Crowdfunding a 100% renewable energy office!

Since finishing my exams in mid-June, I’ve been back to focussing on WinchPharma. We’ve recently launched a crowdfunding campaign in order to help fund the construction of an office and warehouse facility run entirely on renewable energy (solar, wind, and a rain collection and purification system). We’re looking to raise £60,000 for 5% of the business, offering investors an expected 500% return on investment in 3 years and a minimum investment of just a fiver.

It’s a big project, but one we’re really excited about and, at the time of writing, we’re just over 20% of the way to achieving our target! It’s also a bit of an unusual one… Instead of going about the crowdfunding through a standard crowdfunding website, we’ve chosen to self-crowdfund (so it’s all on our website rather than a crowdfunding site). There are a number of reasons behind this:

• Firstly, fewer fees, meaning all the money invested in the business goes to the business, not off to some third party.
• Secondly, it gives us greater control over the campaign, and has allowed us to launch it straightaway rather than going through all the various validation processes.
• Thirdly, it helps to increase engagement with the business. Whilst typical crowdfunding investors may just be scrolling through a crowdfunding site looking at potential investment opportunities, we know that all of the shareholders in our business will have been to our website specifically to either learn more about the business or invest in WinchPharma – so we hope that our shareholders will be more engaged than the typical crowdfunding shareholder (and so far that seems to be proving to be the case!).

Hopefully, on completion of our crowdfunding campaign, we’ll have achieved our funding target (allowing us to invest in our carbon neutral office and warehouse facility), encouraged as many people as possible to get involved and have a share in an environmentally friendly business, proved that crowdfunding can be done without the typical sites and, ultimately, enable us to provide a big return on investment to all of our shareholders!

I originally got involved with WinchPharma when, in February, it acquired my small products business (Silver Stag Marketing). Balancing work with my studies was always going to be a challenge, which is why running a business with a partner or two is often a good idea (so long as you completely trust them and have known them for a while!). Thankfully, most of my lectures are recorded and available anytime on my.wbs, which means if I need to miss a lecture or two for some meetings I can, and just catchup that evening at home.

My way of structuring it is simple, I block off the time when I have seminars so I can always attend them. Then, if I have a choice, I schedule work around my lectures, if not, I’ll catchup with them later so I can do whatever it is I need to do. Occasionally, I have to miss the odd seminar (might be meeting someone who’s seldom available) and in this case I contact my seminar tutor and see if, just for that week, I can attend a different seminar. This way, I’m able to ensure the business doesn’t suffer because of my studies, and my studies don’t suffer because of the business.

If you’d like to know more about the campaign, or even to invest yourself, head over here: http://www.winchpharma.com/investors-winchpharma/

That’s all for now,

Tom