Crowdfunding success 'No More Filing' offer top-drawer Tips

by Startacus Admin
Few things cause the modern startup founder to sit up like an excited meerkat faster than the sentence “successful crowdfunding campaign”...it’s like the elusive holy grail of
the enterprise world. If you are planning to create a crowdfunding campaign, we have a free crowdfunding support package to help you reach your goal!
Crowdfunding has become a key component of business models the world over, as enterprising folks set about wowing as broad an audience as possible with their ‘groundbreaking’ business ideas.
It has opened up a whole new world of funding opportunities and given founders a lot more choice about how and when they secure investment for their business but, as with anything, with great opportunity, comes equally great challenges.
Crowdfunding investment for your startup might sound like the answer to your woes, but actually reaching your target remains an incredibly tricky thing to achieve. It can be a great help to hear the first hand experiences, tips, and advice of those who have challenged the crowdfunding monster and come out the other side with a smile on their face…people like ‘No More Filing’ .
‘No More Filing’ is a groundbreaking app that manages all your utilities, insurance, mortgage, warranties and other paperwork, electronically in one place. We caught up with Dan Jacobs to pick some entrepreneurial brains about their app and the process of running a successful crowdfunding campaign.
Who are the team behind ‘No More Filing’ and what are your backgrounds?
Myself and Simon Grice are the co-founders. I've been working in startups and early stage businesses for 20 years, initially as an engineer, then CTO & COO. The *biggest* thing I did was to co-found a bank offering consumer financial products. I also spent three months at Lastminute.com when they were tiny and turned down a great job with options there. My last startup,enthuse.me won many awards and was very popular with users.
Simon started off at CERN with Tim Berners-Lee et al and so has been involved in the internet since the very start of the web. He has founded and exited businesses including Europe's first commercial web mail service.
What have been the biggest milestones so far in creating 'No More Filing'?
Each step is a massive milestone for us, from going from idea to prototype, then raising finance, building a team and now we have a beta version which is our latest milestone.
You have pretty recently completed a successful crowdfunding campaign through Seedrs, raising £40,000; can you tell us why you decided to seek funding in this way, over more traditional routes?
We actually raised £110k from some angels, we could have raised it all that way but we wanted to reach out to the crowd as they will hopefully become brand ambassadors for us. These are people who liked the idea enough to open their wallets so they all have a vested interest in making it a success.
For many startups, one of the most difficult things to gauge is whether or not they are at the right stage to pursue investment. Can you offer any thoughts on this, having successfully done so?
It really depends on the product or service. In our case, we envisaged something that is very scalable so we were able to raise money with a well thought out idea, some designs and a very very basic proof of concept. Even for a highly scalable business you should ideally have an MVP to show for Seed funding. If you're a B2B business you’ll want to have a strong sales pipeline ideally with some revenues.
Are there any tips or advice that you would give to another startup that is considering equity crowdfunding through a site like Seedrs?
Seedrs and the like are great platforms for harnessing the crowd, however you need to expect most of the first 60% of the funding to come from your own network. Investors you don't know at all will come on board when they feel the project has been validated by other investors. In fact we had a rush of investors (from outside our network) when we hit 80% then 100%.
What is the plan for ‘No More Filing’ over the course of the next year or so?
We're launching a beta version of the product in April, then raising a second seed round to fully launch the service and scale the user base.
And with that Dan, we wish you, Simon and the rest of the No More Filing team well. Intrigued by No More Filing? We've added their Fundraising Video below for you to take a gander.
No More Filing
No more Filing Fundraising VideoCare of Startacus - Monkfeet are offering 20% off their online & offline classes, helping startups learn essential skills for building and growing a business. Classes like these...
Subscribe to our newsletter
If you would like to receive our startup themed newsletter, full of the latest startup opportunities, events, news, stories, tips and advice, then sign up here.
Thinking about embarking on currency trading? Here are some basic tips that will help you do just that...

Thinking of using email marketing to promote your startup? Here are a few of the key things to consider when doing just that...

The lowdown on Fleex, the startup that helps companies provide remote employees with all they need to make working from home more comfortable

Judging panel now revealed for the LEVELUP startup pitch comp for early stage NI startups taking place at Derry & Strabane Enterprise Week - entries open until 10th April

Key speakers, panelists and sponsors announced for the LEVELUP event, taking place on 21-22 April as part of Derry & Strabane Enterprise Week

As we slowly emerge from the pandemic, here is an overview of a few of the key things that you can do to help set the foundation for a stronger year ahead

The lowdown on Leaf Envy, the startup that wants to help us all become plant parents and grow our indoor jungle of dreams...

Make sure that you have happy employees in your startup right from the beginning, by applying some of these basic tips...

"Mutt-rimonials" are on the horizon thanks to Woof Weddings, the UK's first dedicated wedding planning service for dogs

Manual secures major investment to help with product development and international expansion and its overall mission to become the global destination for men’s health
Published on: 22nd April 2015
If you would like to enable commenting via your Startacus account, please enable Disqus functionality in your Account Settings.







- Huge rise in dog weddings leads Feast It and Poppy’s Picnic to launch dog wedding planning service 31st Mar 2021 "Mutt-rimonials" are on the horizon thanks to Woof Weddings, the UK's first dedicated wedding planning service for dogs
- Manual, the innovative Men’s Health platform Raises $30M Series A 31st Mar 2021 Manual secures major investment to help with product development and international expansion and its overall mission to become the global destination for men’s health
- Arbolus raises $6m for AI-driven platform that puts collaboration at the Future of Work 26th Mar 2021 The Barcelona-based startup Arbolus secures funding boost to support the development of its enterprise knowledge sharing platform and its international growth plans
- NI startup pitch competition LEVELUP opens for applications 25th Mar 2021 Interesting and innovative early-stage NI startups now being sought for the LEVELUP pitch competition at Derry and Strabane Enterprise Week