It’s catchy, isn’t it?

Last week, Kiwi craft brewery Yeastie Boys broke all kinds of records (and attempted to break platform PledgeMe) with their first foray into equity crowdfunding.

To your average joe who has never heard of Yeastie Boys before, this must look like magic.

But Yeastie Boys’ customers (many of whom are now investors) are aware of the huge amount of preparation that has gone into this campaign.

In an attempt to understand how warming up your backers can lead to crowdfunding success, I’ve broken down the key steps the company undertook in the 7 weeks leading up to the campaign launch.

 

8 December 2014: Yeastie Boys announce their upcoming campaign via Tumblr. They also put out a press release.

9 December 2014: Story is picked up by The NBR, The New Zealand Herald, and Stuff.co.nz.

At this point, Yeastie Boys began publicising a mailing list for potential investors to sign up to.

This meant that they could communicate directly and regularly with the crowd that were interested in their offer.

This would have included customers and fans (who heard about the campaign through Facebook and Twitter), and those interested in the investment opportunity (via press coverage).

December 17 2014: Story picked up by Australian Brews News.

December 18 2014: Yeastie Boys release teaser video for the campaign.

22 December 2014: First share offer email goes out to mailing list subscribers. Yeastie Boys used the first email to explain why they wanted to crowdfund, as well as answering some basic investor questions.

This email is significant because it defines the type of investors Yeastie Boys were looking for. They wanted investors who were emotionally engaged with the beer, the brewers, and the Yeastie Boys story. In short, they wanted their customers and fans to invest for love of the product and brand. 

It also gave the answers to initial investor questions with well over a month to go before launch. Potential investors were given time to make a decision, and get to know the brand better.

11 January 2015: Story picked up by Yahoo’s ‘The Sip’.

16 January 2015: The second share offer email goes out to mailing list subscribers. Yeastie Boys begin to talk their subscribers through the pledging process and updating on campaign progress. They also announce three investor evenings in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

Over 600 people are subscribed to the mailing list at this point in time. Yeastie Boys are encouraging questions, and getting out to meet their fans.

This email came with some solid information about their plans – including the financial stuff (questions about the share offer – how much they are selling, at what price), and the business stuff (what they plan to do with the money, and how it will impact business).

22 January 2015: Second press release issued inviting media to the launch and pub crawl following.

24 January 2015: Third share offer email goes out to mailing list subscribers. This email released the share offer document to potential investors, as well as encouraged discussion and announced the release of a new beer.

The release of the share offer document was brilliant. By this stage the mailing list was at almost 750 potential investors.

All the questions were answered. You could read through and understand who Yeastie Boys were, how they got there, what they stood for, and what they wanted to do.

It also provided all the financial information required to make an informed business decision on the investment itself.   The share offer document was well formatted, thorough, and easy to understand.

If you believed in Yeastie Boys, and you were comfortable with the performance and projections, you had all the information you needed to invest – one week before the campaign went live.

25 January 2015: Press released issued to announce release of the offer document.

26 January 2015: Stu and Sam head to Christchurch for the first investor question evening at craft beer pub, Pomeroys.

27 January 2015: Stu and Sam head to Auckland for the second investor question evening at craft beer pub, Brother’s Beer.

I attended the event at Auckland. It was pretty well attended and everyone had a glass of Yeastie Boys off the tap.

Stu and Sam told the history of the company, explained their goals, and took questions from a very engaged audience. It was clear to me in that moment that this would be a launch that was going to go well.

The campaign is also covered by Idealog.

28 January 2015: Launch Day Support pours in from all angles all day. Fellow breweries are pledging their support on Twitter, as are local craft beer pubs.

Dig out the cheque book folks, @yeastieboys @pledgeme starts today… pic.twitter.com/WKHZ4EKrto — Little Beer Quarter (@LBQWelly) January 28, 2015

Sending good vibes to @yeastieboys – all the best for the share offer launch today! @pledgeme https://t.co/9AGEXfvn6d pic.twitter.com/fztZt24kPH — Tuatara Brewery (@TuataraBrew) January 27, 2015

Manawatu Standard publishes a piece on the campaign.

4:30pm – Wellington Investor Evening at Little Beer Quarter.

5:59pm – Mailing list subscribers receive campaign link (launch email).

6:00pm – Bell ringing and launch at Goldings Free Dive. Campaign launches.

6:04pm – The campaign has raised $100,000.

6:17pm – A $50,000 pledge takes it past the $350,000 minimum raise mark – the campaign is successful.

6:28pm – The campaign hits $500,000 pledged and is over.

There is a great blog about the launch, including facts and figures over on the PledgeMe blog.

 

Takeaways

The truth is this campaign wasn’t magic. It’s the product of many years hard work and dedication.

Yeastie Boys’ success ultimately came down to good business, a great product, and a bunch of forever fans who wanted to join Sam and Stu as they took the company to the UK and beyond. This campaign is the result of 6 years of dedication.

But it is also the result of 6 weeks pre-communication. The speed at which this offer sold out came down to the fact that people knew they wanted in – and had all the information they needed to make that decision – before the campaign went live.

The warm up period is crucial for success, and Yeastie Boys did a fabulous job pulling it off. Well done guys!

Links

Learn more about equity crowdfunding

Learn more about equity crowdfunding on PledgeMe

Yeastie Boys: Website, Twitter, Facebook

Share offer document