Hardware Podcasts

93 Rejections, One Revolution: How Indiegogo Changed Crowdfunding Forever

How I Built This · 15 Dec 2025 · 1h 07m

What this episode covers

Indiegogo co-founders Danae Ringelmann and Slava Rubin recount the company's origin, from their initial focus on democratizing film funding to pivoting into a general crowdfunding platform after facing 93 investor rejections during the 2008 financial crisis. They discuss the strategic decision to remain open and uncensored, the internal conflicts between the three founders, and the eventual loss of market dominance to Kickstarter due to a focus on profitability over aggressive scaling. The episode highlights the personal motivations behind the platform, including Ringelmann’s experience with her father’s business failure and Rubin’s loss of his father to cancer, which shaped their belief in fairness and access to capital.

Most relevant to

founders before launch and companies scaling up

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Indiegogo, Kickstarter, GoFundMe, Patreon, Code.org, Ravensburger, Best Bees, U.S. Bank, JP Morgan, eBay, YouTube, MySpace
Also
Sundance

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