At Indiegogo we want to give all entrepreneurs and creators the chance to succeed. Any idea, big or small, wacky or weird, can turn into a global movement with the right opportunity. Here are just a few entrepreneurs and creators who brought their unique idea to life through crowdfunding:
Supriya Hobbs, Miss Possible
“We want girls to see more options, so they can be whoever they want to be.”
Supriya Hobbs and her co-founder, Janna Eaves, were engineering students at the University of Illinois when they looked around their classes and thought, ‘Where are all of the women?”. They knew that a lot of girls wanted to change the world and wanted to help them get there. Thus, after almost $90k in funds raised and a strong community of backers, Miss Possible was born. Miss Possible empowers young girls to dream big with dolls like Marie Curie and Bessie Coleman.
Justin Simien, Dear White People
“Believe it or not there was a time when “Black Art-House” was a thing.”
Dear White People, the satirical movie about being a student of color in an Ivy League institution, started as a trailer that went viral on YouTube. After being rejected by several Hollywood studios, Dear White People raised over $40,000 on Indiegogo back in 2012 with more than 1,300 contributors. The film went on break box office records, as the highest growing film funded on any platform (grossing $4.4M domestic). Simien said it best in a recent Indiewire article: “We were able to walk in with 25,000 fans and walk out of Sundance with 100,000 fans.” Soon after its Sundance debut in 2014, DWP was picked up by Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions for distribution. This year, Dear White People has announced that they are creating a 10-episode series on Netflix!
David and Randy, Bombas
“Bees work together to make the hive a better place. We like that.”
When David and Randy learned that socks are the most-requested clothing item at homeless shelters, they immediately thought of ways to help. Initially, they considered buying and donating socks, but believed that the problem was much larger. Thus Bombas was born, a company that donates a pair of socks for every pair sold. Since their buy-one-give-one Indiegogo campaign, they partnered with Gap to increase their impact, and through all these efforts, they have donated over one million pairs!
Jon Sumroy, Mifold
“I live each day by Helen Keller’s motto … ‘Life is either a daring adventure or nothing’.”
Mifold was created by a dad who learned that 50% of children don’t have a car seat when they carpool. He created a car seat that pulls the seat belt to kid height and positions the belt across the hip bones. It also folds up to the size of a woman’s evening bag, and weighs a scant 1.6 pounds. In June 2016 they had shipped 20,000 pre-orders and raised $3.3M including $1.5 million from Sweet Capital and an investment fund run by the founders of King Digital, makers of Candy Crush. It is now for sale in the U.S. on Mifold.com and on Amazon, Walmart.com, Buy Buy Baby, and Babies R Us for $49.
Genevieve Liu, Surviving Life After a Parent Dies
“I felt like I was the only person who had lost a parent at such a young age”
After the death of her father, Genevieve Liu felt alone in a community where she had always felt at home. Despite the support her friends and family tried to provide, she felt as if she was the only person who had ever lost a parent at a young age. As a result, the organization now called SLAP’D (Surviving Life After a Parent Dies, SLAPD.com) was born, designed by Genevieve in the memory of her father. It is a social network bringing teens who have lost a parent bring hope and support through connection. The SLAP’D team became finalists in UChicago Booth’s Social New Venture Challenge and were named one of Chicago’s most Innovative Companies.
Maria de la Croix, Wheelys
“We will break the hegemony of the industrial fast food chains, and pave the way for an organic revolution. Helping us to do this is young hungry eco entrepreneurs from all over the world.”
Maria was rejected from a job at Starbucks because her hair was too blue. So she created her own mobile coffee shop, on wheels, called Wheelys. And to help more people operate businesses, Wheelys has sold coffee carts on electric bicycles all over the world, and raised $2.5M in funding to keep the good times rolling. The coffee is made using the kinetic energy from biking and with solar panels. And now Wheelys is raising funds to provide open-sourced cafes of any kind to the world.
Mark Slagle and Alex Cox, Good Spread Peanut Butter
“We returned to the peanut fields of Fitzgerald, Georgia to reimagine how peanut butter could change the world.”
Mark Slagle and Alex Cox raised $69,518 on Indiegogo to take their peanut butter company, Good Spread, to the next level and produce enough for a six-month run. After mailing the final product to nearly 600 people, Slagle and Cox launched a second campaign which allowed them to scale their distribution with Harris Teeter, a large chain of 215 grocery stores. The success of their peanut butter has also enabled the socially-conscious company to provide more than 33,000 packets of food to malnourished children in Central Africa.
Margo Lang and Annie Lascoe, Conscious Period
“We want to ensure that every woman has access to the healthy period products she deserves, period.”
When Margo and Annie learned that manufacturers of women’s products are not required to disclose their ingredients, they were outraged. They started Conscious Period to ensure that all women, regardless of socioeconomic status, have access to healthy period products. For every box of organic, BPA-free tampons, a box of organic, biodegradable pads is donated to a woman in need.
Cristal Logothetis, Carry our Future
“I think we can all agree that regardless of our beliefs, children don’t deserve the situation that they are in.”
When Cristal saw on the news that thousands of refugees had to carry their children for hours on the difficult journey to asylum, she decided to do something about it. The campaign began as a modest personal challenge to collect $2,500 and ship 100 baby carriers to family she has in Kos, Greece. Cristal felt if she could provide this relief to 100 families, she would be comfortable with her contribution. Word quickly spread about Cristal’s efforts to personally help refugee families. Within two weeks, the Carry Our Future campaign had gone viral, garnering the attention of thousands of individuals all across the globe. Carry Our Future raised over $175k and is now an established nonprofit!
Ana Lily Amirpour, A girl walks home alone at night
“To be able to think what you want and say what you want is really a huge epiphany, but it takes not having it to know what you’ve got.”
Ana Lily made her first film at age 12 and has always been a major fan of scary movies. Thus she created, ‘A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night’, a film about the inhabitants of an Iranian ghost-town who are stalked by a vampire. The film premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and was selected for opening night at the MoMa as well as appeared in theaters nationally.
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