Savvy Navvy · navigation app for boats
Tell crowd investors the good, the bad and the ugly in every update
Won Seedrs Entrepreneur of the Year, voted by investors; enabled repeat rounds
Workedfinancing
What they did
From the first investor letter, promised to share 'the good, the bad, and the ugly' and keeps a direct, open line with the long tail of investors behind the platform. Publicly states what each round's money is for and reports back 12-18 months later before asking for more.
What happened
Won the Seedrs Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2019, voted by investors, for this communication; raised repeat rounds from the same crowd.
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · Why He Crowdfunded Millions Instead of Raising VC — Jelte Liebrand, Savvy Navvy“I said it from the very first letter to investors that I wrote, "I'm going to share the good, the bad, and the ugly. We're in this together”
Related topics
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More from this episode
- Savvy Navvy: Raise money from your own users through equity crowdfunding instead of VCFirst round 3x oversubscribed in 6 days; ~£1M rounds since; 2,500 investors
- Savvy Navvy: Walk the docks with a clipboard and ask every boater what bugs themShowed the problem went far beyond ocean racers; founder says it convinced him
- Savvy Navvy: Put your app in one standout boat maker's dashboard, then announce itMany more manufacturers came asking than expected; now a B2B business
- Savvy Navvy: Include 12 months of the app with new boats, paid for by the boat makerFounder says it feeds a consumer-to-manufacturer flywheel; no numbers
- Savvy Navvy: Give boating instructors the app free and build the teaching tools they ask forInstructors send students to it first; founder says no numbers
- Savvy Navvy: Sell a two-year plan at about 30% off to get cash up frontBiggest win of the year; ad spend now paid back as soon as it's spent
- Savvy Navvy: Skip sign-up entirely and create a hidden anonymous account insteadLooked great in the test, fell apart at full rollout; support grief erased gains
- Savvy Navvy: Offer a free tier in the US but charge from day one elsewhere
- Savvy Navvy: Stop all email marketing