Why Crowdfunding for Software Development?

Software development is a very broad area, covering traditional "shrink-wrap" software, web-based applications, open source software, mobile apps, video games, and much more. One common theme across all software development segments is – there's never enough funding for important projects. In today's economic climate of increasingly reduced budgets, many "killer apps" are not getting funded. Crowdfunding represents a brand new funding paradigm enabling you to reach out to the "crowd" and fill the holes in your budget by collecting a large number of small pledges from the people having the most to gain from giving you a helping hand – the end user community itself. It costs you nothing to give crowdfunding a try and get on a path of an on-going source of funding for your software development projects.

What Areas of Software Development are of Interest?

FundaGeek is for projects in all areas of software development – traditional "shrink-wrap" software that you purchase and install on your computer or network, web-based applications such as e-commerce websites, open source software like your favorite operating system (Linux) or web server (Apache), mobile apps (check out iTunes!), innovative video games coming from independent developers like you, and much more.

How Can Crowdfunding Help?

Crowdfunding is an excellent resource for securing much-needed funding for software development projects. As a viable alternative to angel and venture capital investor sources of funding, FundaGeek can help you realize your software development goals without having to give up any equity. A crowdfunded project can engage the end-user public who may benefit from the completion of the project. The power of crowds can deliver real results in helping to achieve your software development goals. An important side benefit of crowdfunding software development is that your public fundraising campaign also raises far-reaching awareness of you and your new software. Crowdfunding is a great PR tool for spreading the word about your software development project.

A software development campaign delivers whatever funding your project attracts by the end of the period since FundaGeek does not follow the "all or nothing" model like other crowdfunding sites.

What are Some Examples of Software Development Crowdfunding?

The type of software development projects appropriate for crowdfunding is very broad and across technical disciplines. Here are some examples:

• Game development
• Web application development, e.g. e-commerce sites
• Building new social media applications
• Support for open source software development
• Developing apps for mobile platforms
• Funding software upgrades

What are Some Ideas for Rewards that May be Offered for My Project?

Success with crowdfunding often translates into how compelling your rewards are. In order to attract pledges in support of your project, potential backers must perceive value in the rewards offered. Here is short list of suggested rewards for software development projects:

• Your software product at a discounted price
• A subscription (e.g. month, year) to a web service application
• The backer's name on a special web page with all your donors and a special thanks
• A Skype call with you and your development team describing the project's progress
• The supporter's name in a special credits screen in the software itself
• For open source projects, offer to implement a custom feature
• Name a new game level after a high pledge value supporter
• A t-shirt with your app logo on it and a "I funded this app!" printed on it