Tyler Gottstein, co-founder of Cadi, a digital golf marketplace, shares his experience with equity crowdfunding. Cadi has raised $2.75 million through crowdfunding, which helped build a community of golfers who would also be the first users of their platform.

I sat down with Tyler to discuss his experience raising funds for Cadi and to hear his tips on how founders can successfully raise capital for their ventures.

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Why did you do an equity crowdfunding?

The main reason was actually to build a community of golfers that would not only be our investors but also the first users of our platform. We realized that our campaign actually gave us the ability to begin marketing our product before the public launch. This helped us with brand awareness and validation from the market.

Equity crowdfunding is also a great vehicle to maintain control of our business while bridging the next step of funding. Crowdfunding also allows us to have more negotiating power with institutional investors.

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What were your biggest mistakes while equity crowdfunding?

There are many factors in converting a prospecting investors to an investor. It is easy to think that investors will continue to invest. At times in our campaign we took high capital risks to get more potential investors in our funnel. It is easy to recklessly spend on marketing in desperation to get more investors.

When the public market declined rapidly, our investments slowed. We were stuck spending on ad campaigns that did not work out. It lead to difficult decisions.

Every company should have dedicated people focused on the success of the campaign. It requires from dedication to succeed in crowdfunding. At Cadi, the founders did all of the campaign managing and it took away from business development.

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What was the best tactic for getting investments?

For Cadi, the majority of money raised was through Facebook, Instagram, and Google ads. This was accomplished finding your audience, developing great content, and effectively spending on advertisements.

Check out their investment page here.

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Check out Tyler's Tips for Getting Equity Crowdfunding Investments:

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Here's a video that Rally On Media shot for Cadi. It was designed to be as a TV spot for Cadi’s raise, so we/Cadi put extra production budget behind this to really make it shine. Our talent is PGA champ and Cadi investor, Paul Casey.

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If you're interested in learning more about the work we do at Rally On, check us out here.