Complaint Review: Funded Today - South Ogden Utah

BUYER BEWARE – These guys leave their contract vague, they only take wire transfers up front, and they won’t begin anything until your wire has cleared. 

Here are my kickstarter Results:  

Results: I was successful on Kickstarter - I did $15,600 in 30 days – 45% from family, friends, and network and 55% from outside sources. I paid $5,000 upfront to Fundedtoday ($3,500 for FB Marketing “set up costs” and $1500 for PR) and they wanted 35% on the backend… I negotiated to 23%. They did not take 23% because stopped advertising after 2 weeks.  

$1,700 came into the campaign from fundedtoday ads.  

For PR - we got our one guaranteed write up in gadget flow and one person picked it up on Trend Hunter (no monetary results) So $5,000 investment – I lost $3,300. So basically I only raised $12,300 on kickstarter…  

I put together this kickstarter campaign single handedly in 3 weeks. I did everything from video shooting, page design, GIF creation, photography, email marketing, PR strategy, etc. Needless to say I was swamped! I connected with FundedToday to help with digital marketing. 

I SHOULD HAVE WAITED UNTIL I LAUNCHED and saw my momentum on my own. MY MISTAKE…  

My issues with FundedToday:  

Communication: All communication is in a Skype chat. They essentially force you into their communication system. This means that if anything important happens or needs to happen – YOU better see it in this Skype chat or it get’s lost. It also means that if you have a complaint or something important – it can get lost. I don’t use skype chat and this was not efficient for me. I complained about PR and no one responded to that – it just got lost…  

PR: I requested a refund for PR because I believe it was vague and the product and performance were poor. They did not agree to refund ANYTHING.  

When you begin - they say they guarantee one write up for $1,500 or two write ups for $2,500 – notice in the contract they do not tell you WHAT THE WRITE UPS WILL BE, EVEN THOUGH THEY KNOW they’re only giving you three options. This felt disingenuous – like they’re withholding information. Why is this not transparent? I feel totally mislead because I had already ACH’d them the money when they dropped this on me.  

Here are the three write up options (all of which you can get into by yourself – this is why they guarantee it): 

• Gadgetflow.com
• thisiswhyimbroke.com
• backerland newsletter (who will give you a 100% moneyback guarantee if you work with them directly – I did this) 

My product is High-performance Luxury footwear – this doesn’t fit into any of the options provided – what was I to do at this point? They already had my money… 

Here is the press release they put together – notice how many times they say Funded Today… It’s as many times as my brand is mentioned – WHY IS THIS? I feel this was lackluster and a cookie cutter Press release that they put together: 

"MarketersMEDIA / Newsroom / High-Performance Footwear Launches On KickStarter High-Performance Footwear Launches On KickStarter 

Paul Hardt Footwear has just launched a campaign on KickStarter. They have brought on Funded Today to help bring their shoes to a wider audience and increase pledges for the duration of the project. San Francisco, United States - May 17, 2018 /FundedToday/ 

— About The Footwear Paul Hardt footwear features a line of high performance dress shoes. Made with high quality technical fabrics and an athletic insole for maximum comfort, Paul Hardt shoes are water resistant and European crafted for the ultimate combination of professional and casual wear. The KickStarter campaign features multiple shoes including boots, oxfords and sneakers. Each shoe has its own unique design while still maintaining a professional and sleek look. 

Pricing and Availability: The Paul Hardt line is available to back now on KickStarter. They are hopeful to see an increase in pledges with the help of Funded Today and their team. Once the campaign ends, the shoes are set to produce and ship to all backers by October 2018. The starting price for one pair is $125 USD. To learn more about Paul Hardt or to back the campaign, visit their page here: kickstarter.com/projects/paulhardtshoes/high-performance-footwear-for-the-uncommon-profess 

Contact Info:Name: Samantha Adams 

Organization: Funded Today  

Source URL: marketersmedia.com/high-performance-footwear-launches-on-kickstarter/346800 

For more information, please visit funded.today 

Source: FundedToday" 

Advertising: They said that the advertising team would check and give updates on a daily basis. This was not what happened. Communication was every other or every third day. Here is what their update looked like:

 “Hello! Just a quick update as we head into the weekend. I wanted to let you know I am still working on adjusting audiences and ads and will continue to search for ad sets that will generate a positive return. I will update you again on Monday. Thanks for your patience through this testing phase. Have an outstanding weekend and post any questions here as they come! :)” 

 This type of response is all I heard for two weeks during the testing phase, until they told me they were not going to continue ads because there was not a good enough ROI for them. Then it was over. They divested, shut down PR and had the nerve to call me and say – “If you want to continue PR let’s talk about a % of results we bring in” 

What did I pay $1,500 up front for? No thank You. 

All in all – I know its tough, but do it yourself. Don’t pay these companies up front unless you have loads of cash – it’s not responsible. I made a $3,300 mistake and I won’t do it again. Wait till you have leverage and you can negotiate with them saying – hey come on to my campaign if you want – I’ll give you 25% of what you bring in. That’s a fair deal.