This article was also published on LinkedIn on 1/26/16.
Indiegogo turns eight this month. In eight years, Indiegogo has grown into something so much bigger than my co-founders Danae Ringelmann, Eric Schell and I ever imagined in 2008 (well, actually, we formed the idea in 2006, so it’s been almost 10 years). It’s amazing to see that the first crowdfunding platform in the world has now had over 600,000 campaigns from 223 countries, and nearly a billion dollars distributed to entrepreneurs, creators, innovators, philanthropists, and people in need. When we set out to democratize access to funding by creating a completely open fundraising platform, this is exactly what we dreamed of.
Over the past few years, we’ve put in place a talented and committed team that has guided Indiegogo’s growth to more than 100 employees with offices in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Indiegogo continues to grow in ways we never imagined. Over the past 2 years alone, we’ve nearly doubled our revenue. We’re incredibly proud of pioneering an industry that helped people like the father and son in rural Australia raise $12.5 million for their innovative Flow Hive honey harvesting system, which broke the record for the most funded international campaign. We also saw the Haleys expand their family with the world’s first crowdfunded baby. Misfit Shine proved that people wanted to upgrade to more elegant activity trackers, and was recently acquired by Fossil for $260 million. The Turkish people responded to their government’s violence by raising funds for advertising for democracy in the New York Times. The creator of Humans of New York (HONY) raised enough in one campaign to not only send the 6th grade classes at Mott Hall Bridges Academy on an annual Harvard visit as he originally intended, but also for summer programs, and now a college scholarship. Two UC Berkeley grad students built a pair of cat ear headphones that are now available at Brookstone stores across the country. The team behind cult classic Super Troopers broke records to successfully fund a sequel. And most recently, we have been thrilled to help larger companies like GE, Harman, Shock Top, and Hasbro incorporate crowdfunding into their product strategies.
Today, I’m excited to share some leadership team changes that will take Indiegogo into the next eight years and beyond.
The next stage in our company will be all about diving into new growth opportunities. As I look back on eight years, I’ve realized that the heart of my work to establish Indiegogo as a trusted funding platform is in building innovative products, creating exciting partnerships, and exploring all kinds of new initiatives. I’ve decided to formalize that role as Indiegogo’s Chief Business Officer, which along with my position on the Board, will allow me to focus full-time on innovation and growth —including our already thriving marketplace business, enterprise crowdfunding, as well as new opportunities like equity crowdfunding, China, and strategic partnerships with retailers and manufacturers. And as we have always done, we’re going to continue changing the finance industry to make sure every idea gets a shot at success.
As part of this shift, I am excited to announce that I am promoting Dave Mandelbrot to CEO of Indiegogo. Dave joined our team with a ton of leadership and execution experience and has continuously taken on more responsibility in the last two and a half years at Indiegogo, most recently serving as COO. Dave has done a fantastic job of running the business operationally as part of the leadership team, and is beloved across the company. I couldn’t be more excited about having him lead Indiegogo into the next chapter, and after the applause I heard when we announced it to the team I know that everyone else at Indiegogo feels the same way.
Additionally, late last year, we were fortunate to bring Marcus Lo onto the team as CFO. Marcus is a seasoned finance leader with 20 years of experience and in a very short time, has proven to be invaluable in driving Indiegogo’s financial future.
It’s been an honor to be CEO of Indiegogo over the past 8 years, and with our solid management team in place, including all three co-founders (pictured above, with Dave), I am beyond excited to take this next step in the Indiegogo journey.
