The Crowdfunding Formula Review (taking credit for LaunchBoom campaigns?)

A few days ago, someone told me The Crowdfunding Formula (TCF) has been promoting a webinar called “Unlocking The Secrets Of Successful Hotel Crowdfunding.” On the surface, there’s nothing wrong with an educational webinar. But once I went to the page, I was surprised by what I saw.

There are many parts of the page that are extremely misleading at best and outright dishonest at worst.

The majority of the campaigns they use to promote the webinar are LaunchBoom campaigns that they did not work on. This not only misleads creators, but diminishes the work of my team who worked hard to launch these hotel crowdfunding projects.

Unfortunately, in the crowdfunding space, it can be difficult to know who to trust. Especially when it’s easy to make claims that are hard to disprove. For that reason, I felt it was important to share the facts and let the creator community be the judge.

Fact check #1: The Crowdfunding Formula (TCF) did not work on two of the three campaigns they promote at the top of the page.

Screenshot of top section of TCF’s webinar page

Starting from the top of the landing page, the three campaigns shown are Mirror Hotel, Nomad’s Pad, and Oculis Lodge.

The Crowdfunding Formula did not work on Mirror Hotel or Nomad’s Pad. They did work on Oculis Lodge.

LaunchBoom launched and worked on Mirror Hotel, Nomad’s Pad, and Oculis Lodge. If you want proof, just click on the links and see our banner at the bottom of each campaign page.

TCF doesn’t explicitly say that they worked on all three of these campaigns, but they also don’t explicitly say that they did not work on all these campaigns.

The distinction is important.

Fact check #2: The Crowdfunding Formula (TCF) did not work on two of the three campaigns they are promoting in the Raise Funds section.

The “Raise Funds” section of TCF’s webinar page

If you scroll further down the page, there is a section titled “Raise Funds.” They list three campaigns in a slider. The three campaigns are Mirror Hotel, Nomad’s Pad, and Oculis Lodge.

Like I said before, The Crowdfunding Formula did not work on Mirror Hotel or Nomad’s Pad. They did work on Oculis Lodge. LaunchBoom launched and worked on all three campaigns: Mirror Hotel, Nomad’s Pad, and Oculis Lodge.

Fact check #3: The Crowdfunding Formula (TCF) includes two comments from two campaigns they did not work on.

The “Gather Engaged Community” section of TCF’s webinar page

In the “Gather Engaged Community” section on their webinar page, they include four comments from backers of hotel crowdfunding campaigns.

The first comment is from the Bubble Hotels Indiegogo campaign.

The Crowdfunding Formula did not work on Bubble Hotels.

You can see the full comment below with a response from Bubble Hotels:

LaunchBoom launched Bubble Hotels in 2020 and raised $830,381. It’s the very first hotel campaign ever launched on Indiegogo. This is where we identified the opportunity for launching hotels through crowdfunding.

The second comment is from the Mirror Hotel Indiegogo campaign.

The Crowdfunding Formula did not work on Mirror Hotel.

You can see the full comment below with a response from the founder of Mirror Hotel:

LaunchBoom launched Mirror Hotel in 2023 and raised $1,716,192. As of today, it is still the most funded hotel campaign ever in crowdfunding. No other companies or contractors worked on the campaign.

The last two comments are from the Oculis Lodge campaign.

The Crowdfunding Formula and LaunchBoom worked on Oculis Lodge.

There’s nothing misleading about including the last two comments on this page, since TCF worked on that campaign. But the first two comments are from campaigns they did not work on.

Fact check #4: The Crowdfunding Formula (TCF) mentions that MoonPass Lookouts used their Prelaunch software, but they used LaunchKit. (UPDATED 6/22/23)

Screenshot of free PDF given after sign up on TCF’s webinar page

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UPDATE 6/22/23: I was incorrect that there was no Prelaunch page for MoonPass Lookouts. Narek, the CEO of The Crowdfunding Formula sent me a link to MoonPass Lookout’s Prelaunch page via LinkedIn.

I’ll update the review if more information comes to light.

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If you sign up for the webinar, you will be sent a PDF called, “9 Essential Tips for a Successful Hotel Crowdfunding Campaign.”

Tip number three talks about the prelaunch stage. They claim that MoonPass Lookouts used Prelaunch (their software). MoonPass Lookouts is a client of LaunchBoom and The Crowdfunding Formula. The Crowdfunding Formula worked on the campaign page design, PR, and live campaign advertising.

MoonPass Lookouts did not use The Crowdfunding Formula for the prelaunch or use their software.

In fact, they used LaunchBoom’s software called LaunchKit to set up their reservation funnel for the prelaunch. You can see MoonPass Lookouts’s landing page within the LaunchKit landing page builder below:

All of the prelaunch ads were run by a LaunchBoom Expert. The most effective part of the strategy was having a $50 deposit to reserve the product at a 50% discount.

You can see the reservation page on LaunchKit below:

Here were the final prelaunch metrics before going into launch:

• $60,011.14 on Facebook ads
• 902 reservations at $50 deposit
• $45,100 deposit revenue

You can see a screenshot from Facebook ads manager to prove these metrics:

Because we were able to drive $45,100 in deposit revenue during the prelaunch, Kristie Wolfe, the client, was only out of pocket $14,911.14 going into the launch.

When the campaign launched, we raised $95,662 on the first day.

Fact check #5: The Crowdfunding Formula (TCF) uses an image of a campaign they did not work on in a Facebook post promoting their webinar.

Screenshot of TCF’s Facebook post promoting their webinar

This Facebook post uses an image of Nomad’s Pad to promote their webinar. As you already know by this point, Nomad’s Pad was a LaunchBoom campaign and The Crowdfunding Formula did not work on it.

The Response from Narek Vardanyan, The Crowdfunding Formula’s CEO

I posted about this situation publicly on LinkedIn. You can see my original post along with the response from Narek Vardanyan, The Crowdfunding Formula’s CEO.

Here’s my original post:

Here’s Narek’s response:

I responded to Narek’s LinkedIn post with two comments. Here’s the first:

Here’s the second comment:

Here’s Narek’s response:

Here’s my final response:

Closing thoughts

I want to be clear about three things.

First, I am not saying that TCF doesn’t do good work on the campaigns they’ve worked on.

Second, I have no problem with TCF educating creators about hotel crowdfunding. Bringing more awareness to this opportunity in crowdfunding is a good thing in my book.

Third, I have no problem with multiple companies working on the same campaign. It creates a healthy crowdfunding industry and we recommend our clients to other trusted companies on nearly every campaign.

This post is about something different.

I don’t support the way they are promoting the webinar. In my opinion, featuring campaigns they did not work on, without giving credit to those who did, is dishonest and misleading.

There were many LaunchBoom team members who worked hard to make those launches successful. By not giving them credit, The Crowdfunding Formula diminishes their work and steals the recognition they deserve.

It’s easy to make claims online that are difficult to disprove. This makes it hard to know who to trust in the crowdfunding industry. I hope the information I shared leads to The Crowdfunding Formula removing campaigns they did not work on and allows creators to make a more informed decision.