Taking time away from his duties at Indiegogo, co-founder of the site Slava Rubin sat down with Times of Israel to share details about the global crowdfunding platform and the funding method.
Back in 2008, Rubin alongside other co-founders Danae Ringelmann, Eric Schell teamed up to launch the crowdfunding website. He served as CEO for seven years and has recently stepped down from the position. Rubin stated he was “excited to announce that I am promoting [current COO] Dave Mandelbrot to CEO of Indiegogo.” Rubin has remained with the company and became chief business officer.
During his interview, Rubin discussed why he, Ringelmann and Schell decided to create Indiegogo:
“We saw gatekeepers in traditional finance, [such as] banks, VCs, etcetera, constantly turning people with great ideas down because of pre-existing biases. We decided to create a platform where the crowd decides what gets funded. More people want to be entrepreneurial than we thought, they just need the opportunity to make it happen. Seeing amazing ideas get funded every day has only intensified my commitment to making sure any idea gets a shot at success.”
He also noted:
“We have actually found that the most effective campaigns are run by teams, have great videos and post regular updates. In crowdfunding, backers really become part of the team, and they want to feel it.”
Noting how Indiegogo is different from his competitors like Kickstarter and GoFundMe, Slava shared:
“We are completely open and global, which is different from any competitor. We also have the best customer service in the business, and unique features like our API (application programming interface) and Shipping Now products. We also recently launched Enterprise Crowdfunding to help large companies scale and source innovation, and Generosity.com to fundraise for personal causes, which is free of platform fees.”
He then revealed info about his new role with the company:
“I’ll be focusing on new growth areas and like partnerships and new markets: equity crowdfunding, China, retail partnerships.”
In regards to priorities in business, innovation and the arts, Rubin added:
“I love data, but I also love to explore and experiment. So as Indiegogo has grown, I’ve learned to use data to direct our experimentation to constantly make the product better for our customers, which is ultimately my main priority. I love seeing people get the chance to express themselves in ways that they couldn’t without crowdfunding. Even incredibly successful films like Super Troopers come to Indiegogo, because by using crowdfunding they don’t have to relinquish creative control.”
