running a successful crowdfunding campaign

WaveCheck Indiegogo campaign co-directors featured in MedCity News article

MaRS Innovation’s Dr. Fazila Seker and Elizabeth Monier-Williams spoke with Deanna Pogorelc of MedCity News about how to define success for campaigns crowdfunding for technologies and research related to the medical field.

The article, in MedCity News‘ Hot Topics section, questions whether a crowdfunding campaign needs to reach its funding goal to be deemed successful.

Seker and Monier-Williams completed an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign in December for WaveCheck, a clinical technique developed to let women and men know if their breast cancer chemotherapy is working within weeks of beginning treatment instead of months later when treatment has already ended.

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

Fazila Seker, the director of technology and venture development at commercialization agency MaRS Innovation, said that one of the trickiest things about the crowdfunding industry is the notion that these platforms have an established crowd that’s lurking around looking for the next best thing.

“You can’t rely entirely on that,” she said. “You need to go out there and do your research and create your own following.”

WaveCheck co-directers talk crowdfunding commercialization research on CBC’s “The World This Weekend”

MaRS Innovation staff and WaveCheck Campaign Co-directors Dr. Fazila Seker and Elizabeth Monier-Williams spoke with the CBC’s Colleen Ross about the process of crowdfunding WaveCheck’s partner-based clinical studies on “The World This Weekend.”

The radio segment, called “Crowdfunding Science,” aired on January 25, 2014 and discussed the lack of funding researchers have access to for commercialization, making it harder to advance research that could be helping people in a variety of industries.

To listen to the full interview, click here.

WaveCheck’s crowdfunding campaign is an example of how MaRS Innovation gets creative when traditional funding channels take too long or run dry, speeding up the commercialization process.

Whirlscape’s Minuum keyboard debuts at #2 on Google’s Top New Paid Apps list

Minuum #2 top paid new Android App on Google Play store — **Minuum** (icon second from left) is the #2 Top Paid New Android App on the Google Play store. Graphic courtesy of Whirlscape Inc.

The Minuum keyboard, which made its public debut in the Google Play Store on August 21, 2013, has already reached #2 position in Google’s “Top New Paid Android Apps” list. The keyboard is the only non-game currently in that list’s top 10.

In the “Top Paid in Android Apps” general category, Minuum is already #9. The keyboard, made by Whirlscape Inc., has a four-star rating among users.

Whirlscape’s team on Minuum, Indiegogo and crowdfunding a beta keyboard launch

Every six weeks, MaRS Innovation’s marketing and communications manager writes a guest post for the MaRS Discovery District blog profiling MI’s activities or one of our start-up companies. You can read the original post on the MaRS blog.

On Monday, June 17, Whirlscape Inc. released the beta version of its hotly anticipated, tiny, one-dimensional digital keyboard, Minuum: “the little keyboard for big fingers.”

If you follow tech gadget news, you’ve likely read about or even supported the company’s successful Indiegogo campaign, which raised more than US$87,000—over 870% above their modest initial goal of $10,000—from nearly 10,000 supporters who have now become beta users for the product.

The stats don’t end there. By number of funders, the Minuum Keyboard Project’s campaign is in Indiegogo’s top 10 of all time and is ranked No. 2 among all technology campaigns. Over 1.1 million people worldwide viewed Minuum’s original teaser video on YouTube, which the Whirlscape team edited and shot themselves.

running a successful crowdfunding campaign

WaveCheck Indiegogo campaign co-directors featured in MedCity News article

WaveCheck co-directers talk crowdfunding commercialization research on CBC’s “The World This Weekend”

Whirlscape’s Minuum keyboard debuts at #2 on Google’s Top New Paid Apps list

Whirlscape’s team on Minuum, Indiegogo and crowdfunding a beta keyboard launch

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