The Exchanges

Q And I heard about your hunt for a co-founder there, uh, and in your interview with Eric on Product Hunt, and it made me wonder, why did you decide to look for a co-founder rather than going down the solo route on your own?

A Well, there's a simple answer and a little more nuance. A simple one is an investor said, hey, you need a co-founder. This thing is going to be so, it's going to be so hard. You, you don't, you don't even know how hard it's going to be that, uh, you really just, especially, uh, for young founders, he really recommended you. You know, co-founder. The more nuanced answers is really, uh, just an understanding of, of my limitations. I am a pretty poor developer and what we were going to be building is, uh, there's no two ways about it. It's going to be a pretty, what we aim to build as a massive technology company really needed an excellent technologist, uh, and CTO, uh, to join me. So those two things combined in, and they presented the need. The intro to Kalen kind of presented the solution of, wow, yeah, this is the guy. Even in a three-hour coffee with him, I could tell I gotta get this guy on board.

AI assessment note: “A simple one is an investor said, hey, you need a co-founder.”

Q And so what are you doing at Tilt then to make it more bite-sized, more accessible, more maybe consumer-friendly to, to this second generation of crowdfunding?

A Yeah, I think a lot of it starts with just the, the product, you know, hypothesis, product design from the beginning. And then a lot of it is, is really, you see it when you download the app. I mean, you can quite literally start a quote unquote crowdfunding campaign. I mean, you know, our, our crowdfunding campaigns, uh, really, uh, are built around, um, smaller, you know, it's not for 50,000 dollar, uh, documentaries. It's really built for 500 dollars for, um, you know, group gift for, uh, Uh, someone in the office, 5000 dollars for renting a cabin for the winter, um, you know, for a ski trip, 2000 dollars for a neighborhood cause. You know, something to where you don't need to make a five minute video, eight, eight levels, nine levels of rewards, nine paragraphs, but it's, hey, we really want to raise, uh, 2100 dollars to be able to, to beautify the, you know, the median in our, in our community, in our street. Or fix the potholes in our, uh, on our block. And, um, and college kids, uh, you know, one of our fastest growing demographics is colleges, and it's, um, hey, we want to collect 1500 dollars for, for our party bus, or, or a thousand dollars for a really awesome, uh, you know, late night party. Those types of groups, and kind of groups of friends, and, and borrowing our favorite elements of crowdfunding, but providing for groups of friends in a smaller Wait, that, that…

AI assessment note: “crowdfunding campaign in 15 seconds, the time it takes to write a tweet.”

Q Okay, so let's dive then straight into the crowdfunding, the crowdfunding market now at present. Where do you think we are now, and what's it gonna take to get mass market crowdfunding?

A So it's, you know, it's a couple 100,000 that have started crowdfunding campaigns, a few million, about ten million have, um, have backed campaigns, but yeah, you're right. It's still, it's kind of, it is so indicative of just the early innings of where we are with crowdfunding and the fact that it's, you know, only a couple 100,000 people have started a crowdfunding campaign and we're five, six years into this, this being a topic that people have talked a lot about, but there's two billion connected devices in the world and that number is really small. And so then start to ask yourself why. And our hypothesis is, is that crowdfunding will have a very similar narrative arc to, to blogging to where, you know, 1213 years ago, blogging was this thing that had a lot of hand waving, had a lot of, uh, it was on the tips of, uh, you know, journalist tongues of the, you know, what is, um, what's going to happen in the world when everyone has, you know, ink by the barrel and blogging, uh, just ruins journalistic integrity and takes up. And, and obviously none of that, uh, has, has really come to, It hasn't been that alarming. And by and large, it's been a, a really, uh, democratizing shift in the way information is published with blogging, but it took a few years. It actually, in our view, it took, uh, really the second generation of, of blogging platforms that really took it to the mai…

AI assessment note: “it took, uh, really the second generation of, of blogging platforms that really took it to the mainstream.”

