Raising Money
Being able to raise capital successfully can make a big difference for any project. But raising capital is not easy. Many great initiatives fail because the founders don’t have the connections or the ability to convince investors to raise enough capital.
There is much in common between convincing people to become investors, and convincing them to become customers. That’s why sales techniques and training can be very relevant and greatly increase an individual fundraiser’s results. Those who believe in their project, and know the what, when and how of presenting it, can do better.
Group Dynamics
But what if wasn’t just about individual sales skill and charisma? What if there were even more powerful factors at play in closing a round of funding – namely in the area of group psychology? Consider the video below, which I ran across a decade ago, and served as the inspiration for Intercoin’s approach for reliably raising capital. It’s called “Leadership Lessons from the Dancing Guy”:
Notice how the snowball effect builds as each new follower is seen publicly by other potential followers going from a No/Maybe to a Yes, and the other followers embracing and celebrating it. Realize how quickly the balance can tip in the direction of a Yes, not just from one person, but from an entire community.
Intercoin can help you automate may aspects of your fundraising and put it on autopilot, letting you focus on what you do best, and being your authentic self. Things start to work out not because of your sales skill, but because the group dynamics are aligned properly.
Private and Public
The key to building momentum is to have a system that keeps certain things private and makes certain things public. Conversations that involve some friction and effort to convince, and could lead to a Yes or No, should be done in private. Thus, you might meet with investors 1 on 1, and pitch them. There are lots of tactics here, which I teach about in my course, but which I won’t go very deeply into here. Instead, in this post, I will talk about strategy, and how Intercoin software can automate it.
How To Handle a No
There is one powerful tactic though, that I will share here. When you privately pitch an investor, and they say no, the best reply I have found is:
No worries, I totally understand where you’re coming from. Would you like us to stay in touch and circle back to you when the round is almost closed?
Instead of fighting against their decision, accept it but then offer them an option to spend more time, get much more information, including the fact that many others have joined and the investment has been de-risked. The same investor who said no could very well come in later, especially if they see a much more famous investor enters the round in the meantime. The option costs them very little. Most of the investors reply “Sure, that sounds good.” The no’s suddenly turn to “Maybes”.
At this point, you tell them that you have an official Telegram group, share the link with them, make sure they join it, and and invite their colleagues to it as well. It’s the one necessary action they have to do, in order to follow the progress of your business and your round.
If they don’t have Telegram, consider sharing your own community web site – we help you build those, as well! Intercoin helps set you up with your own Telegram group, channel, bots, mini-apps, web site, and blockchain solutions, to help raise money on autopilot.
What You Should Do Next
Remember the snowball phenomenon in the Dancing Guy video? Well, the Intercoin solutions are built in order to generate that very phenomenon – potentially resulting in most investors, who originally said No, ending up investing.
Suppose we’ve got 50 investors who said No, and out of those, 40 became a Maybe when you proposed they subscribe to your channel . (Only channel admins can see subscribers, so subscribing to a channel might feel more private to an investor than joining a group). Your Investor Relations Bot (which we build for you) could also reach out to them and involve them in a small conversation.
One major key to the system is that the Maybes aren’t able to post in the group or channel – they can only observe posts made by others, and react with your curated emojis like 
etc. They just keep seeing your announcements, and positive comments in the related Telegram group from people who did invest.
If even one of the 40 Maybe investors “defects” and ends up investing in the round (e.g. privately through you or your bot) then as part of their investment, you have them record a video message telling everyone how excited they are, and why they ultimately chose to go from a Maybe to a Yes, becoming an investor. You then give them the ability to post in the group, and make sure to post their video in there as well!
Now, the other 39 Maybe investors gets the notification that one of them chose to say Yes and invest. They see the video of someone who was in the same situation as them, and chose to invest. They se the other investors in your “inner circle” congratulating them, and may even add their own emojis celebrating their choice.
Now, if even one of the remaining 39 Maybe investors “defects” the cycle repeats again, and the snowball effect gets stronger. First one… then two… then suddenly half the investors join. Suddenly the scales tip and you’re getting tons of investors reconsidering, being more likely to come in than not!
Notice, also, that if you started with 100 investors, the probability is even more overwhelming that one of them will “defect”. Then all the remaining 99 investors get this news, and are tempted to “defect” next. By setting things up in a smart way that takes into account group dynamics, you flip the probabilities exponentially in your favor – approaching each new investor using the Intercoin Fundraising System exponentially increases the chances that the majority of them will invest.
Even assuming each investor is 99% against investing, and always makes an independent decision unaffected by any momentum or psychology, the probability of the snowball effect not kicking off becomes 99% to the 100th power, which is a mere 3.6%! And from there, the probability of it not having a second “defector” is 99% to the 999th power, which is 3.7%, and so on.
One could say “the FOMO becomes real”. But this investment isn’t primarily based on fear – it’s based on social proof and peer pressure. If you want to add real FOMO, you can make the price gradually go up, or cut off the ability to buy in after a certain amount has been raised, making people wait until the next round.
Set up a meeting with us and let’s discuss how Intercoin can help you make your next fundraise a success: