Inspired by a family history for entrepreneurialism and with fresh ideas on micro-financing from his time at Business School at Westminster University, Alessandro Rovati and two childhood friends, Francesco Fumagalli and Francesco Gatti, developed an idea for an e-commerce app that allowed users to invest in pre-production product concepts. Crowdrooster.com was the result.
The idea quickly evolved beyond a product-centric app into a crowdfunding community. A community where brands and product developers can build their innovation profiles, network and road-test products with consumers with a passion for innovation, creativity and design.
When I talked to Francesco recently, he explained that while the founders were London-based Italians, they are very much focused on the US market and if you visit the beta site, you will hear American, not European accents. At this early stage they are looking to find partners in the USA, especially among tech incubators and accelerators. Crowdrooster could also have a special appeal among maker communities.
Francesco says that the combination of an e-commerce site with crowdfunding makes it possible to increase the scale of early production runs of the product and give more exposure to the brand.