Q And I heard about your hunt for a co-founder there, uh, and in your interview with Eric on Product Hunt, and it made me wonder, why did you decide to look for a co-founder rather than going down the solo route on your own?

A Well, there's a simple answer and a little more nuance. A simple one is an investor said, hey, you need a co-founder. This thing is going to be so, it's going to be so hard. You, you don't, you don't even know how hard it's going to be that, uh, you really just, especially, uh, for young founders, he really recommended you. You know, co-founder. The more nuanced answers is really, uh, just an understanding of, of my limitations. I am a pretty poor developer and what we were going to be building is, uh, there's no two ways about it. It's going to be a pretty, what we aim to build as a massive technology company really needed an excellent technologist, uh, and CTO, uh, to join me. So those two things combined in, and they presented the need. The intro to Kalen kind of presented the solution of, wow, yeah, this is the guy. Even in a three-hour coffee with him, I could tell I gotta get this guy on board.

AI assessment note: “A simple one is an investor said, hey, you need a co-founder.”

Q And then in terms of, we spoke about onboarding users there, how, how do you deal with customer retention then? I mean, with raising money for a particular project, say, you know, a nephew's operation, once that project is funded, how do you retain those customers for future projects? Is it purely through being so successful in delivering on that first promise?

A Yeah, I think it's, uh, that's definitely part of it. People having their first experience be a successful one. 82% of tilts are successful, so that's, uh, you're very different than most crowdfunding campaigns where the majority don't reach their goal. The vast majority exceed their goal, and actually, um, you know, if you have a successful tilt, um, on our platform or a successful campaign on our platform, then, um, the average successful campaign raises 192%. Of its goal. So basically gets two X what they set out to raise on average. That's one of my favorite stats. It just shows the effectiveness of, you know, we're, we really are creating a lot of value for a user that comes in to use the product for the first time. And that is huge. Second part of it and kind of where we, uh, where we grow is then people that joined that first campaign because it's really built for a much more accessible version of crowdfunding kind of to where it's, you know, we feel like Almost everyone in the world over the next 12 weeks will have a chance to use Tilt. If we can make the product good enough, the experience, um, good enough, then you'll want to recommend it to the friend that after you join that nephew's campaign, you'll be on an email chain seven weeks later of someone trying to collect money for, you know, a grouped gift for the office admin, um, who's having a baby, or there's going …

AI assessment note: “contributors to one campaign become word of mouth drivers for, for, uh, subsequent ones.”

Q Okay, so let's dive then straight into the crowdfunding, the crowdfunding market now at present. Where do you think we are now, and what's it gonna take to get mass market crowdfunding?

A So it's, you know, it's a couple 100,000 that have started crowdfunding campaigns, a few million, about ten million have, um, have backed campaigns, but yeah, you're right. It's still, it's kind of, it is so indicative of just the early innings of where we are with crowdfunding and the fact that it's, you know, only a couple 100,000 people have started a crowdfunding campaign and we're five, six years into this, this being a topic that people have talked a lot about, but there's two billion connected devices in the world and that number is really small. And so then start to ask yourself why. And our hypothesis is, is that crowdfunding will have a very similar narrative arc to, to blogging to where, you know, 1213 years ago, blogging was this thing that had a lot of hand waving, had a lot of, uh, it was on the tips of, uh, you know, journalist tongues of the, you know, what is, um, what's going to happen in the world when everyone has, you know, ink by the barrel and blogging, uh, just ruins journalistic integrity and takes up. And, and obviously none of that, uh, has, has really come to, It hasn't been that alarming. And by and large, it's been a, a really, uh, democratizing shift in the way information is published with blogging, but it took a few years. It actually, in our view, it took, uh, really the second generation of, of blogging platforms that really took it to the mai…

AI assessment note: “it is so indicative of just the early innings of where we are”

Q And then in terms of, we spoke about onboarding users there, how, how do you deal with customer retention then? I mean, with raising money for a particular project, say, you know, a nephew's operation, once that project is funded, how do you retain those customers for future projects? Is it purely through being so successful in delivering on that first promise?

