The Path to Discovering Non-Traditional Ways to Raise Capital

ICO vs STO

My journey exploring non-traditional ways of raising capital started in late 2017 after my company PopCom completed our seed round, bringing our funding total to $900,000 from angels and VC funds. All 2017 the tech industry, and almost everyone else, was buzzing about bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and initial coin offerings (ICO). When I began hearing about ICOs and the capital that startups were able to raise through them, I became enthusiastically interested in learning about the process. Like many founders, I have a compelling product in need of a substantial infusion of cash to reach its true market potential. This has been quite a challenge, because again, like most founders — particularly female founders of color — I’ve been at the mercy of the Silicon Valley machine. Although I have been successful at raising venture capital, I am still caught in an exhausting cycle of convincing VCs of the massive potential of the self-service retail industry and why they should invest. A software product of this magnitude takes a lot of time and capital to build, and VCs want to see revenue generated before they will go ‘all in’ — keeping this in mind I began to explore my options for raising capital.

After spending significant time researching ICOs, our team was absolutely interested in moving forward…