Steps to a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign With Vance Lee

Intro (00:09):
Welcome to innovations and breakthroughs with your host, Rich Goldstein, talking about the evolutionary, the revolutionary, the inspiration and the perspiration and those aha moments that change everything. And now here’s your host, Rich Goldstein.

Rich (00:33):
Rich Goldstein here, host of the innovations and breakthroughs podcast. Where we feature top leaders in the path they took to create change past guests include Joe Polish, Ryan D and Roland Frazier. This episode is brought to you by my company, Goldstein Patent Law, where we help you to protect your ideas and products we’ve advised and obtained patents for thousands of companies over the past 28 years. So if you’re a company that has software or product or design, you want protected go to Goldstein patent law.com, where there are amazing free resources for learning about the patent process. And you could check out the book that I wrote for the American bar association that explains in plain English, how patents work it’s called the ABA consumer guide to obtaining a patent. I have with me here today, Vance Lee. Vance Is a brand and marketing strategist turned e-comm entrepreneur.

Rich (01:20):
Uh, he’s got a background of 15 years in marketing and 11 years in e-com and he began Amazon FBA way back in 2015. But since then, he’s, he’s mastered crowdfunding the launch products and grow brands. He’s raised over 7 million in successful launches. He’s broken records with two of his, uh, launches, both number one funded in their niche and ranked the top 1% of crowdfunding projects of all time. Uh, he’s originally from Canada and now he’s a full-time nomad traveling and living in different countries around the world. Uh, it’s really my pleasure to welcome here today, Van Lee. Welcome Vance.

Vance (01:56):
Hey Rich. Thanks for having me, man.

Rich (01:58):
Yeah, absolutely. My pleasure. So yeah, let’s, let’s talk about crowdfunding, such a great topic. So like what, what are the reasons why, um, an entrepreneur that’s launching a product should consider having crowdfunding be part of that journey?

Vance (02:13):
Well, there’s, there’s a lot of reasons why I think somebody that’s considering launching a product would consider crowd funding. And I, I think the first thing I would mention is like crowd funding is not a new idea. This has been around for many, many, many, many, many years and most recently, uh, it’s been popular through websites like Kickstarter and Indigogo and those types of more consumer facing ones, but to crowdfund a project idea or to crowd crowdfund a concept is definitely not new it’s. Um, it’s getting people to support your idea and be able to take that idea and launch it when you don’t have the initial funds yourself. So that’s kind of the original premise of crowdfund. And it’s been around for probably hundreds or thousands of years, this type of concept of getting a lot of people to, um, pitch in a little bit to support your product launch idea.

Vance (02:55):
So when it comes to, uh, you know, fast forward to modern day in the past couple years, people have been using this to launch product ideas for a few main reasons. And I think one of the biggest reasons is, uh, well, I, I think there’s two categories, the main reasons, and the first one is financial. So if you don’t have the funds that you need to be able to launch your project or, um, you don’t want to be, uh, extremely risky with your launch by investing in a lot of things like inventory first, where, which, which is necessary for launches on, say for example, Amazon and Shopify, then going through the process of crowdfunding allows you to actually put out the campaign for the project that you wanna launch and not have to order the inventory and event. So this is really, uh, it allows you to essentially get pre-orders for your, your product and, and show that the people in the market want your product before you actually go about and put in tens of thousands, maybe even hundred thousand dollars on your first inventory order. So that is, um, that’s really, for a lot of people that we work with. That’s one of the reasons why they want to pursue crowdfunding is just the financial, uh, the financial aspect of not having to risk inventory, risk your money on inventory, but also to get their cash and the pre-orders in advance.

Rich (04:02):
And it also sounds like credibility too. It’s like if you, if you show that there’s a lot of interest that can help you with, with getting backers or getting interest from retailers or things of that nature.