A Yeah, I think it's, uh, that's definitely part of it. People having their first experience be a successful one. 82% of tilts are successful, so that's, uh, you're very different than most crowdfunding campaigns where the majority don't reach their goal. The vast majority exceed their goal, and actually, um, you know, if you have a successful tilt, um, on our platform or a successful campaign on our platform, then, um, the average successful campaign raises 192%. Of its goal. So basically gets two X what they set out to raise on average. That's one of my favorite stats. It just shows the effectiveness of, you know, we're, we really are creating a lot of value for a user that comes in to use the product for the first time. And that is huge. Second part of it and kind of where we, uh, where we grow is then people that joined that first campaign because it's really built for a much more accessible version of crowdfunding kind of to where it's, you know, we feel like Almost everyone in the world over the next 12 weeks will have a chance to use Tilt. If we can make the product good enough, the experience, um, good enough, then you'll want to recommend it to the friend that after you join that nephew's campaign, you'll be on an email chain seven weeks later of someone trying to collect money for, you know, a grouped gift for the office admin, um, who's having a baby, or there's going …

AI assessment note: “contributors to one campaign become word of mouth drivers for, for, uh, subsequent ones.”

Q Now, I'd love to kick off today's show by hearing a little about your, your rather unusual background and the origins of Tilt. So could you tell us a little bit about that?

A Sure. The high level is, is it, it really is kind of, um, circuitous path to starting tilt, but the high level is I studied and my background is in economic development, uh, development economics specifically was my degree, but I picked up web development in college and right when I graduated while working on the ground in poverty alleviation in, uh, Cape town, South Africa, just outside of Cape town. I got to marry those two, uh, passions. Um, and I started to build out a, uh, essentially what ended up becoming a crowdfunding platform for poverty alleviation through microfinance, microinsurance, total mouthful. Won't get into what that is, but it definitely, it definitely showed me the power of, of social software around, around money and what it can, what it can become. And so while building that had this one insight of, wow, Crowdfunding, this, this crowdfunding thing that seems to be, you know, caught up. It was codified by a journalist in like, 2010. I was like, wow, this is going to be really big, much bigger than the way I'm building it. And then the second insight, truthfully, it was, it was kind of in 2011 feeling like, all right, this is going to be bigger than my narrow focus. But also, uh, I don't know if any platform is really building it for a mobile world and thinking about kind of what's on the horizon, which is, you know, I've just a A much more, uh, mobile-dri…

AI assessment note: “started, combined those two insights, and that birthed Tilt”

Q And talking of then, um, Tilt's journey, what about your journey? What's, what have you say been your biggest personal developments or personal learning experiences in the Tilt journey before we dive into a quick fire round?

A I'd say, you know, a major one is, you know, having a lot of probably overconfidence at the beginning was, was really, uh, key. We had to be really confident in what we were getting into, and, and ignorance is bliss. We didn't, Really? No. And I think that that was helpful for us, but it's been a, a very big transition to now. I'd say, you know, I approach it each day with questioning assumptions, uh, daily or weekly, making sure organizationally we're not overconfident, making sure that, uh, that we are, uh, very mindful of maybe some of the assumptions we had, we need to prove them out. They're not right. Kind of basically losing that overconfident certitude. That might've been helpful in the early days. Now as a CEO, you really don't want that because it can really inhibit the growth of leaders around you when you just operate each day, like, you know, everything and you're super confident, uh, without data to back it up. And it's, that's been just a personal journey is, uh, I think it's, that's one of the hardest ones that founders that are maybe hardheaded that are really, you know, dedicated to their ideas have to, to come to terms with because that flexibility Um, is at, and the openness to being wrong is, is absolutely critical to being a good executive.

AI assessment note: “losing that overconfident certitude. That might've been helpful in the early days.”

Q Yeah, I, I, I saw it, because obviously, obviously I downloaded it many months ago, but, ah, revisited it before our interview today, and so was that a big part of the product design in terms of minimizing the onboarding process to make sure that starting a campaign was so easy, unlike doing a very tailored video? Was that crucial to your growth?

