You know how we always say that the majority of pledges come in the final 48 hours? Well – one of our projects made this graph to prove it:

Water Genie was a bit of an underdog for us. They came out of Start Up Weekend Wellington (where, without fail, we always get atleast three late night calls / txts cajoling for a project to go live), and had the goal of raising $6,000 for their social enterprise. But they smashed their goal, thanks to the marvelous efforts of Keoni, the Chief Genie.

Here’s what he had to say about the experience:

What did you like about pledgeme?

It was actually a great way to drive exposure to WaterGenie. Crowd funding is the obvious benefit, but you actually do ahellofalotta marketing while trying to reach your goal. It’s a bit of a networking exercise and WaterGenie is way better off from getting funds through a PledgeMe versus, say, a grant or loan. Also, the fact that PledgeMe is Kiwi, local, and small feels like a good thing for WaterGenie at this stage. I don’t want America or Australia to really find out about WaterGenie… rather be the underdogs that show up out of no where. Having said that, I am getting SPAM from people around the world via twitter so… oops.

How did you find the experience?

I loved it! It was very rewarding and very humbling. To realize there are heaps of people out there who support your kaupapa and you and your team is just amazing. Also all the support from friends, whānau, pledgeme, and all the followers and likers and retweeters was just awesome! It really shows that crowdfunding IS a social effort.

Any tips for newbies?

What not to do: make a PledgeMe during startup weekend without a plan. I wish I had a video from the beginning. And a better website. Many other things. But the fact that I HAD a PledgeMe meant, oh crap, I better do this. Don’t want to fail. That would be :(. So, having a PledgeMe campaign was very motivating and forced me to step out of my comfort zone and do all that I can and then some to make this work.