Vance (04:13):
Definitely. Yeah. So your, your way ahead. So really the idea here also on top of the financial aspect is if you have a successful crowdfunding campaign, then you, you essentially build a lot of public credibility. So, I mean, for, for people that launch products on Amazon, for example, um, even if they have like a best seller or like top ranking product, they rarely have credibility outside of Amazon. So they’re, they might have a solid product, maybe a couple hundred, maybe vast reviews, but people don’t feel like they’re, they’re looking at a credible business anywhere outside, but with launching a product, a campaign on a website like Kickstarter, you, you essentially develop a lot of credibility with, uh, that’s that’s public. So your campaign is gonna be showing that, Hey, these guys raise 50, maybe $200,000, whatever it might be publicly. So when people search your name, uh, really actually the other cool thing about Kickstarter is, um, you, they, they have like, they have really amazing SDO.

Vance (05:07):
So when you search your, your name or your, your product, uh, on, on, on Google, um, usually if you’ve had a successful campaign, you show up with the top five of Kickstarter, like top five of Google, just to have your product page, um, just, just your, your Kickstarter campaign page show up on, on the top of Google. So when people are researching you exactly, like you said, it’s, it shows credibility, it shows that, um, you know, other people also think that you’re a good, that you have a good product or a good brand. So that’s really awesome. Um, that’s really awesome benefit of, um, being able to have a successful campaign.

Rich (05:38):
Yeah, absolutely. And, and just, you know, uh, touching on the SEL thing that you mentioned there, I’m curious, um, this is a little bit aside, but, um, you know, when you, when you create your campaign on, on, um, uh, on, um, let’s say Kickstarter and like you have links to your website, right? The, does the Kickstarter carry some, uh, link authority that like is beneficial to you to your own SEO when you, uh, um, you, when they prominently feature you,

Vance (06:08):
That’s a really good question and I’m gonna be a hundred percent honest. I don’t know the answer to that question, but it’s interesting,

Rich (06:14):
Right? It’s just like, you know, mentioning the SEO and how good they are at getting to the top of, of search, um, you know, search ranking for the actual Kickstarter pages. And I’m just curious if it carries authority, may you know, maybe a question for another day, but, uh, yeah. Um, but I’m curious if you get that benefit too. Yeah.

Vance (06:33):
Um, but that’d be awesome actually. And on top of that, I mean, not only just Kickstarter, but if you have a successful campaign in a niche that people are really excited about, you often, uh, like with my projects, we have a lot of blogs or publications that just pick up the story and say, Hey, look at these guys. Um, you know, my recent project was in the coffee niche, look at these guys that launched a school coffee product, uh, write an article about it. So you begin to getting really like lots of credibility across multiple platforms and, uh, different types of publications and things like that as well. So that’s on top of the, the Kickstarter SEO.

Rich (07:03):
So it’s almost like a bit, a bit like it’s almost a bit like a press release where you put it on their platform, and then there are other people that are watching that platform and pick up the, pick up the story essentially of the, the product that you’re launching.

Vance (07:15):
Exactly. Yeah. And you’ll find lots of different types of sites will feature it, but you’ll generally find that people are like in, in a niche category, that’s interested in say like coffee, for example, um, those guys will want to feature it their side and talk about that product. And that gives you credibility within that, that niche that you’re launching in. So that’s, that’s actually a really cool benefit as well.

Rich (07:35):
And, um, um, so then, okay, so then we’ve got the financial, um, reasons in terms of, uh, people needing additional capital to, to help kinda, um, do the launch itself or to grow their business. Um, we’ve also got the, the credibility, um, that, that comes with it. Um, and, and there’s also the validation that you mentioned kind of like before making those orders, getting to see that people are interested in what you’re doing. So kind of, what else, what other reasons are there that people, um, do a Kickstarter or do a crowdfunding campaign?

Vance (08:10):
So validation is huge. So I think you touched on this, which is really important. Well, it’s kind of tied with the financial aspect if you think about it. So instead of actually putting out, you know, whatever it is for your first initial production run, um, you wanna get validation that, to show that people want this first. So, um, not only do you get validation in terms of saying, okay, well, people are actually want this, cuz they’re putting money down for it. You might actually in this process, get feedback for the product as well. So people might be giving you, uh, you know, Hey, we really like this part of the product. Um, we really don’t like this, or maybe this isn’t as important to us, um, when it comes to the product itself, or maybe you get feedback on a marketing or like the way that you put up, like, uh, you’ve presented certain aspects of the actual product that’s, uh, that you think is really significant.