A A thousand percent. In fact, I'd say that's one of the big, that has been one of the biggest challenges as a company or as a, uh, for a product is to take something that's conventionally been pretty ornate, uh, pretty involved process and break it down into its simplest form. Um, I think, you know, when a casual user downloads the app, uh, And, and is able to start a, a crowdfunding came in and collect payments from around the world in, in 12, 13:15 seconds. I don't, I think they will feel, and we hear this pretty often. Wow, that was simple. That was awesome. But I don't know if they'll know how much, uh, how much pain and consternation and focus, maniacal obsession over simplifying it has, has taken place behind the scenes, um, to fit that into a mobile UX. So yeah, absolutely. It's, it is, Been a major, it still is a major focus of ours, um, to continually, uh, obsessively simplify it.

AI assessment note: “A thousand percent. In fact, I'd say that's one of the big”

Q Now, I'd love to kick off today's show by hearing a little about your, your rather unusual background and the origins of Tilt. So could you tell us a little bit about that?

A Sure. The high level is, is it, it really is kind of, um, circuitous path to starting tilt, but the high level is I studied and my background is in economic development, uh, development economics specifically was my degree, but I picked up web development in college and right when I graduated while working on the ground in poverty alleviation in, uh, Cape town, South Africa, just outside of Cape town. I got to marry those two, uh, passions. Um, and I started to build out a, uh, essentially what ended up becoming a crowdfunding platform for poverty alleviation through microfinance, microinsurance, total mouthful. Won't get into what that is, but it definitely, it definitely showed me the power of, of social software around, around money and what it can, what it can become. And so while building that had this one insight of, wow, Crowdfunding, this, this crowdfunding thing that seems to be, you know, caught up. It was codified by a journalist in like, 2010. I was like, wow, this is going to be really big, much bigger than the way I'm building it. And then the second insight, truthfully, it was, it was kind of in 2011 feeling like, all right, this is going to be bigger than my narrow focus. But also, uh, I don't know if any platform is really building it for a mobile world and thinking about kind of what's on the horizon, which is, you know, I've just a A much more, uh, mobile-dri…

AI assessment note: “combined those two insights, and that birthed Tilt, a mobile-focused crowdfunding platform.”

Q And talking of then, um, Tilt's journey, what about your journey? What's, what have you say been your biggest personal developments or personal learning experiences in the Tilt journey before we dive into a quick fire round?

A I'd say, you know, a major one is, you know, having a lot of probably overconfidence at the beginning was, was really, uh, key. We had to be really confident in what we were getting into, and, and ignorance is bliss. We didn't, Really? No. And I think that that was helpful for us, but it's been a, a very big transition to now. I'd say, you know, I approach it each day with questioning assumptions, uh, daily or weekly, making sure organizationally we're not overconfident, making sure that, uh, that we are, uh, very mindful of maybe some of the assumptions we had, we need to prove them out. They're not right. Kind of basically losing that overconfident certitude. That might've been helpful in the early days. Now as a CEO, you really don't want that because it can really inhibit the growth of leaders around you when you just operate each day, like, you know, everything and you're super confident, uh, without data to back it up. And it's, that's been just a personal journey is, uh, I think it's, that's one of the hardest ones that founders that are maybe hardheaded that are really, you know, dedicated to their ideas have to, to come to terms with because that flexibility Um, is at, and the openness to being wrong is, is absolutely critical to being a good executive.

AI assessment note: “I'd say, you know, a major one is, you know, having a lot of probably overconfidence”

Q Yeah, I, I, I saw it, because obviously, obviously I downloaded it many months ago, but, ah, revisited it before our interview today, and so was that a big part of the product design in terms of minimizing the onboarding process to make sure that starting a campaign was so easy, unlike doing a very tailored video? Was that crucial to your growth?

