What factors contribute to successful crowdfunding campaigns? An Examination of Technology Startups in the US and Canada

Abstract

The main goal of this research is to analyze different trends and aspects of startups who use crowdfunding in order to better understand not only which firms make the most during this process, but what other factors at play allow them to succeed. Within a sample of technology startups in both the United States and Canada who have used either equity or product crowdfunding, different variables were analysed and coded to see how they impact the total crowdfunding amount. Literature supports that those crowdfunding campaigns in which the consumer has more agency will be more successful, or have a higher total crowdfunding amount. It is found that product crowdfunding has a larger impact on how much capital a campaign raises, and the reasoning behind this lay within different economic theories such as network effects, symmetrical knowledge, and consumer behavior.