Vance (08:50):
And maybe you get feedback that, Hey, maybe that’s not the most Fe most important feature. So that eventually when you go to actually like roll this out after Kickstarter, uh, and I should mention here that some people get a little bit confused with Kickstarter. They think that this is like, this is like an equivalent to an Amazon or it’s like, you know, Kickstarter or Amazon type of thing. And that’s definitely not the case because Kickstarter is more just a launch platform. So you use this to launch and then after you launch, you can move this to Amazon. You can move this to Shopify. You might be able to, like you mentioned earlier again into like retail or different types of channels as well. But the, the idea here is that you’re gonna be doing something else after Kickstarter. So, uh, getting feedback like, you know, people saying, Hey, you know, I really like these photos or I really like this, this tagline, or I really didn’t like this or this wasn’t really clear is you’re gonna be super helpful for you when you transition into starting to market this in different types of, um, well,

Rich (09:38):
Why don’t you make one in blue? You know, like, Hey, that’s, that’s cool, but why don’t you make one in blue? You

Vance (09:43):
Know. Exactly, exactly. Yeah. So where’s the blue or where’s the black one or, you know, where’s the slightly larger version of, of it. I’d love to see that type of thing. And that would be

Rich (09:52):
A dazzle version, you know,

Vance (09:54):
<laugh> exactly. Yeah.

Rich (09:57):
Um, you know, something that I’ve seen people do that don’t necessarily need the, um, the money for the launch. They, they have plans to launch it through other channels, but they use Kickstarter as part of their marketing, I guess, as a way to get exposure for the other things that they’re doing. So I say more about that approach, like when people just really use it for, for marketing purposes.

Vance (10:19):
Yeah. That, that’s a really good point. So there’s a lot of people that go through this approach, uh, even when they don’t need the money. And, uh, like you said, they’re doing this to be able to kind of get in front of the right audience to, to start building credibility. And we talked to it, few of those things earlier, which is to be able to get, uh, publicity and exposure on the platform itself, but also getting PR and uh, people picking it up and saying, Hey, this is a really cool product in, you know, the dog niche or, um, you know, the, the plant planted outdoor niche or whatever it might be. So you start building a credibility that way. But the other thing that’s kind of associated with, um, with getting, um, getting credibility is to start building a community. And this is something that’s really not kind.

Vance (10:55):
It’s not really like a, a focus for a lot of eCommerce sellers and Amazon sellers, or even people on Shopify. Uh, the idea is to be able to use this, uh, launch as a way to build an audience that really, really are fans about, or your category or your product, and to be able to have something like that really allows you to do well with your brand later on past the launch. So it’s not only just about the launch, but if you build an audience of people that are extremely excited about what you do and support your product and feel like they got into supporting you at the ground level, then that’s, you know, that’s gonna, that’s gonna yield a lot of dividends when you launch the next product and the next product or the next accessory, or, you know, version two of the same product, whatever it might be.

Vance (11:33):
There’s a lot of cool stuff that can happen when you start building an audience of people that really care about, uh, about what you’re doing as a brand, rather than just somebody who transactionally brought your pro product off of Amazon. And now, um, they don’t even know who you are. They just got the product and maybe, maybe an Xbox or something like that, but that’s, that’s really where it ends. But when you build a community, that’s where you start being able to, to create some momentum with your brand. And that’s what we’re really looking for nowadays, especially with, um, lots of competition. And really the idea is how can we build some momentum for our business and our brand? And this is like you said, one of the best ways to do that is to be able to start building that credibility building, uh, building people that building an audience for people that actually really care about what you do. And, um, yeah, I think that’s, um, that’s also another reason why people, um, really like crowd funding.

