Equity Crowdfunding

What is equity crowdfunding?
CrowdfundingU
1. Prepare
2. Plan
3. Pitch
4. Promo
➜ 5. Post

Private Equity Campaign

Step 5: Post

Take a deep breath. Your campaign is over. Hopefully you've had enough pledges to make your minimum goal, or even better have pushed onward to your maximum goal. The work isn't over yet though. After the campaign has finished you need to tie up all the loose strings and there are now legal obligations which your company has to stick to. Here are some tips on what to do after your campaign.

Communication

You've taken their money, they have shares in your company. But that’s not where the relationship should end. PledgeMe offers a shareholders page so you can keep all your shareholders up to date in one place. For more on that check out further down the page.

It’s good practise to keep your shareholders informed about what you’re up to and the progress you’re making on goals. We recommend a monthly update so they feel connected to the business. This is important because now they have an interest in you succeeding and you have an interest in them continuing to support you. 

Also you've got a requirement under law to hold an Annual General Meeting, and release a financial report to shareholders. There are also certain decisions your Shareholders need to vote on. 

Most importantly, communicating to your shareholders allows them to support you further. They’re more than champions now, they're a resource that want to see you succeed. 

Financials/Transparency

You must send annual financial statements to your shareholders. There are now audit requirements which you have adhere to, unless 95 percent of your shareholders vote to not have an audit. 

For more on your financial reporting obligations check out the Business.govt.nz website.

Further capital raising

You can raise up to $2 million dollars through equity crowdfunding a year. If your first offering raises $60,000 so you can hire a new staff member, and once you have them on board for six months you realise you need to buy some more equipment, you can do another equity campaign.

It is important to go back out to your current shareholders and crowd again to let them know you’re going to do this, especially if you're going to dilute their shareholding.

Think about your Cap table

Keep your capitalisation table handy. You can plug in future fundraising at different times and different valuations to see the dilution effect on each shareholder.

Remember: things generally take longer and cost more than you expect, so don’t cut it too fine. Plan for the time and cost of raising future money as well as where you expect it to come from. There are also other places you can go to raise capital. You may want to look up your local Angel Investors clubor look for some venture capital (and matching).

Postscript

Now you are ready to run your very own equity crowdfunding campaign. Huzzah! We’ve covered all the basics of what you need to do to run a campaign. We can provide more specific advice about the PledgeMe platform if you need it.

The PledgeMe team is easy to contact.

You can fire through questions and emails to the team at equity@pledgeme.co.nz .
Or call us on 027 PLEDGE 1 . We’re super excited about helping you go out to your crowd.
We think equity crowdfunidng is the future for people raising investment from people. 

We look forward to working with you,

— The PledgeMe Team

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Successful Equity Crowdfunding Alumni

See more from the PledgeMe Alumni here →