Profile: IndieGoGo
Authors
Rationale
There are so many subjects you could choose to profile, so why did you choose this one? What drew you into wanting to know more about the organization? How did you/your group decide on and agree?
IndieGoGo was one of the very few crowdfunding organizations that was not limited to a certain theme. They will literally help you fund almost any idea you can think of.
Organizational Details
Is the subject of your profile a corporate entity?
Yes, Indiegogo Inc.
What type?
A “Funding Platform that does Seed Investments”.
When was it founded?
January of 2008
By whom?
Founded by Danae Ringelmann, Slava Rubin (Current CEO), and Eric Schell.
Original founder(s) still active?
The founders are still active.
Publicly Traded? Since when? Initial Stock Price? Current stock price?
The company is not publicly traded.
Has the company made any acquisitions? If yes, which companies, and what were their core products?
The company has made 0 acquisitions.
Has the company made any investments in other companies? If yes, which ones.
The company has invested $25,000 in UCreate3D
Number of Employees?
Roughly 80 Employees
Where is HQ?
965 Mission St (btwn 5th & 6th),
San Francisco,
CA 94103,
United States
Does it have any other offices or locations?
No other addresses
Website?
Wikipedia?
Does your organization file any annual reports? Please include links to any relevant documents (i.e. 990, Annual Report, Year in Review, etc...)
No annual reports that we could find.
Communications
Social media for IndieGoGo
Does your subject participate in social media? If yes, please list a URL for each account, and reach within that community.
- Facebook - 321,668 likes.
- Twitter - 218k followers, 18.6k tweets.
- Google+ - 291k followers, 3.185 million views
- Instagram - 261 posts, 5,982 followers
- Linkedin - 6,710 followers
Communications channels for IndieGoGo
What communication channels does your subject use to reach their public? Briefly describe and include a URL for each.
IndieGoGo has a Blog that contains up to date posts about IndieGoGo news. Their Facebook and Twitter pages are also used to help promote some of the various projects that get put up using their service.
IndieGoGo Conference Participation
Does your subject organize or participate in any conferences? If so, list them here, and provide links to any relevant sessions, keynotes, or content.
Connected Conference - IndieGoGo will be attending to host a crowdfunding competition.
Community Architecture
Your subject likely runs or contributes to one or more Open Source products or projects. Choose one (or more) of these and answer the following questions (provide links is applicable).
IndieGoGo does not have a single repository, but rather has helped several different open source projects fund themselves. The one we will look at is PDFy, a PDF hosting service.
The project's IRC Channel
N/A
Source Code repository
Mail list archive
N/A
Documentation
N/A
Other communication channels
N/A
Project Website and/or Blog
Describe the software project, its purpose and goals.
PDFy exists to offer a place where anybody can instantly upload and share a PDF, much like Imgur does for images. PDFy is free, ad-free, and non-commercial.
Give brief history of the project. When was the Initial Commit? The latest commit?
Initial commit was on April 26, 2014. The latest commit was on August 5, 2014.
Who approves patches? How many people?
Just our BDFL joepie91.
Who has commit access, or has had patches accepted? How many total?
Again, our BDFL (joepie91) has most of the commits. There is however one other contributer who contributed 1 line of code, jedahan
Has there been any turnover in the Core Team? (i.e. has the top 20% of contributors stayed the same over time? If not, how has it changed?)
There is only the BDFL really, who has not changed
Does the project have a BDFL, or Lead Developer? (BDFL == Benevolent Dictator for Life)
The BDFL is joepie91.
Are the front and back end developers the same people? What is the proportion of each?
Yes, there is only 1 developer.
What have been some of the major bugs/problems/issues that have arisen during development? Who is responsible for quality control and bug repair?
The BDFL controls bug control and repair. There have been no major issues so far. Issue tracker can be viewed here.
How is the project's participation trending and why?
Throughout the project's history, it has been actively developed by the BDFL with no real breaks. However development has stopped on August 5, 2014 and has not picked up since. Development seems to have switched over to pdfy2, a node.js port of pdfy.
In your opinion, does the project pass "The Raptor Test?" (i.e. Would the project survive if the BDFL, or most active contributor were eaten by a Velociraptor?) Why or why not?
Since there is only one developer, the project would not survive the raptor test.
In your opinion, would the project survive if the core team, or most active 20% of contributors, were hit by a bus? Why or why not?
See the above answer.
Does the project have an official "on-boarding" process in place? (new contributor guides, quickstarts, communication leads who focus specifically on newbies, etc...)
There is no on-boarding process.
Does the project have Documentation available? Is it extensive? Does it include code examples?
There is no documentation other than the github readme file which explains how to set up the project.
If you were going to contribute to this project, but ran into trouble or hit blockers, who would you contact, and how?
You would have to contact the BDFL. Looks like most communications are done on the github issue tracker.
Based on these answers, how would you describe the decision making structure/process of this group? Is it hierarchical, consensus building, ruled by a small group, barely contained chaos, or ruled by a single or pair of individuals?
Ruled by the BDFL.
Is this the kind of structure you would enjoy working in? Why, or why not?
Since the project is run by a single individual and is apparently dead, I would not enjoy working on this project.
Technology/Product
Section adapted from EFF Worksheet
Who invented, created, or sponsored the technology?
The idea of Crowdfunding was conceived before the internet. There are several examples in history where funds were raised by a large crowd of donors. The term 'crowdfunding' was introduced in 2006, and crowdfunding websites appeared as early as 2003 after the launch of ArtistShare.
What is the technology designed to do? How is it used?
IndieGoGo is meant to allow people to start up any idea they want and crowdsource the funds from other people. Generally speaking, IndieGoGo is used to give ideas that normally wouldn’t get anywhere a chance in the light.
Who would benefit from using this technology?
Anybody can start a campaign. More directly, people who need just a little more funding before they can launch their project.
What kinds of companies or organizations (stakeholders) might have been concerned about the development of this technology? Why?
The biggest concern about crowdsourcing in general is that legitimate startups circumvent the need for Venture-capital. This is merely postponing it, as the startups hit the point at which they need to expand.
Does/Did an aspect of copyright law play a role in controversies about the technology? How?
There has been some controversy surrounding IndieGoGo, but little to none of it has to do with copyright law. Namely IndieGoGo now no longer has the same fraud guarantees.
Business and Revenue Model
How was this organization funded originally?
The company has raised revenue from some financing rounds. The earliest one was in September 2011, where the company raised $1.5 million, a round led by Metamorphic Ventures, ff Venture Capital, MHS Capital and Steve Schoettler, Zynga's co-founder.
How does this organization make revenue?
IndieGoGo charges 9% on the funds you raise. If you meet your goal, you get 5% of them back. More information can be found at their Fees & Pricing page.
Which specific Open Source Revenue Models are utilized?
Pre-order/crowdfunding/reverse-bounty model
What investments/acquisitions has the organization made?
The company has made no acquisitions but has invested $25,000 in UCreate3D.