case studyJune 2021
Treefort
Size of the team:
8 year round + 100+ seasonally.
Business model:
D2C
# of customers:
40,000 full festival passes sold. 133,000 attendees over 8 yrs
Amount raised/revenue pre-Wefunder:
$1.8M in annual revenue, growing at 17% every year
Accelerator alums:
N/A
Post-close care:
Mostly, direct investor communications related to perk fulfillment (ie. ticket discounts, access to secret shows at the festival). But, the founders intend to share Updates at intervals which make sense for Treefort’s timetable.
“Treefort already felt community-owned. It made sense for us to turn to our fans and invite them to become owners, rather than seeking external, corporate money.”
Co-founder / Festival Director / Talent Buyer, Eric Gilbert
At the speed of light ⚡
Treefort is a 5-day music + multidisciplinary arts festival of discovery in Downtown Boise, Idaho. They’ve had 133,000 total attendees over eight years of jamming & have featured thousands of bands from around the world like Lizzo, George Clinton, Liz Phair, & CHAI. They’re freaking dope & it was an honor to have them raise with us! The team raised funding from their community after having to postpone Treefort 9 due to the pandemic. They raised $372K on Wefunder from 956 investors, closing this past April – woot! Now let's dive into the awesome tactical tips we got from their co-founder & festival director Eric Gilbert:
Pre-Launch Prep
- Build out your pitch deck.This was the first time Treefort had to appeal to external stakeholders so it was their first go at the pitch deck rodeo! They spent time identifying the most compelling pieces of traction – stats, visuals, artist names, etc. – to demonstrate just how much value the festival brought to the Boise community.
- Hone your narrative.Relatedly, the founders spent time refining their narrative – how to best convey what Treefort was, its impact on the Boise community, and why they needed this funding. They then relayed this to their marketing team so that the storytelling would be consistent across the board.
- Pick your perks.As a festival, picking perks was pretty straightforward (a discounted rate for tickets to the next in person festival). Out-of-the-box perks are great but don’t be afraid to use perks related to how you’ve created value for customers before!
- Get ready to delight your investors.The team sent out custom “Treefort Community Owner” stickers to all of their investors. This is definitely a logistical lift but if your team has the bandwidth – it may be a worthwhile way to generate buy-in and even prompt investors to up their investments. Plus, Eric noted that investors would share photos of them with the stickers on social media – spreading the word about the raise to their networks.
- Get your financial info ready.Thanks to new laws, you can now wait to file your legal biz until after you’ve collected $50K in reservations! That said, we do recommend getting a jump on things somewhat early if you want to close and collect your funds ASAP.
Day of Launch Tactics
- Ping your customers and fans directly.The team had a massive email list with everyone who’d attended Treefort – ever! They were careful not to spam this list but did ping it a few times between launch and close.
- Get that press.Given the magnitude of its local impact, Treefort had been featured on the local NPR station many times. This made it relatively easy to get some airtime and promote the raise via the radio waves. If you don’t have established press connections – don’t fret! Start researching journalists near you on sites like helpareporter.com.
Tips for Pushing Past the Plateau
- Hop on socials.The team shared posts across their socials (Instagram, Twitter) to announce that the raise was live – inviting fans to become owners in the festival they love. They interspersed more posts directing followers to the raise throughout the round while continuing their regular flow of awesome photos & videos from past years.
- Try paid ads.The team did paid advertising on socials as well as YouTube. YT was a strong option since they had a reserve of incredible video footage – take stock of which type of assets are your strongest and then choose the platforms on which they’re most likely to catch people’s attention.
Nearing Close Tactics
- Read the room when choosing your close date.Eric and his co-founders took their foot off the gas with the fundraise over the holiday months (Nov-Dec). They knew the 2020 holiday season would likely be an emotionally tough, financially stressful time for people – especially on the heels of the election – so they wanted to be mindful of this. If you’re on a tighter timescale, this might not be an option. But, overall, it’s a good tactic to understand the larger cultural, social climate affecting the community you’re raising from and be as responsive to this climate as possible.
- Create your own ‘good timing.’Right as Treefort was wrapping up their raise in April, tickets for their 2021 ‘resurrection’ festival were going on sale! This made the investment deal even more enticing in the 11th hours – investors would be able to rock the “part owner” label and get early access to tickets at a discounted price! This could be tricky to replicate but syncing up closing your round with an exciting, new release or announcement powerfully creates enthusiasm (& a sense of urgency) in your fans.
- Send out snail mail.Similar to the stickers, sending out handwritten notes is a logistical lift. But, a few weeks before closing, the team sent our handwritten notes to any investors within a degree or two of the team members themselves & saw success with this tactic.
General Advice from Eric
Firstly, educate yourself about the Wefunder model; this’ll help you relay information to investors much more easily. Second, understand your intention with the raise. For example, in choosing their terms, they worked to strike a balance between a fiscally attractive deal and one that’s more centered on generating community value. They were purposeful in trying to attract people who understood that investing in Treefort was a community investment and shaping their contract terms around this.
Want to keep reading? Check out our other case studies.