Rich (12:17):
Absolutely. And, and so there’s, it’s like, um, it’s, it’s one thing to, to build an audience and building an audience is, is great, but actually building a group of people that are like rooting for you, like they’re like they wanna see you succeed. Um, is, you know, that, that, um, that’s an intangible value that could be just tremendous for, for, for your product for your brand is having a bunch of people that are kinda like you say, have that feeling. I get, I get in on this other than early stage and they’re really rooting for your success. Um, so I think, uh, you know, that’s a awesome thing that’s, that’s possible there. Um, you know, I wanna ask you about

Vance (12:59):
Something else and like you said, it’s an intangible, that’s, that’s a really big deal.

Rich (13:02):
Yeah, exactly. It, it, it really is. It really is. Um, and, um, I wanna ask about something else I wanna ask you about like product piracy and such on, on Kickstarter. So, I mean, a lot of times there are people that troll Kickstarter looking for good ideas to then knock off. I mean, I’m curious, and look as an IP attorney, I don’t wanna like ample fan the flames of like fear and like, say like, well, you’ve gotta protect yourself, but I, I’m just curious to some of your experience with, with that and, and what you’ve seen.

Vance (13:37):
Yeah. So, I mean, we’ve definitely seen examples of really, really, really big projects that have been pirated and like successful projects that have been pirated. Um, I mean, we’re talking about like projects that have raised like 5 million type of thing. Um, but I mean, the, the risk of having this happen on Kickstarter is generally not necessarily very different than the risk of just putting this out and launching a successful product on, on Amazon, or just on Shopify. The idea is if it’s, you’re putting something out there and it’s, it’s producing results, somebody out there is that who’s opportunistic might be able to find that. And I, I think it’s not, um, you know, this is, this is not necessarily a kickstart issue. It’s more of like, how are you gonna protect yourself otherwise? And I think you might know a little bit more about this, um, that you’ve probably shared with your, uh, your audience before, but in, in general, um, it’s, this is not a kickstart issue. This is like, how can you protect yourself in general? Um, when you’re releasing a product or when you’re, you know, what is it that you wanna do to make sure that you’re protected when you’re putting something out there in, in, in the open?

Rich (14:34):
Yeah, absolutely. And you know what, let me just take a two minute diversion over to that topic. Just a little public service here about that. So, and first of all, again, like as an IP attorney, you’d expect me to say like, well, you’ve gotta protect yourself and you know, you’d be a fool not to, but I recognize that every entrepreneur has limited resources and it’s a matter of spending your money appropriately on the things that you need to, like, if you spend lots of money on a patent, you might not have the money to launch your product. Uh, and so there’s a balance there and like it’s a risk reward type, um, consideration. Um, so couple of principles here, first of all, it’s like, if you put a product out there, um, let’s say on Kickstarter or out there in public, you are not protected.

Rich (15:19):
And as a matter of fact, if a year goes by from the time you’ve publicly disclosed it, but from the time that you actually showed it in public, it’s too late to ever patented, it’s too late to ever apply for a patent. So that’s something that I think everyone should know, because if, um, you know, just too many people come to me two years into the process and say, I’ve got this product, it’s doing fantastic. We’ve gotta protect it. It’s like, well, when did you first make it public? You know, in, in 2019, well, it’s too late. There’s nothing we can do. Um, so have that in mind is really the ideal time to apply for a patent is before you make it public at all, uh, you know, and though way against that, the fact that not everyone’s got the money to, to spend on protection.

Rich (16:08):
Um, and so you just might need to risk it and, and, and get it out there. Uh, and just, you just recognize that that’s what you’re giving up is that you might not, um, you, you might not end up being able to protect it. Um, but there’s another principle that factors heavily into this. And I, I just love to encourage entrepreneurs to not be scarce about their ideas. See one of the reasons why people often get so afraid and, and hire me to do a patent is because they’re thinking I’ve got this idea. And if something happened to this idea, if, if something went wrong and someone ripped it off, I don’t know if I’ll ever have an idea. That’s good again. And that’s scarcity. That’s a feeling like, wow, there’s, you know, ideas are scarce. There’s, there’s not enough, you know, chances are, if you have a good idea, you’ll have another good idea. And then another good idea. So if you’re not, if you don’t have a mindset of like, this is my only good idea I’ll ever have, then you might not, um, you might be more willing to accept the risk involved in putting something out there and seeing what happens. So that’s kind of, um, my little, uh, couple minute diversion into, uh, IP and, and putting it out there, protecting it or not protecting it. Um, but

