Two female entrepreneurs bring to life a crowdfunding platform which has helped raise more than Rs. 6 crore
Wishberry is a new way to bring creative & innovative ideas to life. Lack of money and social validation discourages people from pursuing their creative passions in India.
It strongly believes that the only solution to this problem is to democratize funding through an online platform. People who connect with ideas can back these ideas with funding, not for charity or for any monetary return, but simply for making ideas happen.
Wishberry’s mission is to build a community of believers who back ideas and who can help India produce more creative entrepreneurs such as filmmakers, musicians, writers, dancers and theatre artists.
“The main challenge faced was during the seed round. It was difficult to sell the idea to investors because it’s a new industry globally. The concept that Wishberry worked on was unproven, and the scale of crowdfunding for creative projects is not the same as conventional ecommerce startups.”, says Rajesh Kumar, Head, Digital Marketing, Wishberry.in
Another challenge the co-founders faced was the bias against female entrepreneurs. There’s this common notion across the industry that women don’t make great entrepreneurs due to juggling priorities. Shattering this glass ceiling has been one hell of a task.
Wishberry is working on improving the product itself, making user experience, engagement and campaign discovery much faster and smoother. It is also in the process of building an app which would make crowdfunding very convenient and user friendly.
“Social Media for Empowerment Awards help us validate the idea of leveraging social media and build a strong community.This really helps us validate and drive home the point even better. We hope this encourages our community to make full use of the power of social media.”,says Anand.
“One of our biggest learnings is that the notion that Indians don’t support art & culture is a big myth. The perception that Indians open up their wallets only for social causes has been shattered as we saw that an average Indian donated close to Rs 7000 while funding a creative project.” Adds Anand.
Website: www.wishberry.in
Facebook: www.facebook.com/wishberry.in
Twitter: www.twitter.com/Wishberry_in
