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When we want to start a new business or develop an innovative product, we usually go to a bank and ask for money. Have you ever tried that? Banks demand a full disclosure of your financial situation, impose numerous conditions, and require collateral—sometimes it feels like they want your firstborn child if you ever miss a payment.
This is why CrowdFunding was created: Customers finance the product upfront and receive it at a lower price than the planned retail price.
I have personally launched several CrowdFunding campaigns—with mixed results. Only one out of five was successful. From this, I’ve learned: Having a cool idea isn’t enough—you need customers first, even before building a prototype. If not enough people are willing to pay for the product in advance, we simply don’t invest our time. It’s that simple.
It gets even more difficult when we want to create something that benefits the environment or society. People may appreciate the value of such projects, but they are often not willing (or able) to support them financially.
Take my own situation: Since 2014, I have stopped working for profit and live on just €560 from social support. Donations are simply not within my budget.
Money is not the only resource people can contribute. Time is just as valuable. At CrowdWare, we embrace this idea: • We gather requirements and talk to potential supporters. • We develop concepts and create prototypes. • Then we produce a pitch video and launch the CrowdFunding campaign.
The best part? We don’t charge money from our customers. They don’t have to pay us anything.
Imagine a school needs a specific software solution. Normally, the students’ parents would have to fund the project. But what happens if not all parents can afford it?
This is where time donations come in: • Supporters can contribute using Minutos, a legally recognized bearer bond system. • Alternatively, they can directly donate their time.
Instead of donating €120 (which is roughly 8 hours of work at €30/hour after taxes), a supporter could simply donate 8 hours of their time.
This time can be used effectively to promote the project and the CrowdFunding campaign by: • Creating posts on social media • Liking and sharing posts from other supporters • Spreading the word and bringing in new backers
This doesn’t just help the project—it also supports the person or business that wants to sell the product.
Another challenge of traditional CrowdFunding is: How do we pay developers if the budget is limited?
We can solve this by introducing an alternative payment model: • A senior software developer typically charges €75 per hour. • However, they might only need €25 per hour to cover their basic living expenses. • The remaining €50 could be paid in Minutos.
This way, developers can still sustain themselves while making high-value contributions to meaningful projects. Minutos, in turn, can be used to obtain services and goods from others who accept them.
This hybrid payment model could enable projects that would otherwise fail due to financial constraints.
For this new CrowdFunding model to work, we need a platform that can manage both financial and time-based contributions. Such an infrastructure does not exist yet—we have to build it ourselves.
This means we need: • A system that tracks and manages time donations • A way to integrate supporters meaningfully into the campaign • A platform that coordinates different types of contributions (money, time, resources) • A seamless solution for hybrid payments to developers and other contributors
Building this platform is the next major step for CrowdWare.
With CrowdWare, we solve one of the biggest challenges of traditional CrowdFunding: We enable people to support valuable projects—even if they don’t have money to contribute. Instead, they can invest their time and help bring innovative, sustainable ideas to life.
But to make this vision a reality, we need to build our own platform.
Let’s rethink the way we fund projects—together.