Society Nine, which makes products for women in mixed martial arts, reached its goal by securing donations from 548 backers.
BY JACOB PALMER | OB DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
A Portland-based startup has achieved its stated Kickstarter goal of surpassing $50,000 in funding.
Society Nine, which makes products for women in mixed martial arts, reached its goal by securing donations from 548 backers.
OregonLive.com reported on owner Lynn Le’s next step — using the money to ramp up “production, sales and team growth”:
“The $50,000 was the hugest thing,” Le said. “Now it’s communications management, finishing out the campaign strong, transitioning back into the production … and keeping our customers and backers informed and excited about our progress to get their products shipped.”
Le, a former fund associate with the Portland Seed Fund, hopes her women’s apparel and equipment brand will better serve a market niche she believes are underserved by big, mainstream apparel names. In addition to proceeding with product manufacturing, she is planning to use part of the Kickstarter funding to display product the UFC Fan Expo in Las Vegas, the Ultimate Fighting Championship event in July.
Real estate investment tries its own crowdfunding platform
Fairway America, a Portland-based small balance real estate investment company, is trying its own online platform that aims to connect entrepreneurs and investors.
The Portland Business Journal reports:
The platform, known as SBREfunds.com, allows SBRE entrepreneurs to obtain practical tools, resources, and insights to build and run small balance real estate pooled investment funds. It also enables them to directly connect with accredited, high-income, high net worth investors to raise capital for their funds. As of yesterday’s launch date, the fund managers listing their offerings on the site collectively had more than $70,000,000 in total assets under management.
“Our new SBREfunds.com community really caters to both important constituencies of pooled real estate investment funds – the managers and the investors,” said Matt Burk, CEO of Fairway America. “On one side, we provide SBRE entrepreneurs and fund managers all over the United States with experience and strategies on everything from how to create the right economic structure for various fund types, to raising capital effectively, to third party administration. On the other, we empower investors with key ideas about how to differentiate the offerings and mitigate risks sometimes associated with these pooled real estate based funds.”
