6 ms·

Crowdtilt Raises a $23M Series B Led by A16Z

76 points by ajaymehta 13y ago

klochner 13y ago
This is the original Groupon business model, interesting that it ended up being successful. It started as ThePoint.com, a site launched in November 2007 that lets you start a campaign asking people to give money or do something as a group--but only once a "tipping point" of people agree to participate. Founder Andrew Mason and his investors soon realized The Point was headed toward failure, and fast. The founders worked on it a year and they went through about $1 million but got no traction. Its business model was not working.
- jonathanjaeger 13y ago
  A lot of it has to do with time and place along with execution. Crowdfunding is much more a household term with the likes of Kickstarter and other popular sites. Not to mention the ease of payments and spread of mobile apps has helped these sites too.
- toddmorey 13y ago
  That is interesting, though I'd guess that most of the investor interest is in "Crowdtilt Extended", which are their branded campaign pages and API. That is, being a Twillio of the crowd funding industry may be what's attracting the money.
- pbreit 13y ago
  First, a comparison to Groupon is inappropriate since the markets served are significantly different (CrowdTilt is more like Kickstarter). Second, that a concept supposedly failed (not clear that the concept was ThePoint's main problem) does not weigh heavily on if the concept works with a different team in a different way, etc.
  - antidaily 13y ago
    Not really. I just used IndieGoGo to help a brick and mortar expand.
  - klochner 13y ago
    ThePoint was like kickstarter. I wasn't trying to slander crowdtilt, just found it interesting.
rjvir 13y ago
A16Z is on fire this week. Led rounds of $25mil in Coinbase, $75mil in Oculus, and now $23mil in Crowdtilt.
- bitsweet 13y ago
  must have been a fun capital call to make
ajju 13y ago
Congrats James, Khaled, Ajay and team!
nwenzel 13y ago
Congrats guys! Looks like pg needs to update his tweet: https://twitter.com/paulg/status/411213292330164224 https://twitter.com/paulg/status/411213292330164224
- zbruhnke 13y ago
  Pretty sure they were already included in that list, they raised a $12 series A like 9 months ago
jareau 13y ago
Congrats to the the Crowdtilt team!
dnautics 13y ago
congrats!
geolisto 13y ago
Congrats, Crowdtilt!
angryasian 13y ago
Execution matters and when you're the official crowdfunding platform for reddit , I'm sure that helps. http://blog.reddit.com/2012/08/new-fundraising-options-designed-just.html http://blog.reddit.com/2012/08/new-fundraising-options-desig...
Jarred 13y ago
Congrats Crowdtilt!
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
christiangenco 13y ago
Congratulations James! I keep kicking myself for not helping revamp your PHP code base to become employee #3 four years ago. I do hope you blog about the failure of your micro loan venture one day - it's incredibly inspiring how you ended up turning it around (especially in the light of your current success).

76 points by ajaymehta 13y ago

This is the original Groupon business model, interesting that it ended up being successful. It started as ThePoint.com, a site launched in November 2007 that lets you start a campaign asking people to give money or do something as a group--but only once a "tipping point" of people agree to participate. Founder Andrew Mason and his investors soon realized The Point was headed toward failure, and fast. The founders worked on it a year and they went through about $1 million but got no traction. Its business model was not working.

jonathanjaeger 13y ago
A lot of it has to do with time and place along with execution. Crowdfunding is much more a household term with the likes of Kickstarter and other popular sites. Not to mention the ease of payments and spread of mobile apps has helped these sites too.
toddmorey 13y ago
That is interesting, though I'd guess that most of the investor interest is in "Crowdtilt Extended", which are their branded campaign pages and API. That is, being a Twillio of the crowd funding industry may be what's attracting the money.
pbreit 13y ago
First, a comparison to Groupon is inappropriate since the markets served are significantly different (CrowdTilt is more like Kickstarter). Second, that a concept supposedly failed (not clear that the concept was ThePoint's main problem) does not weigh heavily on if the concept works with a different team in a different way, etc.
- antidaily 13y ago
  Not really. I just used IndieGoGo to help a brick and mortar expand.
- klochner 13y ago
  ThePoint was like kickstarter. I wasn't trying to slander crowdtilt, just found it interesting.

rjvir 13y ago

A16Z is on fire this week. Led rounds of $25mil in Coinbase, $75mil in Oculus, and now $23mil in Crowdtilt.

bitsweet 13y ago
must have been a fun capital call to make

ajju 13y ago

Congrats James, Khaled, Ajay and team!

nwenzel 13y ago

Congrats guys! Looks like pg needs to update his tweet: https://twitter.com/paulg/status/411213292330164224 https://twitter.com/paulg/status/411213292330164224

zbruhnke 13y ago
Pretty sure they were already included in that list, they raised a $12 series A like 9 months ago

jareau 13y ago

Congrats to the the Crowdtilt team!

dnautics 13y ago

congrats!

geolisto 13y ago

Congrats, Crowdtilt!

angryasian 13y ago

Execution matters and when you're the official crowdfunding platform for reddit , I'm sure that helps. http://blog.reddit.com/2012/08/new-fundraising-options-designed-just.html http://blog.reddit.com/2012/08/new-fundraising-options-desig...

Jarred 13y ago

Congrats Crowdtilt!

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

christiangenco 13y ago

Congratulations James! I keep kicking myself for not helping revamp your PHP code base to become employee #3 four years ago. I do hope you blog about the failure of your micro loan venture one day - it's incredibly inspiring how you ended up turning it around (especially in the light of your current success).