Crowd-funding site Project PowerUp hunts for start-ups

A Sydney entrepreneur say he’s looking for about 20 Australian start-ups in order to launch a new crowd-funding site aimed at helping ventures raise up to $25,000 for their projects.

Ryan Wardell, 23, is in the process of launching Project PowerUp, an online crowd-funding platform for start-ups and small businesses.

“Getting enough seed capital together to start a business is always difficult but especially so if you’re a young entrepreneur without much in the way of personal assets or experience,” Wardell says.

“A lot of young entrepreneurs struggle to raise enough capital to start or grow their business. Banks don’t want to lend you the money without security and investors aren’t interested unless you’re the next Google or Facebook.

“Project PowerUp changes all that by helping start-ups and small businesses raise $5000-$25,000… we’re currently looking for about 20 inaugural start-ups to be involved so we can launch.”

Wardell says while there’s no limit on the amount of money start-ups can raise through Project PowerUp crowd-funding is “best suited to sums of $25,000 or less”.

“Project PowerUp uses an all-or-nothing funding model… no money changes hands unless your project is fully funded by the project deadline. This eliminates any risk for potential backers,” Wardell says.

“For this reason we suggest that you choose a funding target at the absolute minimum amount you need to get your project off the ground.

“We also suggest that you set a funding limit at the maximum amount of funding you could realistically use. This improves your chances of successfully funding your project.

“You can keep receiving funds over and above your funding target but if you don’t reach it at all you end up with nothing.”

Wardell says the beauty of crowd-funding is that it’s not set up as a loan, which means none of the money has to be paid back.

“It’s not an equity investment either so you get to keep 100% ownership of your company,” he says.

Project PowerUp takes 10% of all funds raised for successful projects in addition to transaction fees of 2-5% based on transaction value and volume charged by credit card and payment processing companies.

In addition to start-ups, Wardell says he’s also looking for a technical co-founder or chief technology officer in order to get the site fully operational.

“If you’re a gun programmer, entrepreneurially-minded and are interested in being part of an exciting start-up in an exciting industry, then please get in touch,” he says.

“At this stage the role is part-time so if you want to dip your toes into a start-up and still hang onto your regular job this might be the opportunity you’ve been waiting for.”