Here we go folks. The future of the pubic access to the Ivan Tomato is hanging in the balance. Together we are going to save this tomato and it is going to happen through a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo at www.indiegogo.com.
What is crowdfunding you may ask? Well it is a wonderful change in the way entrepreneurs, inventors, designers, artists, and dreamers can bring their products to market. In the past when a group would have a project like the Ivan Tomato Rescue Project they would have to go to investors, banks or the USDA to raise funds. Most often they would let the opportunity skip them by and watch the food supply continue to shrink. Securing capital for such a venture would have been rather difficult or even impossible to achieve.
Well thankfully, today we have crowdfunding sites like Indiegogo and Kickstarter. On these web sites the inventor of an item or a project can bring that item to market directly to the consumer. There is no need for expensive distributors, wholesalers, or any other middle men that would jack-up the price of a product and reduce the actual proceeds that get back to the inventor.
Another great aspect of crowdfunding is that the manufacturer gets a real idea of what will work and what exactly their customers want. A project like the “Coolest Cooler” that raised over 13 million dollars from over 62,000 backers is an example of one that went really really well. The inventor did not know if his loaded cooler was going to resonate with an audience but it turns out it did in a big way. If he had tried to market the cooler, to some camping gear store, there is no way he would have had the same response.
So crowdfunding takes the control and puts it back in the hands of the inventors and the customers. It allows the customer to choose which projects, items, or causes they want to get involved in. The customers is secure in the knowledge, that the money they are spending, ends up in the hands of the inventor not in the hands of some middlemen.
The inventor gets to work first hand with customers and supporters that want to be part of the project. It is a win-win situation and saves the inventors from losing control of their project to investors, banks and venture capitalists. It also brings projects to market that would have stayed in dreams and minds alone.
Come the November the Ivan Tomato Rescue Project is going to go to Market on Indiegogo. We will offer seed package, t-shirts, aprons, stickers and our gracious thanks to all that will help us make the dream of saving the Ivan a reality. Watch for upcoming information on our campaign.