How do you fund an app with crowdfunding?

What do backers get instead of shares?

Access and recognition. A backer gets the app sooner, on better terms and with their name on it. They never get a share of the company, a share of the app, a token or a cut of the revenue.

That keeps it simple for both sides. You don't give away ownership before you know the app works, and nobody backs you expecting a payout. If you want partners who own part of it, that is a cofounder conversation, not a campaign.

What should the goal cover?

One working version, the smallest one people would use. Not the roadmap. The usual lines for an app or a software MVP:

• Design for the screens you'll ship.
• Paid help for what you can't build yourself, such as payments or a mobile build.
• Hosting, database and email services for the first year.
• App store developer accounts and a couple of test phones.
• Any reward that isn't the app itself.

For example: design $800, freelance help $1,500, a year of hosting and services $400, store accounts and test phones $300. That's $3,000. Add a margin for fees and the goal lands near $3,300. The goal planner runs it with your own figures.

Which rewards work for an app?

Rewards that cost you little and mean a lot to an early user:

• Beta access before the public launch.
• Founding member status: a badge in the app and a name on a founders page.
• A year of the paid plan.
• Lifetime access, for the top tier.
• The launch price locked for as long as they stay.
• A vote on the next feature.
• A setup call with the founder.
• Seats for a small team, for businesses that back it.

Keep it to three or four tiers. The reward tier planner shows what each one leaves you after costs.

How do you price lifetime access?

Against what that user costs you over years, not against what feels generous. A lifetime user keeps using servers, storage and your time long after the pledge is spent.

Price it so it is the top tier, not the default. Say in the reward what lifetime means: for as long as the app runs, and which features it includes. Clear words now save angry emails later.

When should you launch?

When people can try something: a clickable prototype, a beta, or a video of the real thing working. An app that exists only as an idea asks for a lot of trust.

Build a waitlist first, from the forums, groups and threads where your future users ask for this app. Those people make your first day. Then the share reward does the rest: set it from nothing up to 18.5% of each pledge, and whoever shares the link earns that share of every pledge it brings in, paid by the program in the same transaction.

What does it cost?

Writing and previewing a campaign costs nothing. Opening it costs $5 on the free plan. Each pledge pays 1.5% plus a flat $0.99, and any share reward you set comes out of the pledge too.

The percentage fee on a pledge follows the plan of the account making it. It's taken when the pledge is made, so it isn't returned if the campaign misses its goal. Paid plans aren't on sale today, so the published fee is the free plan's fee.

What if the goal is missed?

If the goal isn't met by the deadline, you take your pledge back from escrow with one tap, and nobody has to approve it. What comes back is the amount held for you: your pledge minus the fees taken when you backed (the platform fee, the flat fee, any tip and any share reward the campaign pays).

For an app, that is useful news early. You learn the version you pitched didn't find enough users before you spent a year building it, and you can change the pitch or the scope and try again.

How do you start?

1. Sign up in the app with email or Google.
2. Write what the app does, who it is for and what the money builds.
3. Set the goal, the deadline and your reward tiers.
4. Preview it, set the share reward and publish.
5. Send the link to your waitlist first.

How to raise money for your idea, from the free course, walks through the whole campaign. Everything you can fund has a guide for each kind of project, and every other question is in the answers.