A A thousand percent. In fact, I'd say that's one of the big, that has been one of the biggest challenges as a company or as a, uh, for a product is to take something that's conventionally been pretty ornate, uh, pretty involved process and break it down into its simplest form. Um, I think, you know, when a casual user downloads the app, uh, And, and is able to start a, a crowdfunding came in and collect payments from around the world in, in 12, 13:15 seconds. I don't, I think they will feel, and we hear this pretty often. Wow, that was simple. That was awesome. But I don't know if they'll know how much, uh, how much pain and consternation and focus, maniacal obsession over simplifying it has, has taken place behind the scenes, um, to fit that into a mobile UX. So yeah, absolutely. It's, it is, Been a major, it still is a major focus of ours, um, to continually, uh, obsessively simplify it.

AI assessment note: “A thousand percent. In fact, I'd say that's one of the big”

Q And so what are you doing at Tilt then to make it more bite-sized, more accessible, more maybe consumer-friendly to, to this second generation of crowdfunding?

A Yeah, I think a lot of it starts with just the, the product, you know, hypothesis, product design from the beginning. And then a lot of it is, is really, you see it when you download the app. I mean, you can quite literally start a quote unquote crowdfunding campaign. I mean, you know, our, our crowdfunding campaigns, uh, really, uh, are built around, um, smaller, you know, it's not for 50,000 dollar, uh, documentaries. It's really built for 500 dollars for, um, you know, group gift for, uh, Uh, someone in the office, 5000 dollars for renting a cabin for the winter, um, you know, for a ski trip, 2000 dollars for a neighborhood cause. You know, something to where you don't need to make a five minute video, eight, eight levels, nine levels of rewards, nine paragraphs, but it's, hey, we really want to raise, uh, 2100 dollars to be able to, to beautify the, you know, the median in our, in our community, in our street. Or fix the potholes in our, uh, on our block. And, um, and college kids, uh, you know, one of our fastest growing demographics is colleges, and it's, um, hey, we want to collect 1500 dollars for, for our party bus, or, or a thousand dollars for a really awesome, uh, you know, late night party. Those types of groups, and kind of groups of friends, and, and borrowing our favorite elements of crowdfunding, but providing for groups of friends in a smaller Wait, that, that…

AI assessment note: “our crowdfunding campaigns, uh, really, uh, are built around, um, smaller”

Q insane. You've got Andreessen, you've got SV Angel, Naval Ravikant, Sean Parker, just naming a few. Obviously, there are many more amazing angels, but the fundraising process hasn't always been so easy. I heard the first funding took six to eight months, but the Series A took six days with Andreessen. Can you tell us about the Funding process for you and what changed it around from that massive dichotomy?

A Sure. It's a, you know, it's, it's a question I don't get asked very often. You know, for the entrepreneurs out there, the thing that I'll tell you is, is one of the best things that we ever went through was the fundraising process when it was just two of us in Texas, way outside of Silicon Valley, um, trying to fundraise from, you know, quite literally investors that invest in, in real estate and, um, You know, oil and gas and, um, you know, hardware, uh, companies. I mean, Austin, Texas is, is, you know, the home of Dell computers. And so that's kind of the world that they understand and understood. And being, being in that situation where we had to hone our pitch down to 90 seconds, be able to give our value prop instantaneously and, and be able to communicate what, why we were building what we were building as special is, um, Uh, was a very formative experience, incredibly formative. It's, you know, paid off in subsequent financings, uh, in recruiting and getting into Y Combinator. Um, it was just, you know, that 10 minute interview to get into YC was, uh, we just had so much just kind of road testing before we even had that interview. But it, I mean, there's no denying it was, it was a grind and it was really, really tough. I remember a lot of sleepless nights and a lot of just questioning, uh, Were we doing the right things? And is there some, maybe there's writing on the…

AI assessment note: “we had to hone our pitch down to 90 seconds... paid off in subsequent financings”

Q insane. You've got Andreessen, you've got SV Angel, Naval Ravikant, Sean Parker, just naming a few. Obviously, there are many more amazing angels, but the fundraising process hasn't always been so easy. I heard the first funding took six to eight months, but the Series A took six days with Andreessen. Can you tell us about the Funding process for you and what changed it around from that massive dichotomy?

