Will McGuire joins the podcast to share the story of how he fell in love with investment crowdfunding why he founded INCOLO. INCOLO is a traction studio designed to help founders build investible companies and develop revenue channels that power growth for the startup. Will shares how the program is laid out and their approach to helping entrepreneurs. He also shares some of the common mistakes that founders make when trying to grow and how investment crowdfunding has impacted his founders' long-term success.
1:34 - Why Will started INCOLO (formerly Crowdfund NC)
2:27 - How the INCLO program works
“It’s not just about investment… It’s about what the business is doing to grow it’s revenue, grow a really good team and grow partner channels"
3:09 - Investment crowdfunding a sales arm, marketing arm, or supply chain channel
Case study: BatteryXchange
5:06 - How Will knows a company is ready to accelerate growth
6:37 - Finding a community that resonates with your product is a must - do that before raising money
7:20 - How founders get started with the programs:
Runway, Launch, & Growth
8:54 - How local entrepreneurs helped build the INCOLO programs
10:40 - An alternative to the “Fundraise or bust” mentality
11:06 -The mistakes Will sees founders make going into the program
11:45 - Taking the vision of a founder and narrowing that down to what they need to do today.
12:04 - "Focus on your invest-ability… with an eye on exit-ablility "
14:33 - Is the lack of Investment crowdfunding raises in the SE an investor problem or a founder problem?
15:37 - Why Will started investing through Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF)
16:53 - The original idea of Vicinity
17:40 - Where the majority of investment comes from in crowdfunding campaigns