We're happy to announce that we successfully raised RM14,495 in our #MakeWokItPermanent crowdfunding campaign. That's 45% more than our initial goal of raising RM10,000.
[thrive_number_counter color=”red” value=”14495″ before=”” after=”” label=”Amount Raised (RM)”]
[thrive_number_counter color=”red” value=”145″ before=”” after=”%” label=”Total Funded”]
[thrive_number_counter color=”red” value=”91″ before=”” after=”” label=”No. of Pitchers”]
We owe it all to you, we can't thank you enough for all your support and for believing in what we have to offer. Thank you, thank you, and THANK YOU!
Our goal was to raise RM10,000 to make Wok It Permanent at Grind 22 and it's now safe to say that we're going to be permanent at Grind 22, Bangsar!
Read the original campaign page here.
[thrive_headline_focus title=”Why Crowdfunding?” orientation=”left”]
The crowdfunding idea came about as we were working towards our first permanent place at Grind 22, Bangsar. As things progressed, we realized that we were RM10,000 short of making it a reality.
For RM10,000, we thought it was a bit too small of a sum to get a loan from the bank plus we didn't want the burden of having to pay interests when we're just starting out.
So, we started to think of alternatives and at the end, we thought crowdfunding would be the best option. Not only do we get to raise the funds we need, we would also get to reward our most loyal followers as well as potential customers.
After the month long campaign ended, here's how we did:-
[thrive_headline_focus title=”Your Pledges – Broken Down” orientation=”left”]
We offered 7 different pledge options with additional rewards as you move up the tier.
We included two options, pledges for individuals and also for corporate sponsors.
Individual Pledges
For individual pledges, the options were from RM5 up to RM 200. We didn't want to limit the amount that people could pledge, as we understand that some might not have the extra cash but still wanted to support. We didn't want to leave them out.
Click Here To View The Rewards
Here's the break down of the different pledge options for individuals:-
[thrive_progress_bar count=”5″ label0=”Pledge: RM 5″ percentage0=”2″ color0=”red” label1=”Pledge: RM 10″ percentage1=”13″ color1=”red” label2=”Pledge: RM 50″ percentage2=”16″ color2=”red” label3=”Pledge: RM 100″ percentage3=”30″ color3=”red” label4=”Pledge: RM 200″ percentage4=”30″ color4=”red”]
It's pretty clear that most of you opted for the higher reward tiers with 60% of the pledges was above RM100.
There was only 1 person who actually pledged RM 5, we can safely say that it was the most satisfying high-five we've ever given. 🙂
Quite honestly, that was the strategy - to get the least amount of people to pledge in order to raise the most amount of money. We structured the rewards in such a way that it just made sense for you to pledge more.
It was simple mathematics, we needed only 50 people to pledge RM200 to reach our initial target of RM10,000. As compared to 200 people to pledge RM50 to get to RM10k.
It's easier to "sell" to 50 people than 200, don't you think?
Corporate Sponsors
Going back to "selling" more to less people, we also figured early on that our life would be so much easier if we could get a big chunk of the funds from a corporate sponsor.
If we could just get one sponsor to pledge RM5,000, we would already be halfway to reaching our goal!
We're happy to announce that we actually did get corporate sponsors who pledged a total of RM5,000.
Breakdown between Individuals and Corporate Pledges
We're super glad that one of the brands that pledged was our favourite juice drink when we were in school - Freshie!
Most of you born in the '80s or early '90, might remember Freshie from back in school. Well, they're trying to rejuvenate the brand and we're happy to be a part of it!
In exchange for their RM5,000 sponsorship (pledge), we will be printing 5,000 of our boxes to incorporate both of our brands.
Not only that, we will also be able to offer you special deals when you purchase both of our products together.
It wasn't a WIN-WIN situation, but rather WIN-WIN-WIN!
For the design of our box, we're currently working with one of the most famous and mysterious doodlers in Malaysia (with over 73.8k followers on Instagram!) - Ann Jfr!
