New platform introduces "crowdfunding 3.0"

Australian start-up, Joey Crowd, refers to itself as crowdfunding 3.0. The ultimate goal of raising funds for start-ups remains the same, however the platform also provides a social media dashboard and a blogger community (called the Street Team), which subscribers can use to drive publicity for their campaign. Furthermore, the platform provides an e-commerce store where users can sell their products after a successful crowdfunding campaign has been completed.

It's called Joey Crowd, and it's marketing itself as crowdfunding 3.0. Its main goal is to combine a number of aspects of the average crowdfunding campaign — letting you manage your social media from your campaign on Joey Crowd, and even connecting you with influencers in your niche.

It's got the ideas, it's got the slick website, but now it just needs the momentum that has made its competitors Kickstarter and Indiegogo a cultural force in the world of startups and entrepreneurs. Fellow Australian crowdfunding platform Pozible also relaunched its service recently, but it can be harder for small platforms to compete against the sites that practically invented crowdfunding — indeed 'Kickstarter' is often used as an interchangeable term for any kind of crowdfunding campaign.

Joey Crowd isn’t seeking to redefine crowdfunding, but to add something.

Joey Crowd isn't seeking to redefine crowdfunding. It still has many of the familiar features — projects have a goal, a time limit and backer rewards. They have a pitch that is headlined by a video, and allow creators to post updates on their projects.

Beyond these functions, however, it adds something to the regular crowdfunding formula. This begins with a social media dashboard powered by KnackMap that is built right into your campaign manager. From here, campaign managers can compare results to their preset goals, manage communities and pre-schedule campaign posts all in one place.