further ado, is the audio podcast:

We kicked off our new Crowdcentric Network Meetup Group by organizing a panel on August 9th, 2012 to help people understand the intricacies of crowdfunding. We have received requests from folks outside of New York who hoped we would be able to post video from the event online and we are happy to oblige.

Besides Michael Helman, a Crowdzu co-founder, and yours truly the panel featured (from l - r):

Sara Nodjoumi is a film programmer, producer and director.  As producer of The Iran Job, she helped raise over $100,000 far exceeding the project's $50,000 crowdfunding goal.

Nancy Wolfe as producer of the documentary Fit To Print successfully raised over $10,000 through crowdfunding.

Jayce Bartok is an actor, screenwriter and director. He is directing, Tiny Dancer, a film for which he successfully crowdfunded over $20,000.

Joel M. Helman, CPA is the managing partner of Albinder Altman and Block LLP a midtown Manhattan full service accounting firm. He took the mic to answer questions regarding the tax implications of raising money through rewards-based crowdfunding, the JOBS Act and equity-based crowdfunding.

The panel was moderated initially by Michael Helman and later by Joanna White-Oldham of the Center for Active Learning.

If you are New York-based, please consider joining our Meetup group and attending our monthly panels and networking mixers.

We will only cover rewards-based crowdfunding here, as even though things will eventually change, this is the only legal form of crowdfunding available in the U.S. today. This means that you cannot give your supporters a stake in your idea’s potential future profitability or equity in your company. Instead, you can offer your supporters both intangible (a thank you, inclusion in an online list of supporters, mention in a film's credits) and tangible (a t-shirt, an autographed copy of your book, a digital download of your film or music, a finished version of your product/invention) rewards in exchange for their financial contributions.

“Great,” you think, “where do I sign up to raise money for my next project?” Well, while crowdfunding opens up new avenues for raising money, trust me when I say that a lot of thought and preparation goes into every successful campaign. Here is what you must know before launching your own:

If you know someone who has successfully crowdfunded before, it would be a good idea to speak with them and ask for advice. The one thing they will all tell you is that it is a lot of work. So take this into account. Try and put together a team before you launch your campaign and delegate responsibilities if you can. Make sure that someone is always available to spread the word and also to answer, as quickly as possible, any questions asked online by your supporters.

Pick a project that you are truly passionate about. Your supporters take your project seriously and so should you. Make sure you showcase your project well. A video presentation is de rigueur these days. If you are on a very limited budget, use a webcam and just record yourself describing the project but make sure your passion comes through.  This means that your path should be Idea --> Need money for execution --> Crowdfunding, and never Want to Crowdfund --> Come up with idea.

Believe it or not, launching your campaign on Crowdzu should be one of the last steps you undertake in your fundraising process. First, you have to make sure that you and your project have an established fan-base. The number of friends you have on Facebook is an indication of the likelihood of your campaign's success. So make new friends. Set up a Facebook fan page for your project. Inform everyone you know that you are about to start crowdfunding before you actually do.

Let’s say you really want to produce a short film and you need to raise money to do so. Under normal circumstances, you may immediately turn to your family and a few close friends for financial backing for your project. This is an absolute no-no if you are planning to use online crowdfunding. Yes, your family and friends will be the first people you reach out to but you should only do this after your campaign has been launched and you should direct them to your project’s online page to pledge their support. You may think that raising money from those you know would be cheaper for you (no fees to pay) if you approached them directly. But this would be a case of being penny wise and pound foolish. You may find at the end of your campaign that much of the money you just raised came from family, friends, friends of friends and individuals within one of your spheres of influence. And these are the very people you want contributing to your campaign publicly. The more money you raise within your campaign, the more traction your project will achieve and the more support you will have from people on the fence about whether or not they should support your project.

But let's tackle first things first. You have to create an interesting and visually appealing campaign. Key components include a video and a lead image that represent your campaign. You can embed additional video clips and images within the body of your campaign. Take your time and make sure that your campaign is free of typographical and formatting errors.

Know that your supporters are not just interested in what you are doing but are also interested in you. Do not run your campaign anonymously. Upload your picture, or better yet connect with your Facebook account. Keep your profile updated. Log into your account often, so your supporters know you are actively involved with your campaign.