She's doodled on our boxes in numerous occasions and she even did the doodles for our "Shake It" sides.
We can't wait to see what she comes up with for this latest project. 🙂
[thrive_headline_focus title=”#MakeWokItPermanent – Progress” orientation=”left”]
We wasted no time after our campaign and had contacted our suppliers the very next day to get things rolling.
The current progress of our kitchen - ready for the equipment!
After a bit of back and forth, the target date for completion is now tentatively 11th March 2016.
We will however not be fully open until maybe a few days after as we also need to test and have a feel of what we're going to be working with.
Why is it taking so long? This is because of the limited space that we actually have to work with at Grind 22.
We had to customize most of the kitchen equipment to make it as efficient as possible. It has to be, that's the whole idea to begin with - to be able to serve you MORE!
[thrive_headline_focus title=”3 Things You Probably Didn’t Know” orientation=”left”]
1. Campaign platform used- pitchIN!
In case you didn't know, our crowdfunding campaign was hosted on Malaysia's first crowdfunding platform, pitchIN.
The project page on pitchIN (view it here)
You probably might have not noticed this as we designed our own campaign page and hosted it right here on our website (here and here).
Why? We wanted a design that's responsive (would fit all screen sizes including mobile and desktop) as we've found that most of our traffic comes from mobile.
A little peek at our analytics as proof 😉
It just made logical sense to have our campaigns to have a better experience for those on mobile.
Unfortunately, the current design on pitchIN isn't responsive and the timing of campaign was just before their redesign was to launch.
So, we decided to take matters into our own hands. 🙂
They're expected to launch their new design soon, so keep an eye out for that. It's not only going to be a redesign, they're planning to launch equity crowdfunding on their platform soon too.
We're already thinking of doing an equity crowdfunding for our next outlet. What do you think, does the idea of actually owning a part of a Wok It store excite you?
2. First F&B Crowdfunding Campaign Ever!
We would like to believe that we are Malaysia's first F&B crowdfunding campaign, but we don't actually have the data to proof that.
What we can be sure of is that we're the first ever F&B crowdfunding campaign on pitchIN.
First!
Heck, they even had to create a whole new category just for us!
Ok, we might be blowing our own horns a little there. They were planning on adding F&B as a category after their redesign anyway. But hey, let us busk in some glory will ya? We're still first!
3. Most Active Times Of The Campaign
We don't usually jump into something without research and from our studies we've found out that the activity over the life of the campaign is bell shaped ie most active in the beginning and towards the end of the campaign.
It was certainly true for us in our campaign. We raised 10% of our initial goal RM10k goal in the first hour (RM1,000) of our campaign and raised 22% of the total amount raised (RM14,495) in the final two hours of the campaign.
We also decided to extend the campaign a few hours from 5pm to midnight 15 Feb 2016.
It was a Sunday and we figured most people would probably be out during the day and home at night. So we wanted to catch you at your most convenient, when you're home and could actually pay attention to the message we wanted to bring across.
This certainly proved to be the right move as we raised about RM 3,200 in the two hours leading to midnight.
[thrive_headline_focus title=”Thank You!” orientation=”left”]
We really didn't know what to expect when we decided to jump head first into the rather unknown world of crowdfunding but this famous quote by Wayne Gretzky helped us push through.
"You miss 100% of the shots you never take" - Wayne Gretzky
We've learned plenty from this experience and there are certainly many things that we would have done differently if we had the chance. We might even share that in a separate post.
Once again, we can't thank you enough for all the support that you've given us. It is your believe and support that keeps us moving forward everyday - Thank You!
We operate based on feedback, so it's you that has actually built Wok It to what it is today. If you've had your "Wok It Experience" recently, please do share your feedback with us, so we can continue to improve.
Be sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook to find out where we'll be popping up next and get the latest updates on the progress of our new permanent place - only at Grind 22, Bangsar!