A Blooming Revolution! Bloom VC (Venture Catalyst) provides alternative access to funding for startups, businesses, community projects and social enterprises. Bloom is the first crowdfunding platform of its kind in the UK, enabling anyone with an idea, anywhere in the world, to reach out and receive donations from across the globe, using their social networks. The platform was designed and created not only to offer fledgling entrepreneurs with a business idea the opportunity to secure start-up funds but to provide the necessary ongoing support to ensure the idea becomes a success. The brainchild of entrepreneur Amanda Boyle, portfolio entrepreneur, Bloom was born in 2011 after Boyle realised that securing funding to start or grow a business was becoming increasingly difficult for the seasoned entrepreneur, and that for a young person or someone starting a business for the first time, it must be well nigh impossible. She believed that startups and young entrepreneurs were being let down by the system, unable to start, or indeed grow, a business due to lack of available funding on fair and reasonable terms.
world, and decided to bring the model to the UK.
Boyle became passionate about finding a way to solve the problem, not just for business but for social enterprises as well. She discovered the American crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, now the most successful in the
Created to offer fledgling entrepreneurs with a business idea the opportunity to secure start-up funds, Bloom also provides ongoing support to ensure the idea becomes a success.
“There is enormous competition for funding from banks and private equity for early stage startup companies and for budding entrepreneurs to initially seed their business concepts,” says Boyle. “There is an urgent need to provide a new source of funding to meet this demand. “Individuals and early stage startups have always sought support from family and friends. The explosion of social media has simply extended their reach.”
What makes Bloom unique on a global scale is that it offers the same opportunity to community projects, third sector organisations and social enterprises. The Bloom reward model enables individuals or startups to create an online elevator pitch for their idea, detailing what it is, why it’s important, how much money is needed and for what. Using video and images to create a compelling story and offering exciting and attractive treats in return for donations, the pitch is uploaded onto the crowdfunding platform, where the project owners share it with their social networks both online, using Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, and offline among friends, family, neighbours and colleagues. But it’s all or nothing; if project
owners don’t reach their target by the deadline (30,45 or 60 days) they don’t get a penny, and the donors don’t pay. It’s important to note that in the reward model, there is no investment and it isn’t a loan project owners retain 100 per cent of their business and don’t have to repay any money. While still in the beta (site testing) stage, Bloom successfully funded a movie project – Wake Up Call – and since coming out of beta in early April has funded more. In addition to the projects live on the platform – games, film, Internet TV, jewellery - there are more than 50 new projects in the pipeline, ranging from technology to games, apps, cosmetics, music and another two movies.
How it Works A great idea needs nurturing. It needs cultivating and supporting, it needs loving care and attention. A great idea needs to flourish. But great ideas often get left wilting in the shade because there’s no money to support the nurturing and growing process, and limited support for growth. Crowdfunding allows great ideas to bloom. It’s an inclusive way for anyone with an idea to reach out for financial support without having to give up equity or control of his or her business. It’s not a loan, so it doesn’t need to be paid back, and it’s not an investment so you’re not selling shares. You simply describe your idea – which can be for anything, such as a business startup, a product
prototype, a theatre or film production, a social enterprise or fundraising for a local community project - explain how much money you need, what you’ll do with the money, and what you’re offering as a reward for those who promise to help you, then reach out to the crowd and ask. There are three steps but each takes time and effort. You need to spend time planning your project before you launch it, reaching out to your networks before you launch, and then repeat steps two and three, keeping in touch with everyone with regular updates, throughout the duration of your campaign and beyond.