93 Rejections, One Revolution: How Indiegogo Changed Crowdfunding Forever
Timestamps are as accurate as they can be but may be slightly off. We encourage you to listen to the full context.
Podcast Summary
This episode explores the remarkable journey of Indiegogo, one of the first crowdfunding platforms, founded by Danae Ringelmann, Slava Rubin, and Eric Schell. Born from frustration with traditional gatekeepers and inequitable access to capital, the three founders came together at (19:46) to democratize funding through the internet. What started as a film-focused platform evolved into an open marketplace where anyone could raise money for any project. Despite facing 93 investor rejections during the 2008 financial crisis (35:34), the founders bootstrapped the company for nearly four years using their own savings. They launched at Sundance in January 2008 (37:58), experienced explosive growth after opening to all project types, and ultimately helped spark the crowdfunding revolution that changed how ideas get funded globally.
- Main Theme: The story demonstrates how three outsiders overcame systemic barriers, personal loss, and market crashes to build a platform that democratized access to capital and challenged traditional funding gatekeepers.
Speakers
Danae Ringelmann
Co-founder of Indiegogo who grew up in San Francisco and worked in her father's moving business, learning early lessons about leadership and empathy. She studied at UNC Chapel Hill and worked in finance at JPMorgan in the media and entertainment division before attending Berkeley's business school, where she developed the initial concept for democratizing access to capital that would become Indiegogo.
Slava Rubin
Co-founder and former CEO of Indiegogo who immigrated from the Former Soviet Union as a baby and lost his father to cancer at age 15. He studied finance and entrepreneurial management at Wharton, worked in New York, and founded Music Against Myeloma to raise money for cancer research before joining forces with Danae to create Indiegogo. He now works as a venture capitalist investing in young entrepreneurs.
Key Takeaways
Persistence Through Rejection Can Lead to Revolutionary Change
The founders faced 93 investor rejections during the 2008 financial crisis but continued building based on customer feedback rather than investor validation. (35:34) Slava noted how he would track conversations on Twitter where people would change their weekend plans to work on their "Indiegogo video," providing validation that customers valued the product even when investors didn't. This demonstrates that when building something truly innovative, customer adoption often precedes investor understanding, and founders must be willing to persist through extended periods of rejection while staying focused on solving real problems for real people.
Bootstrap When Necessary to Maintain Control and Vision
Rather than accept early funding offers at low valuations, the founders chose to bootstrap for nearly four years using $30,000 each from their personal savings. (34:09) This decision allowed them to maintain control over their vision of creating an open, democratic funding platform. While financially challenging, bootstrapping enabled them to prove their concept and build momentum before raising $15 million in their Series A at a much higher valuation, demonstrating that sometimes delayed gratification and financial sacrifice can lead to better long-term outcomes.
Open Platforms Create More Value Than Curated Ones
Despite pressure to curate projects and increase success rates, Indiegogo remained philosophically committed to being an open platform where "the world decides what deserves to get funded." (53:49) Danae emphasized that becoming a gatekeeper would have defeated their core mission of democratizing access to capital. This openness allowed for unexpected successes like the "world's first crowdfunded baby" and enabled innovation across all categories, proving that trust in collective wisdom often yields better results than top-down curation.
Personal Pain Can Drive Meaningful Innovation
Both founders' personal experiences with financial inequality shaped their mission. Danae's emotional reaction to seeing worthy producers begging for money at (14:27) "Hollywood Meets Wall Street" connected to her parents' struggles with bankruptcy and stolen business ideas. Slava's experience raising money for myeloma research after losing his father revealed the inefficiencies in fundraising. These personal pain points provided the emotional fuel needed to persist through years of uncertainty and rejection, showing that the most impactful businesses often emerge from founders' lived experiences with systemic problems.
Founder Vision Matters More in Early Stages Than Professional Management
When the board replaced Slava as CEO despite the company's success, he reflected that "if you take out the founders too early, I do think you handicap the potential of the future of that company." (64:04) The subsequent missed opportunities, including not capturing verticals that competitors like GoFundMe and Patreon would dominate, suggest that founder vision and risk tolerance are particularly valuable during high-growth phases when companies need to make bold strategic bets rather than focus purely on unit economics and profitability.
Statistics & Facts
- 93 investor rejections: Slava revealed that the founders received 93 "no's" before getting their first "yes" from investors (36:14), highlighting the extreme difficulty of raising capital during the 2008 financial crisis for an unproven concept like crowdfunding.
- $30,000 per founder investment: Each of the three co-founders committed $30,000 of their personal savings to bootstrap the company (34:09), representing "a big chunk of our savings" according to Danae, demonstrating their personal financial commitment to the vision.
- Over 10,000 campaigns by 2010: By the end of 2010, Indiegogo had hosted over 10,000 campaigns from around the world (51:23), showing the rapid adoption once they opened the platform beyond just film projects to all categories.
