It seems perfect for us. To pick a random example, there are teachers in Japan who can save a few yen but find it very difficult to invest well locally, and certainly shouldn’t invest in the shrinking ELT market by, for example, starting their own school. Crowdfunding seems like the perfect way to link them up with people in poor but rapidly expanding countries where it would take teachers forever to save enough to start their own business but when they do so it should rapidly expand. (I’m sure people with more imagination than me can also think of much better ideas than just setting up a school).
We also have a really buzzing blogosphere/ Twittersphere who could quickly spread the word and get people interested.
I know at least one person who is looking into it (for an online venture). Anyone think it is a good idea? Or anyone want to warn us off it?
TEFLtastic 
Hi Guys.
Crowdsourcing is a new concept that allows for ideas to get funded by donations from friends, family and contacts, as well as the general public at large. It is NOT an investment. It is a donation. You don’t get shares nor a return on your money. Only the satisfaction of having helped someone reach their dream. If you want to support the idea and the person(s), you give anywhere from $10 to $5,000 Dollars. Hopefully the money is well spent. You do get small-ticket item for your help (book, movie, game, etc…). Indiegogo is one such website for this. No limits on money to be raised nor ideas. One person is raising money for an operation for a stray dog. I am raising money for my EFL game Phrazzle Me. Please have a look and help if you can
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It’s crowdfunding rather than crowdsourcing (which is the name for how Wikipedia gets written), and it seems to have both your definition and the one of being lots of little investors who get a share of the profits:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowd_funding
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I’d love to see someone make this work so that others can use that example, but I really don’t think yours is a very good example Marcelo. You’re asking for money for a purely commercial venture without offering the investors any money in return. I could understand it if the product would be offered cheap or free or if the profits would go to charity, but this one just seems to be you asking people for money so you can make yourself rich.
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I already give games to Chilean and El Salvador Schools, Alex.
I am trying to teach English to the world in a fun way and giving along the way.
Really read about crowdsourcing, Alex. No one gives profits to donors.
I’ve donated to 3 good causes already…just to help.
I think you are being totally unfair.
When I get to China, the price of the game will drop from $79.95 to $29.95.
What esle could you ask for?
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I didn’t read the page in detail, but I imagine most potential investors will be in the same position and as someone quickly reading I don’t think you made your case very well. The question is – why should I give my money to your venture rather than to any other business or charity?
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There is nothing wrong with money or wanting to live well. The real question is: Is your game worth 80 dollars? I might pay a dollar. Two at most. I haven’t looked too much into your game but I’m not sure it would produce a lot of language.
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I haven’t seen the game but it got a good review on TEFL.net (https://www.tefl.net/elt/reviews/esl-games/phrazzle-me/) and of course anything is worth whatever people will pay for it. However, it does sound like something that could be offered as a free photocopiable version, which does rather undermine your argument that you need 10,000 to 100,000 dollars to spread it over the world to help people learn English. So, that takes us back to you asking for money to help you make more money. If you really could sell a million copies in the first year at 30 dollars a go, why on earth would the people who had helped you raise the money not get a share of that 30,000,000 dollars? And then there is how much money you could make if your claim that it could be more popular than Scrabble could be true…
I have so many other questions that it is hardly possible to list them all:
– What will you do with the money if you raise less than the money you need to go to China?
– Will the money you raise be enough for the downpayment to the Chinese company for them to actually begin production? How many copies are you planning for an initial run?
– Couldn’t you just contact a Chinese company in Chile or Chilean agent and do it from there?
– How will you get it into retailers?
– If it really has such potential and the most important thing is the number of copies sold to help people learn English (see above for my doubts on this), why not just sell it to Hasbro, Mattel or one of the big ELT publishers?
– What is the evidence for a large pent up demand that isn’t being met due to the price or lack of supply?
– Could it really be fun for native English speakers?
– If it is such a sure bet, why won’t a bank lend you the money?
I hope you can take this constructive criticism from someone who has supported you a lot until now, and hope it will help you come up with a more successful proposal
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“of course anything is worth whatever people will pay for it”
How many teachers have paid 80 dollars for it? If just five or ten people, does that mean it’s worth 80 dollars? If 10,000 people were willing to pay 20 dollars for it and 10 people for 80, how much should it be sold for? So it’s worth 20 dollars to some and 80 to other people. I think most poor English teachers like me would agree that it isn’t worth $80 dollars or even better, I just count in how many days of work. :-)
When starting any business, the most obvious question anyone should ask is, “Is there a market for it?” In this case, the answer is probably yes. The next logical question is, “Could it be profitable?” The question is, would you pay 80 dollars per game to play with your ESL students? I wouldn’t.
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If you read his proposal, it seems like you’re actually agreeing with his business idea, Dan.
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With only 800 words, it’s going to be more limited than Scrabble. It’s a good idea, but I can see sentence fatigue creeping in, and possibly the generation of grammatically sound sentences that are meaningless.
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Perhaps my response was vague. I think the proposal is far-out and far-fetched. You and I don’t really need to say much to him. He will find out one way or the other. I haven’t been on vacation in a year and a half. Perhaps I will start a kickstarter page and ask for a million dollars to fund my dream of going on vacation for five years. For your “investment”, I’ll send you own of those “all I got was this lousy coffee mug” type of souveniers. :) Anyway, to clear things up, I agree with just about all of your observations, Alex.
P.S. I’m still waiting for you to set up a donate button. ;)
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own* = one
Excuse my typo. :)
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