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Paris Feature - Kickstarter campaigns and helping startups in Paris

Sarah Towle, owner of Time Traveler Tours, has written an article for Guide2Paris about a novel way of helping new businesses raise money for their new projects.

Join the Coolest Crowd in Paris!

 

There’s an awesome on-line tool out there benefiting artists, environmentalists, educators, nonprofits, charities, start ups – anyone with a great idea, but short on the cash necessary to bring it to fruition. It’s called “crowd sourced funding”, so named because it relies on the “crowd” – on you – rather than the bankers, investors and venture capitalists of yesteryear to achieve worthy goals.

 

Crowd sourced funding exists both to market as well as provide a fund-raising platform for cool initiatives that are too immediate or too small to attract the attention of traditional investors, projects such as citizen journalism, relief campaigns, artistic endeavors, or original applications for new technologies. It’s not investing, per se. And contributions are not considered tax deductible. But participation brings prizes and other advantages, such as limited edition product releases, public shout outs, or simply the satisfaction of being able to say to an innovative family member, colleague, friend or stranger, “You go girl! We believe in what you’re doing!” And with a minimum pledge of $1, contributions need be no bigger than the cost of the bottle of wine you would no doubt purchase as a guest at any Parisian dinner party.

 

The idea for sourcing funds from the crowd was pioneered in the film industry by two Frenchmen, Benjamin Pommeraud and Guillaume Colboc. They launched an internet-based public donation campaign in August 2004 to fund their film, Demain la Veille, and raised nearly $50,000 in a mere three weeks!

 

Following their successful precedent, I decided to conduct a similar campaign on Kickstarter, a platform dedicated to helping artists and start-up entrepreneurs kick start their projects. My goal is more modest: I hope to raise $5k for the creation of the French-English bilingual version of my interactive mobile StoryApp itinerary, Beware Madame la Guillotine: A Revolutionary Tour of Paris. History revealed through story with treasure hunts and trivia challenges thrown in, all in the palm of your hand. Travel guides, revolutionized. The English version of the app hit the App Store in July to rave reviews. And I invite you to support the production of its bilingual cousin with a proverbial bottle of French table wine!

 

All I need is for 100 people to pitch in $10 in 10 days to help me reach my goal. I’m almost there, but still so far… for if I don’t reach it, I get nothing. That’s the Kickstarter way.

 

Click here to visit my Kickstarter page. View the video and consider lending the project a hand. Tweet and Facebook and email all your friends and ask them to do the same. Encourage them to become a part of the growing community of people who care about and wish to enable the success of Beware Madame la Guillotine and its production team at Time Traveler Tours.

 

For a slightly larger pledge of $25 you get a free download of the bilingual app as soon as it’s released!

 

Next time you have a creative project that needs support and funding, check out Kickstarter. And don’t forget to invite me to join your crowd!

 

Thanks in advance for your support!

Sarah

 

Like the Time Traveler Tours on Facebook

Follow @ParisAppTours on Twitter

Find out more about Beware Mme la Guillotine on our Website

You can also read an interview that Sarah undertook with Guide2Paris about her experiences of starting a new business in Paris and living and working here.


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