Vance (17:22):
Yes, that’s really well said really well said. Thank you. And I think at the end of the day, too, I mean, once you put out the <inaudible> campaign, like you said, there’s, there’s still time after public disclosure where you can still, uh, if, if it performs well and it’s, it’s, it’s doing okay, they’d be like, okay, well now we have a little bit of funding that came from the pre-orders let’s invest in this, um, this patent or whatever it might be to, to, to, to go forward with making sure that it’s protected.

Rich (17:44):
Exactly. And a lot of people do intend that I’ve, I’ve hear from all I’ve, I’ve heard from a lot of people, well, we’re gonna do a crowd funding. And after that, we’re going to, we’re gonna use that money to pay for the patent. And that exactly, you know, that is it’s possible. There’s the risk again, that someone could beat you out ahead and remember, um, you, um, it’s a first to file situation. First person to file a patent application is the one that’s entitled to it. So, um, you, you are risking that. And then also just in terms of doing the patent later in the us, there is that one year rule, but in much of the world, it’s called absolute novelty, which means if it’s been public it’s too late, there is no one year grace period. Us still has a one year grace period. Um, and there’s also the first to file situation going on. Um, you, you just proving that you ha that you invented it first is not gonna help, um, the idea of mailing it to yourself. Uh, like it’s not gonna help. None of that will, but you know, everything in business is a calculated risk, so understand what the risk is and, and you decide what what’s appropriate for you, what risk you’re willing to take, um, and what makes the most sense. Um,

Vance (18:57):
Exactly. And so I, I should note here that there’s a, there’s a really what we like to do as a part of our strategy. If there’s something that’s patentable about our products, and we recommend this to people that we work with as well is to, if you can afford it to go through with a patent. And, um, and even if it’s a design patent, those are much cheaper than utility patents, um, as I’m sure, you know, and, uh, this is actually really, really cool as a marketing marketing angle to say that we have a patent pending product. Yes. So this actually becomes extremely marketable to, to, to, to point out that there’s something unique about this that makes people more excited to wanna support it and, and invest in it. And, um, and, and pre-order, so, um, yeah, that’s a really cool, um, you know, aside

Rich (19:38):
Absolutely having a, having it as patent pending is a great thing to have, and you know, what, and in, in a Kickstarter, a listing, um, you, you go through the whole story of the product and like is part of how, uh, I mean, you’re the expert on this, but just my impression is like, you really build like the human story and the, the interest and the founders and how the idea came about. And part of that, um, could be, and adds credibility to the fact that you’ve gone and taken steps to protected and that it’s patent pending, uh, or something of that nature. So, yeah, definitely definitely is helpful. Um, Hey, Amy, you wanna just take a few minutes and maybe just go through kind of like the steps of how someone would jump into a crowdfunding situation.

Vance (20:24):
Cool. Yeah, we can, we can definitely do like the, the few minute overview <laugh> yeah. This is probably like a much longer conversation.

Rich (20:30):
Right. And then, and then I want to ask you about the program that you’re launching.

Vance (20:34):
Sure. Yeah, let’s do that. So in general, the, um, glad are the days where you could just put up something on Kickstarter and it just somehow funds because of, uh, just not a lot of people is, are using the platform. So maybe like 10 years ago, like 12 years ago, Kickstarter was just becoming popular. People loved it. And there weren’t that many projects. So when you put up a project, even if it’s like, okay, or acceptable, like there’s chances that it’ll just kind of pick up and, and just be successful and go viral, just because, so back then, people sometimes just some, sometimes it’s put up projects on Kickstarter and they ended up doing well. So in 2022, um, that doesn’t really happen anymore. So, um, preparation is extremely important. So, uh, I’ll break this down account as a high level, but in general, there’s the, we, there’s a prelaunch phase, um, during launch and then postlaunch.