A Sure. It's a, you know, it's, it's a question I don't get asked very often. You know, for the entrepreneurs out there, the thing that I'll tell you is, is one of the best things that we ever went through was the fundraising process when it was just two of us in Texas, way outside of Silicon Valley, um, trying to fundraise from, you know, quite literally investors that invest in, in real estate and, um, You know, oil and gas and, um, you know, hardware, uh, companies. I mean, Austin, Texas is, is, you know, the home of Dell computers. And so that's kind of the world that they understand and understood. And being, being in that situation where we had to hone our pitch down to 90 seconds, be able to give our value prop instantaneously and, and be able to communicate what, why we were building what we were building as special is, um, Uh, was a very formative experience, incredibly formative. It's, you know, paid off in subsequent financings, uh, in recruiting and getting into Y Combinator. Um, it was just, you know, that 10 minute interview to get into YC was, uh, we just had so much just kind of road testing before we even had that interview. But it, I mean, there's no denying it was, it was a grind and it was really, really tough. I remember a lot of sleepless nights and a lot of just questioning, uh, Were we doing the right things? And is there some, maybe there's writing on the…

AI assessment note: “honed our pitch for subsequent financings and made the, the other ones”

Q And so you entice users in with maybe more trivial, you know, party bus, uh, what do you call them? Campaigns. Um, and then later on down the line comes some more serious grandmother's operation or water well in, in parts of Africa style. Is that it?

A Absolutely. It's, um, and the idea is, is really making it so simple, um, that whenever you think of groups and money, whenever you think of, uh, collecting money from a group, fundraising from, uh, from a, a crowd or selling to your community, we just started to release some really cool commerce features in the last 12 months that allow you to sell. And so instead of tilting at, uh, you know, your goal is 500 dollars or 1500 dollars, Now we've built in features for you to be able to tilt it a number of items sold. So if you want to sell tickets to an event and the event only happens if you sell, you know, 35 tickets or a 135 tickets, or you want to produce a really simple item. You know, you don't need to do a, a complex crowdfunding campaign of, of, you know, where you have to make a five minute video, uh, and eight levels of reward, but you just want to sell one item and it tilted 25 sold. Then, uh, And you can do that really easily through these commerce features that we built, and one of the great things about that simplicity is you're going to see those contributors start their own campaigns, and you're going to get a notification of them inviting you to their campaigns, and it kind of becomes a self-reinforcing communal tool that you just start using with, uh, with your group over and over again.

AI assessment note: “we just started to release some really cool commerce features in the last 12 months”

Q And so you entice users in with maybe more trivial, you know, party bus, uh, what do you call them? Campaigns. Um, and then later on down the line comes some more serious grandmother's operation or water well in, in parts of Africa style. Is that it?

A Absolutely. It's, um, and the idea is, is really making it so simple, um, that whenever you think of groups and money, whenever you think of, uh, collecting money from a group, fundraising from, uh, from a, a crowd or selling to your community, we just started to release some really cool commerce features in the last 12 months that allow you to sell. And so instead of tilting at, uh, you know, your goal is 500 dollars or 1500 dollars, Now we've built in features for you to be able to tilt it a number of items sold. So if you want to sell tickets to an event and the event only happens if you sell, you know, 35 tickets or a 135 tickets, or you want to produce a really simple item. You know, you don't need to do a, a complex crowdfunding campaign of, of, you know, where you have to make a five minute video, uh, and eight levels of reward, but you just want to sell one item and it tilted 25 sold. Then, uh, And you can do that really easily through these commerce features that we built, and one of the great things about that simplicity is you're going to see those contributors start their own campaigns, and you're going to get a notification of them inviting you to their campaigns, and it kind of becomes a self-reinforcing communal tool that you just start using with, uh, with your group over and over again.

AI assessment note: “we just started to release some really cool commerce features in the last 12 months”