How protein-coffee company, brüst, raised 159% of their target by championing their fans

brüst is a growing beverage company crafting functional cold-brewed coffees striking a balance of taste and performance.

In 2023, they raised on FrontFundr with the goal of attaining $250,000 in investment to expand operations and to strengthen their industry position by amplifying marketing efforts and focusing on sales and inventory management.

Leveraging a highly engaged community of fans comprised of both customers and supporters, brüst centered its campaign strategy on activating this passionate base.

Brüst’s raise in a snapshot

• They hit 159% of their $250,000 target raising $398,563 from 223 investors in just 3 months.
• brüst’s investment activity followed the typical ‘smile curve’ with 61% of the total number of investments and 67% of the investment volume raised within the first and last three weeks of the campaign.
• The recommended FrontFundr strategy is to first establish a strong organic strategy before moving to a paid strategy at the halfway point of the campaign. For brüst, their email marketing strategy complemented by organic social media promotions was so effective, that they didn’t need a paid advertising strategy to reach their goal.
• Benefiting from a strong community in Toronto, the company’s home base, 70% of investors were located in Ontario and 74% were retail or non-accredited.
• brüst offered unique perks including a chance to “play tennis with Denis”, featuring professional tennis player Denis Shapovalov, a brüst investor and ambassador.
• The founders took the initiative to personally call each investor addressing any questions they had to drive investment conversion.

Converting your community helps attract new investors

Each campaign on FrontFundr starts with a private launch. This “invite-only” phase of the campaign is designed to build early traction with people who are already supporters of your company. Before launching publicly on FrontFundr, companies need to first secure 40% of their target raise and 20 investors with this social proof helping to convert new investors who are not yet familiar with the brand.

When the campaign launched privately, brüst immediately began reaching out to existing shareholders and friends, family, and business associates. Following early investments for $5k, $10k, and $25k, they gave their customers an exclusive opportunity to invest before launching the campaign to the public.

“You don't need to be an investment firm or some fancy sophisticated investor - you simply need to be a fan of brüst.”
- Excerpt from their launch email

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With a great product and a strong brand, brüst’s community was excited to invest. Brust moved to a public launch two weeks after their private launch having secured $192k or 77% of their target raise from 45 investors.

Personal connection is important for closing investors

Recognizing the significance of personal connections in garnering investor trust, the founders focused on direct outreach especially as the campaign was approaching its closing date. In addition to emails, campaign updates, and social media posts, the founders personally reached out via phone to every potential investor who had visited the page. 

brüst used their FrontFundr campaign dashboard to find the contact information for investors. The objective of the phone calls was to convey the brand's story, share the vision, address any questions, and make each investor feel integral to brüst's journey.

brüst put their community at the heart of their raise

“Crowdfunding can be a powerful marketing tool to promote our brand to potential investors and build a community of supporters. Most exciting, crowdfunding helps us turn our fans into evangelists. This army of new investors will help spread the word of brüst to their friends and family helping drive buzz, awareness, additional investment, and sales on-shelf.”
- Josh Barr, Co-Founder @ brüst

brüst achieved success by valuing their community. Beyond offering their customers to invest before the general public, they were committed to thanking them for their support over the years and were thrilled to invite them on an incredible journey as co-owners.

To learn more about raising capital on FrontFundr, visit our raise capital page. If you’re ready to reach out to our team, fill out our online application!

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