Vance (21:21):
So prelaunch is just everything that it takes to get ready for the campaign. So, um, most people are really concerned about things like the photo and video assets and the coffee. Those things are of course really important because at the end of the day, that’s what gets shown on the actual campaign page. Those are also happened to the assets that you’re gonna be putting up on, for example, your Amazon product listing page, or your Shopify store, wherever you’re gonna be selling it. So, um, as a side note, um, preparing for a Kickstarter campaign is not any extra work or extra investment than, um, launching on Amazon or launching on Shopify. It’s actually, you’re doing everything that you’d be doing to launch on those platforms, but you’re just doing it with less risk without the inventory rest. So this is like a huge advantage. So, um, your, your, your creative assets and everything that goes into the actual campaign page, that’s what most people think about when it comes to preparation.

Vance (22:06):
And we need to make sure we have those, but outside of that, what’s really important nowadays, um, which is something that a lot of people overlook or they don’t really consider is using the prelaunch as an opportunity to build up your community and your audience. So that’s gonna be extremely important because at the end of the day, who who’s gonna be purchasing on day one, uh, what we recommend is that you really wanna hit your campaign goal within the first 24 to, um, 48 hours in general. And that’s what allows you to start getting some momentum within the Kickstarter algorithm. So you can start ranking organically. So you can start getting more sales, um, from, from people that are in the click kickstart platform, or having Kickstarter feature you through emails and that type of thing, which is gonna get you a lot of traction. Uh, so really that’s, that’s only gonna happen if you start building your audience in advance and building your community in advance. So that’s extremely important for us to prepare not only the campaign, which is the most obvious part that we need to make sure we prepare for, but to build up that community and build up that audience. So that once day, day one comes and we’re ready to launch, we have people that are ready to purchase. So, yeah. Um, that’s, that’s pre pre-launch and pre

Rich (23:10):
Yeah. And that’s, I guess the most important way to get in terms of getting started is to build the pre-launch, um, because you want, um, you want to have a lot of attention. You wanna have not just friends and family, but all of the other strangers that you’ve been able to, um, um, get interested in your project to show up there on that first day or two, cuz that’s what helps the, um, helps create additional visibility to bigger audiences, right? So like what the, the performance you have in the first day or two is what gets you like to be, be, uh, like the top lead promoted, I’m saying it wrong, but the, the ones that are actually promoted by, by, uh, by Kickstarter and the ones that kind of, you know, go viral let’s say is, um, is all the ones that have that performance. So you just, you want to stack that ahead of time in, in the pre-launch

Vance (24:05):
Exactly. So preparing for that is extremely important and we wanna make sure that that’s, um, we we’re at the point where we’re comfortable with the community size and the community engagement and all that stuff that’s happening before the launch, before we actually launch, because, um, if we are not there yet, then we launch, um, we Don know we don’t, we don’t get a second chance at launching again. So, um, that’s, that’s really important.

Rich (24:25):
Yeah, absolutely. And then, and then just going along with that is like, there’s like other things that people do that run successful Kickstarters in terms of running ads, like running ads to drive traffic to the Kickstarter. And that’s something that’s not only important, but it’s also, uh, it requires some, a good amount of knowledge and skill to know how to do that well, which is where, um, you know, something like the program you’re creating comes in. Right. You’re so you’re creating a program to really help people understand how to effectively run a, a Kickstarter. Do you wanna tell us a bit about that?

Vance (25:01):
Sure. Yeah. So the, this, uh, program we’re, uh, we’re launching and it’s actually, um, it’s, it’s going through its iteration and, um, by, by the time you’re listening to this, it’s gonna be, um, it’s gonna be top notch and is good to go. Um, but the, the, the program is called the launch accelerated blueprint. So lab for short, and, uh, this, this is essentially the system that we’ve developed, launching our own projects. So we’ve launched a lot of, um, really successful projects for our own brands. Um, like you mentioned earlier in my intro, thank you for that. Um, really, really awesome intro. Um, but also we’ve worked with, uh, with a lot of other campaigns and projects, um, throughout our years of, um, of, of with crowdfunding as well. So we’ve kind of taken all this, we’ve condensed the process and this and the system, which we call lab to, to take anyone from product concept all the way to, uh, launching and launching is not where it ends.

