Crowd-funding has helped several creative platforms and technology companies take off the last year, and now it’s helping Omaha’s Localmotive food truck.
Last fall, the wheels fell off Localmotive food truck. Actually, the engine failed and the radiator cracked.
“Being out of business that long is very hard,” said co-owner Patrick Favara.
Instead of putting money into a sinking truck, Favara and fellow co-owner David Burr regrouped.
“We actually did walk into every bank. We were told we didn’t have enough collateral upfront, enough to put down on the vehicle up front,” said Favara.
The co-owners needed a truck that better fit their growing need, so they turned to Kickstarter, a worldwide crowd-funding platform.
“It’s never easy asking for money, but we really tried to give back and offer some really cool incentives and make some great partnerships with corporations,” said Burr.
One corporation in particular is Omaha’s Proxibid. Proxibid started as a small start-up and now their executive team helps other entrepreneurs grow their business. That’s why Dana Kaufman said the Kickstarter for Localmotive was a natural fit.
“Maybe if they would have just come to us and asked for a loan, we wouldn’t have been as interested, but the opportunity to have our logo on their truck and really be business partners moving forward is a nice idea,” said Kaufman.
Localmotive plans to pay the $43,000 raised forward to local nonprofits over the next three years. It has already donated a food incentive for “Growing Cities,” a documentary film that examines the role of urban farming in America.
Find the entire article at ketv.com <here>
