Crowdfunding: Potato Salad and Beyond

There’s an urban legend about a guy who posted a crowdfunding cause to “help him make the best damn potato salad,” and the legend is, he made a couple of thousand dollars doing it.

I did some digging on the world wide web and was able to verify that this did occur in 2014 on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter. The guy made Zack Danger Brown didn’t just make a couple thousand, he made $55,000 just posting a prank. With the money, he threw a huge party called Potato Stock.

Imagine what you can do as an entrepreneur or philanthropist who has a real cause or really great idea for a product or business. If you aren’t sure what type of crowdfunding site is right for you, I found two great articles that might help you weigh your options.

In doing this research, I came across a lending site that I had never heard of called Lending Club. In short, they link individuals and small business owners to investors through their platform. I’m going to be researching this one more in-depth as part of my ENT 650 coursework.

Additional Resources:

Rogers, S. (2014). Entrepreneurial Finance: Third Edition, Finance and Business Strategies for the Serious Entrepreneur. 279-294.

Author: blueridgemtntwinmama

Blue Ridge Mtn native. Trying to live my best life and achieve "good person" status. Wife to a freelance/self-publishing author, A.D. White. I'm an HR & OD leader and my most fun title is "mama" to my cute, funny, and mischievous b/g twin babies. I also have a day job as an HR, OD, Engagement, and Leadership professional in the hospital & health care industry. I have an associate's degree in Art, a bachelor's degree in Ethics and Social Institutions, and a masters' degree in Entrepreneurship. I write about my gorgeous life in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western NC, raising twins, strengths-based leadership, and I even write about business and the entrepreneurial spirit sometimes. Dang, I love a good side hustle!

2 thoughts on “Crowdfunding: Potato Salad and Beyond”

  1. Hey Nancy,

    I had a good laugh at the start. I too had heard of that story and wasn’t sure if he was true after doing research about Kickstart as a crowdfunding platform. I think that these platforms offer uniqueness in that each one slightly differs from the next. Some of the crowdfunding forms are the same with many of the same requirements and outlines for what constitutes a product or company for starting up their own crowdfunding campaign.

    Your right in your thinking of what if you had an actual project or product that could be used to solve industry problems and help individuals live their lives. Gaining that momentum behind a great idea could be done through crowdfunding. Excellent insight.

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  2. Hi Nancy! The potato salad story is quite funny. It shows what people are able to do when they access their community and simply ask for help to fund an idea, no matter how crazy! Lending Club is not in the crowdfunding limelight like Kickstarter and GoFundMe, but it seems they are specifically trying to help lenders/investors meet entrepreneurs.
    JOY

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