“Crowdfunding” allows companies to raise capital without traditional borrowing (debt financing) or selling stock (equity financing). Those in the “crowd” (you and me) who pony up capital are rewarded with the first product deliveries, discounted prices, special editions, promotional goods, and more, in exchange for limited risk. Unfortunately, if a company was looking to fund a new firearm-related product via crowdfunding, they were almost certainly out of luck — shut out of the mainstream sites. Until now…
All of the established crowdfunding sites — GoFundMe, IndieGoGo, Kickstarter, etc. — refuse to run funding campaigns for all but an extremely limited selection of gun-related products (basically some targets, but certainly nothing that touches a gun, is a gun, or is used with a gun). In fact, even knives, archery equipment, hunting-related products, and more are also excluded altogether or highly unlikely to be accepted on the big sites.
Enter Fire Funder, a new crowdfunding website built specifically for the shooting, hunting, and outdoor trade (SHOT) community by like-minded individuals. A platform like this can help launch new companies and assist existing companies in rolling out new products faster. Crowdfunding campaigns also provide rapid market feedback on the viability of a new product before a company has invested too heavily.
If Fire Funder gains traction as other crowdfunding sites have, this could be a very positive development for shooters of all sorts as the marketplace grows with new and innovative products.
We’ll be keeping an eye on Fire Funder’s campaigns for a heads-up on interesting new gear; products like the CleanShot shoot-through bore cleaning rounds. In fact, we’ve already reached out to the founder of the company to get some samples for testing and review. It will be interesting to watch Fire Funder’s acceptance and impact on the SHOT product marketplace.