Eddie Lee, President of Pledgecamp interview with Matt Bird at Humanity 2.0 (Vatican City)
HIGHLIGHTS
- Pledgecamp is a new generation crowdfunding platform
- Their goal is to create a secure & sustainable platform that produces results
- Pledgecamp is the top 1% most funded team on Kickstarter platform
FULL COVERAGE
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS: Eddie Lee, President of Pledgecamp with Matt Bird
Matt Bird – Show Host, Traders Network Show: 00:00
Welcome back to the Traders Network Show. I’m Matt Bird. We’re broadcasting worldwide here at the Vatican for Humanity 2.0, Equities.com and our affiliate network partners. My next guest is Eddie Lee, President of Pledgecamp. Eddie, welcome to the show. So, I’ve been inside, I’ve gotten to see a few of the keynotes. I’m there, they’re getting into the panels. You’re going to be on a panel a little bit later. But I think we should start this off with, tell us a little bit about what Pledgecamp is going to hope to take away from the event which is a pretty big thing. And what the ask is, which I think is really contributing towards the social causes, but from your own words.
Eddie Lee – President, Pledgecamp: 00:42
Pledgecamp is a new generation of crowdfunding platform. We’re using blockchain technology to increase the trust and accountability that protects the backers or the people investing their money into these projects. A crowdfunding 1.0 is we call it like kick-starting to go. They’ve made this incredible opportunity for products to find their market from in a very democratic way. You don’t need to know a VC, not an institutional investor. You can reach your market directly, but there’s lots of failures built into the model. There’s no accountability. So that’s what we’re addressing. So we’re hoping to bring this opportunity, that crowdfunding 1.0 created, make it secure so that it’s more sustainable and makes results for a lot more people around the world.
Matt Bird – Show Host, Traders Network Show: 01:21
Do you see a tie in between Humanity 2.0 and Pledgecamp and that what you’re doing moving forward?
Eddie Lee – President, Pledgecamp: 01:26
Yeah, I think what Humanity 2.0 is trying to do is align everyone in a direction to try and get a picture of where we’re going and create a platform. So to scale your help there, they’re connecting the dots and helping all these other people help themselves. That’s similar to what we want to do. We want to scale our help of other entrepreneurs by creating a platform that sustains them, that gives them what they need and connect the dots. So that they can see it on their own.
Matt Bird – Show Host, Traders Network Show: 01:49
You know, we had a chance to speak just before we went live here and we were talking a little bit about the thing that differentiates, Pledgecamp from, from Kickstarter, Indiegogo, the others. And one of the, the issues on the failure side, it has to do with accountability and that when a product is funded, let’s say, you want to build a widget or a little new inflatable mattress or whatever it may be in people are funding that. The reality of it is that some, from a psychological standpoint, there’s really no shareholder accountability, right? So we see funds squandered or debt run inefficiently because it was free money essentially. Right? They’re pre-selling products or whatever it may be. Are you guys going to solve that problem?
Eddie Lee – President, Pledgecamp: 02:33
Yeah, I mean, that’s the direct problem that we’re addressing and something that we’ve lived ourselves. We’ve run four campaigns on, on Kickstarter. We’ve become the top 1% most funded team on the platform over time. And so we’ve seen this problem firsthand. We’ve advised a lot of other companies to help them raise money, but these companies are incentivized to raise as much money as possible first and worry about product delivery or the delivery later. Because Kickstarter, these platforms, they wash their hands after funds are raised. They don’t deal with disputes or follow up with the projects to make sure that they’re delivering.
Matt Bird – Show Host, Traders Network Show: 03:03
So here’s a question I have and it just came to me as we’re talking, and it might be a little bit outside our purview, but is part of the problem with the failure rate as some of the things that are on Kickstarter, Indiegogo? Is it the market’s problem as well? Is it utopic idea of what we’re going to help, you know, are the funders part of the problem?
Eddie Lee – President, Pledgecamp: 03:21
Well, here’s the thing. I think right now the funders are a lot trying to help in an idealistic way. Like I support this person. I like how they’re trying to act. Exactly, exactly. But they’re not getting any power or agency to follow up with the craters at all. Like they, they want, they just want to be, they want to be in communication, they want to have updates like any kind of cap table or investor. You have to be responsible to your investors. But it’s not the way the model is built right now. So we’re, what we’re doing is giving this agency to the backers. They have the power within each project to vote, to control how the funds are dispersed over time and makes sure that the creators are adhering to their timeline and this model for the first time, it takes the responsibility out of the platform and gives it to the backers.
Matt Bird – Show Host, Traders Network Show: 04:06
I mean, this makes fundamental sense. And this is like business 101. I think the day. I think it’s terrific that you guys are doing and I hope that the backers find you know, a path for ROI for themselves, but also to the give accountability and a little bit of checks and balances that these, some of these emerging growth companies that just, they need it. They need to make sure that they need to know someone’s watching over. They’re playing with other people’s money. And then success or failure is going to be based upon, you know, their own due diligence and their own diligence isn’t running an organization and so on and so forth. But listen, I have to give you all the credit. It’s a great idea. I’m surprised that somebody hasn’t launched sooner. So, but I’m going to be a huge supporter of what you’re doing.
Matt Bird – Show Host, Traders Network Show: 04:45
It’s terrific. Listen, we had a cut to a commercial break. I’m going to exit out here. This is Eddie Lee. He’s the president of Pledgecamp. Don’t forget to tune in and watch him on the innovation panel which you’ll find on the site and on ABC, NBC, Fox, or CBS. We’ll be right back with our next guest. You’re not going to want to miss this.