Vance (25:47):
Um, this, this is important that once we launch, we’re able to capitalize on building the brand, building that community so that we can move on to other platforms and have a successful, uh, business and product so that it has longevity. So really the, the, the concept of this is that it takes you from, uh, idea, concept all the way to launch and then preparing your brand so that you can be successful in, in long run. So that’s the, that’s the lab program. And, um, and really, um, what we’re looking to do is we’re looking to work with either people that are, uh, new. So if you’re new, this is awesome because if you’re new, you might be limited on funds, or you want to look at low risk way to launch your, uh, to launch your next product. This is perfect. Um, if you’re experiencing, you’ve launched lots of products already, Rich, you mentioned this earlier, um, people that are already successful that don’t necessarily need crowd funding as a way to get funding, but this is an opportunity for them to scale the brands, build an audience and even, um, validate some, maybe more interesting projects that they wanna launch that isn’t, um, isn’t like going straight immediately to, for example, like Amazon.

Vance (26:43):
Um, this is an awesome opportunity for, um, for advanced sellers too. And, but, uh, for everyone, um, crowdfunding is amazing for cash flow and getting the pre-orders. So this is generally just, um, generally like a superior strategy in terms of launching and then moving on to whatever platform is your choice based on your experience. So, um, that’s what the lab program is about.

Rich (27:00):
Oh, cool. And, and how do people find out about that?

Vance (27:04):
Um, yeah, I can definitely check out our website. Um, it’s live my playground. So L I V E um, my Y playground is in the playground from outside, uh, dot com slash um, innovations. And, uh, if you check it out using Rich’s link, then we’re gonna be able to, to hook you up with a bit of a, a scholarship as well for, um, for the program.

Rich (27:24):
Yeah. I, I appreciate that very much. And I, I love tracking links because, uh, you know, like I get to see, um, you know, we get to have a conversation where you say, oh, you know what, a couple of my listeners and now like, um, in my program. And that’s awesome. I, I, I love to see that. So it’s, um, oh, live my playground.com/innovation. Did I get that right?

Vance (27:47):
Got it.

Rich (27:49):
Okay. Awesome. And in general, if people wanna learn more about you or get in touch with you, how do they go about doing so,

Vance (27:55):
Um, the best is actually through the website, live my playground.com and, um, yeah, get in touch with us there. We have a lot of free resources as well. So if you’re just, um, if you’re curious about the idea, feel free to check out the website and you can opt into some free resources that we send you some videos and checklists and stuff for you to, to get going on, how to, uh, how to think about pre-orders and how to, how to consider like a different month strategy. Cuz I know right now Amazon’s really hot. Um, people are talking about drop shipping and things like that, but that’s really hot, but not a lot of people are talking about crowdfund. So, um, we, we have a lot of resources to kind of get, you started about thinking about what that could look like if you were to explore pre-launch, um, pre-orders as a way to, um, as an alternative kind of like interesting strategy to, to get started on e-commerce versus just scale your e-commerce store, depending on where you’re you’re at.

Rich (28:40):
I love it. Well, I appreciate you coming here and to talk about crowdfunding and how to use it potentially to, to scale your e-commerce, uh, and as an alternate path. And, um, yeah, so I really appreciate you taking the time to, um, to be on the show. Um, and um, I hope that everyone checks out the program, uh, live my playground.com/innovations. Okay.

Vance (29:06):
Thank you. Thanks Rich. Bye. Thanks for having me.

Outro (29:14):
Thanks for listening to innovations and breakthroughs with your host, Rich Goldstein. Be sure to click, subscribe, check us out on the web at innovationsandbreakthroughs.com and we’ll see you next time.