If appropriate, connect with members of special interest groups or influential individuals who are ideologically aligned with your project and reach out not just for financial support but also help in promoting your campaign to their spheres of influence.

Think about your funding goal carefully. You know you would like to raise X amount of money for your project, but don’t forget that you also have to pay Y in transaction fees and Z in commission to us after the campaign is successfully funded. And then there is the cost of fulfillment: the cost of producing the rewards plus the cost of delivering them to your supporters in a timely fashion plus any other related administrative costs. Perform a quick break-even analysis to examine whether you are setting your goal too low.

If you have done your homework and have done all the preparatory groundwork, the ideal length of a campaign will be about 30 days. Most campaigns start out with a flurry of activity (usually contributions from family and close friends) and often end with another spurt of contributions with a trough of relative inactivity in the middle. It should be your goal to try and avoid this trough by campaigning effectively. This could involve reaching out to media, organizing local events, increasing your social media activity and more. Think creatively.

While on the subject of rewards, try to be as unique and creative as possible when selecting yours. It has been noted that most supporters tend to contribute either $25 or $100. So make the rewards for these dollar amounts a little extra special. And, of course, pay special attention to the rewards for large contributions. Always remember that your goal should be to fulfill these commitments within the timeframe promised. So don't over-promise if you are likely to under-deliver later. Keep your supporters engaged with regular updates on fulfillment and the progress of your actual project even after your campaign has ended and answer all of their questions and concerns promptly. Remember you may need their support for another campaign down the road.

You have to be prepared to do everything you can think of, and then more, to get the word out about your campaign. Use social media, blog about it, harness the power of your friends to reach out to their friends. Know that the phone and email are both your friends. Crowdzu provides you and your supporters with tools to promote your campaign. So make sure you take advantage of them.

And finally, consider consulting an accountant or tax specialist. There may be sales and use tax consequences for the rewards you are planning to offer and income tax liabilities for the money you raise.

Please contact us if you have additional questions. If you are ready to get started, pitch us your project today.

Hello world!

Having recently launched the first phase of our website, we are actively seeking interesting crowdfunding campaigns to showcase. Does the world need another crowdfunding platform, you ask. Our resounding answer is yes! And we will not be just a crowdfunding platform for very long. Our plan is to offer multiple crowd-centric services, and you Dear Visitor, will be able to use one or more of them as your needs dictate. Let me explain this by way of a couple of examples:

Example 1:

You can crowdfund the money to record your next studio album through us but you will also in the future be able to crowdsource the artwork for your album cover through us and you will also be able to seek out licensing deals for your music through us and down the road, you will even be able to sell digital downloads of individual tracks through us.

 

Example 2:

You crowdfund the money you need for a new tech gadget through us but you don't want to ship the gadgets out in plastic baggies, so you crowdsource packaging design through us. You also want to start advertising your product on the web. So next you decide to crowdsource the 30-second video spot of your dreams through us.

Wouldn't you like to harness the power of multiple crowds that meet your varied needs for a single project via a single account at a single go-to platform? Now you are beginning to see why the world needs Crowdzu.

Like Rome, all of Crowdzu will not be built in a day. As already mentioned, we have just entered the rewards-based crowdfunding platform(and we are keeping an ear to the ground with regard to the latest news about equity-based crowdfunding). While our crowdfunding platform is fully functional and open for business, we are still tweaking and refining our crowdfudngin platform to provide you with the best possible User Experience before we move on to building other components.

For the technophiles among our readers, you may be interested in knowing that we avoided PHP like the well-documented nightmare it can be for such an undertaking and instead chose Python on a Django framework (It had come down to a nailbitingly suspenseful choice between Ruby on Rails and Python on Django). Well, honestly that decision was made by our CTO/co-founder Michal. Our job was simply to concur because we knew that he knew best. All we know is that we are in good company with Google being Python-based. We are perched in the Amazonian cloud by way of Heroku and are well-poised to scale as our needs change.

We are a lean startup in the traditional sense, testing and pushing new code into production frequently. For our small team, this has meant working insanely long hours, no different really from the life of any other typical startup.

We offer a hybrid crowdfunding platform with a tipping point. Please explore our FAQ and Fees sections to learn more.

Ready to Pitch a Project? Remember that 99% of the time, it is your effort that makes a campaign successful and this is a topic I will be addressing soon.