Time flies when you’re busy and building things! Since day one we have been focussed on helping creatives and their projects find an audience and get the support they need to achieve their goals. Pozible was first founded in 2010, but since then we’ve launched over 15,656+ projects with a 56% success rate and over $97.4 million in total pledges raised across all campaigns, from independent album launches to sustainable farming—environmental movements to funding feature films.
And now we are 10 years old! In amidst everything else that’s going on in the world right now, we think that’s enough reason to celebrate. We want to share with you some of our favourite campaigns and reminisce about the good old days. There’s a lot to be thankful for, but also so much excitement to look forward to once we blow the candles out and get back to business!
Do you remember the first time you heard about Pozible or your first crowdfunding experience? We’d love to hear from everyone, send us your stories at info@pozible.com or tag us on social media @pozible on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter!
From our first video…
All the way to now
I’ll never forget the moment we decided to create Pozible (initially launched as FundBreak in 2010). Rick and I had just joined a new co-working space on Harris St in Ultimo in Sydney called Vibewire — a small youth space with a few spare desks that were rented to young people and changemakers working on really cool ideas. At 27, we were the oldest young people.
At this moment in time, we had been toiling away with a platform for emerging visual artists and help them sell through our new marketplace. It was our first venture together and it was tough. We had hundreds of artists showcasing their artwork but we were selling nothing. Literally nothing.
Just like many of the artists we were helping, we had so much passion for we had built, but we had no audience or route to building value for anyone. We were getting tired and needed something to get excited about. So, we decided on a side-project.
Inspired by a new music platform in Amsterdam called Sellaband, we decided to create a new platform for the visual artists to sell tickets and artwork to put on their first exhibition. We launched the platform in just 8 weeks — and before we had even launched, we had many other creatives and changemakers from Vibewire wanting to use the website.
Launch Day
On launch day, we launched with a mix of 4 projects mostly from people we met in the co-working space and our friends in the creative industry. During the first evening, a project launched from nowhere, a burlesque dancer from Brisbane was raising funds for the flight. It was successful in a just few hours. We couldn’t believe it — and we’ll never forget the buzz from that moment.
In 2010, the idea quickly gathered momentum amongst emerging creatives — and each success inspired 3–4 more projects to launch. By the end of the year — we struggled to keep up with things — and then New Matilda launched on 15th December 2010 and raised $175k+. This was game-changing for us — and provided a pathway to a sustainable platform.
We didn’t realise it then, but the coming of age of social media, online video and online payments had created the perfect opportunity for creative people and changemakers to quickly build and engaged with audiences and make $hit happen. We were so fortunate to launch a new service at the exact moment — the internet had changed forever and we were at the forefront.
Early Days
Because the concept was new, we gained a lot of support from media, industry influencers, and arts organisations. We were invited to hosted workshops across Australia and introduce the concept to each creative industry.
In early, 2011 in adopted the coined word ‘Crowdfunding’ and used this to explain what we did. Out tag line was “Crowdfund Creativity”. The word Crowdfunding was quickly adopted by some other new platforms internationally.
By mid-2011, we hit the $1M milestone and already started building a small team (of interns) to further accelerate the growth of the model.
Reward-based Crowdfunding
In 2012, Crowdfunding exploded and the number of campaigns hosted on Pozible grew exponentially. And for the first time, other industries outside of the music, film and creative industries were starting to look at this as a model to raise funds and capital to accelerate the time to get projects off the ground
Music and Film were by far our most popular categories for the first few years and they also continue to be the most popular application for crowdfunding — particularly reward-based crowdfunding internationally
In 2013, Pozible was no longer just a side project — it was our full-time gig and we dedicated ourselves to growing the model in Australia and explored other countries to grow our footprint.
We had time to explore partnerships with organisations — and we introduced the first-ever matched funding initiative to Crowdfunding through a 3 to 1 Match funding campaign. $350k was raised for a dozen films and documentaries in 48hrs. This inspired many domestic and international government organisations to adopt this initiative and help creatives engaged with new audiences and communities
Adoption by changemakers
Social change was in our blood from Day 1 — and we have been very proud to host, support and help may changemakers over the years.
Pozible will always continue to be an important platform for individuals, groups and organisations to raise awareness for they believe in, pitch a better world and raise the funds to make it massive.
First Brands
We hosted the first liquor campaign in the world — and no one could have foreseen the adoption by so many popular brands locally and internationally.
Equity Crowdfunding and other models
Internationally, the concept of Equity Crowdfunding was starting to gather pace. In the UK, a few notable brands had adopted the model and had inspired a new way of raising captial.
These brands had also inspired us to lobby for changes to legislation and regulations in Australia.
However… it wasn’t till 2017 that we’d see any movement on this front.
Birchal launch — our Equity crowdfunding brand and platform
In November 2017, we launched a sister platform called Birchal — a place for everyone to invest in the brands they love. In early 2018, legislation changed and we were provided one of the first CSF (Crowdsourced Funding) licenses by the ASIC.
Just like early days of Pozible, we’ve seen so many early adopters jump on the opportunity to invite others into their company. Notably, we’ve hosted changemakers, entrepreneurs and Pozible success stories.
Rebrand and the next 10 years
In late 2019, we celebrated the $90m milestone and we did our first rebrand in 10 years. The new branding and logo reflect our focus on community and connecting creators with an audience of supporters.
We also set our plans for the next phase of crowdfunding in Australia and beyond!
New Services, refining our product
We just launched a new Membership & Subscriptions service for ongoing support and patronage and we’re also introducing a Waitlist service for the earliest ideas to capture interested users.
We also offer our crowdfunding functionality to create your own stand-alone platform to run your own campaigns for your organisation.
.. and how we’ll adapt to a changing world
Keep an eye out for what we’ve been working on in lockdown.
