Funding fun things with crowdfunding

Recently, the Boar had the chance to interview Henry Jinman, a Warwick alumni who started a business called Crowdfund Campus.

Boar Features: What is Crowdfund Campus, and how does it differ from normal Crowdfunding websites?
Henry Jinman: So Crowdfund Campus is a crowdfunding platform for university communities. Crowdfunding is when a large group of people give small amounts of money to a cause or a creative project or a business, and we do it within universities. We started off within Warwick and we have helped students, staff and alumni. When I say help, we take them through the whole process, through a course of about 15 days, which gets their campaign set up, gives them some workshops and training on marketing, social media, community building, how to run their campaign, raise the money and we hopefully give them a connection to their alumni network and to their university community. We have links and connections with stakeholders such as creative skills, alumni, etc. Hopefully we give them the best chance of getting their ideas funded.

 Crowdfunding is when a large group of people give small amounts of money to a cause or a creative project or a business, and we do it within universities.

BF: And this is better than most other crowdfunding sites?
HJ: Yes, so Kickstarter is the biggest one – if you’re on the front page of Kickstarter then great, you’re going to do well. But if you’re not on the front page then it’s as hard as anywhere else to raise money.
BF: What inspired and motivated you to start this business?
HJ: I don’t know, I think there’s a kind of natural predilection to start things like this if you like doing entrepreneurial activities. I just thought it was a good idea which would work here [at Warwick], and I would rather take the risk now of starting a business – than later on when I have other responsibilities. And I got support from the university.
BF: It can’t have been easy. Have you had many major bumps on the road?
HJ: It is difficult. I’ve just taken on a technical co-founder so it’s really nice having a second person in the office now; being on your own is lonely. It has been just me for the last year, but a lot of that time has been working o9ut how to do it, and then we launched in October. Having something to show meant that it was a lot easier to find another person and convince someone else to come on board. Being on your own is the hardest thing. I’m always thinking of the opportunity cost of what I could be earning elsewhere, when I’m making this sacrifice right now. But other things put it in perspective; my first year of university I was diagnosed with cancer, and so when you compare it to that it’s not much of a challenge at all. Or at least it makes the risk worth taking.
BF: What do you hope for the future of the business? Where do you want to go?
HJ: So at the moment we just operate in Warwick, which is home. But I’d like to branch out into other universities, and start to offer equity crowdfunding, when businesses offer shares in return for an investment. That means we can fund much bigger projects – real technical innovations and research that’s coming out of universities. Those are the kind of directions I’d like to take. And one day America! America would be great.
BF: If anyone reading this interview has a project which they want to get funded, how do they go about it?
HJ: Send me an email! That’s the first thing. So, go onto crowdfundcampus.com and send me an email – the information is up on there. I suppose before you get to that stage you need to have something you want to do, something you want to make or create, a business you want to start or an event you want to run. It really could be anything. We’ve got guys trying to send rockets into space, we’ve got girls doing documentaries, some people doing a software business, a food delivery business. Some departments in the university are running a project soon as well. Your gran’s birthday party; you could even crowdfund that if you wanted to.

BF: But would that be very successful? What makes a succesful campaign?

HJ: Firstly a community. So if you’ve got people around you – friends, family – they contribute the first 10-20 percent of any campaign. If they don’t help you, you’re not going anywhere. The main reason people contribute to campaigns is that they want to be part of something, or want to make something happen. If you can instill that feeling and inspire others to help you then that’s what’s going to make you successful.

BF: As a Warwick graduate, you’ve experienced what it’s like to leave the Warwick bubble and go into the world of work. What has that been like?

HJ: I haven’t gone too far – I’m still in Westwood! When you’re left to study here, you’re responsible for your study. You’re not spoon fed or helped through. So it’s kind of sink or swim – which does prepare you for the outside world. I don’t think I longed for grad jobs, and there is the tendency for everyone to go and apply for law and accounting, business, finance (everyone wants to go into finance). Breaking that status quo was probably more of a mental barrier because you’re doing something which no-one else is. But once I’d taken that leap it did feel like less of a big deal.

I think there is a fear of doing something out of the ordinary – I don’t know how you get through that, but some people are more naturally inclined to do something different. But just because everyone else is applying to Morgan Stanley, doesn’t mean that you can’t go off and do something else.

BF: And the university supported you?

HJ: Yes, so I went into the Warwick Ventures Software Incubator. They take all the technology and spin it out, licence it to try and make a bit of money for the university, and they set up this incubator which is for students, staff and alumni with software ideas. They support those ideas, so you can be there from eighteen months to a student; start anything, give three years and get the professional business support you need.

BF: At this time of the year so many students are worried about grad schemes, applications and ultimately, getting a job. From your perspective, what advice would you give them?

Do something else. Break the status quo and go and…do a campaign on Crowdfund Campus, that will give you all the employability skills you need. I think there is a fear of doing something out of the ordinary – I don’t know how you get through that, but some people are more naturally inclined to do something different. But just because everyone else is applying to Morgan Stanley, doesn’t mean that you can’t go off and do something else. If you want to be a CEO, you can learn to be a CEO by being a CEO; you don’t have to climb the greasy corporate ladder.
BF: But nowadays it’s all about experience. And you need experience to get experience…
HJ: But the experience of being a graduate trainee is going to be a lot different to being in middle management, to being at an executive level. So if you surround yourself (which you have the opportunity to do through things like the software incubator) with mentors who are executives who can train you how to run a company, then there’s nothing to say you can’t jump straight to that level, I don’t think.BM:

BF: Your business is founded on the idea that students can have great ideas that can change the world. Do you think that there is an opinion outside of university that students are lazy and drink all the time?

HJ: I don’t think that you could generalise about a whole group like that – that would be obvious. But having had students do work for me as consultants or whatever, there are definitely people who
have that ‘get up and go’. There’s one guy who I mentioned something to in passing and he came back with a full document giving me all the options, and he was great. So it’s certainly not true that you can generalise like that. Students are great! You can do anything when you’re a student; start anything, give everything a try and there’s no risk.

BF: Lastly, do you remember how much a pint of purple is?

HJ: A pint of purple… was it £2.50?

COMPETITION

How many great ideas are first written down on the back of a beer mat? All of them. Yes. All of them. All ideas start in the pub with some mates and a beermat. Only this time, you could actually win some  really great prizes by writing down your idea. Look out for ‘Born from a Beermat’ beermats in the pubs, bars and public areas around campus over the next month and you could win free pizzas, tickets to see Paul Merton, a whole day of business mentoring on one of Europe’s top Accelerators and other great prizes.

All you have to do is write your idea down and submit it at the bar OR post your idea to http://facebook.com/crowdfundcampus with #BornFromABeermat.
This competition is brought to you by Crowdfund Campus, a crowdfunding platform for University of Warwick.
See http://crowdfundcampus.com for more information.
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