Welcome back!

“I always arrive late at the office, but I make up for it by leaving early.” – Charles Lamb

Today’s LOWDOWN: 😎 9.0-minute read time

• 🦾  Super Intelligent AI + Business 🤯

•  🧠 Why a Clean CRM Is Your Secret Weapon in Equity Crowdfunding

•  🐂 Stop the Bullsh*t

• 🤖 explorium

• 🎧 How Founders Turn Social Presence Into Investment Power

• 📲 From Fuzzy’s TikTok Library

• 🗣️ Quote of the Week

🦾 Super Intelligent AI + Business 🤯

@benjamlns

Super Intelligent AI + Business? 🤯

🧠 Why a Clean CRM Is Your Secret Weapon in Equity Crowdfunding

In equity crowdfunding, trust, timing, and targeting are everything. But none of that is possible if your CRM is a mess. Whether you're raising on Wefunder, StartEngine, or Republic, the quality of your outreach—and your conversion rate, depends on the quality of your data.

Let’s break down 4 short but powerful stories that reveal the real consequences (and benefits) of CRM hygiene.

⚠️ 1. The Bounce Rate Nightmare: 5,000 Emails, Zero Results

A startup imported an old list of “interested leads” from Mailchimp, a conference app, and a LinkedIn scraper.

The result?

• 30% bounce rate.

• Their sender domain was flagged.

• Gmail inbox delivery tanked.

• No opens. No clicks. No investors.

💰 2. The 6-Figure Re-Engagement: One Founder, One CRM, $160K Raised

One solo founder had carefully logged every investor chat from the last 5 years. When he launched his Reg CF campaign, he didn't mass blast. He sent 312 personalized emails:

The result?

• 104 people invested

• 23 forwarded the campaign

• $160,000 raised before a dollar was spent on ads

📊 3. Segmentation Saved This Campaign From a Mid-Campaign Slump

Like many Reg CF campaigns, this one saw a drop-off after week one. But they dug into their CRM and created three lead segments:

• 🔥 Hot Leads: Attended webinars, clicked links

• 👀 Lurkers: Opened emails, never clicked

• ❄️ Cold: No engagement in 14+ days

Each got a tailored follow-up:

• Founder video updates

• Testimonial reels

• Social proof carousels

The result?

• 800+ website returns

• 58 new investments

🤦‍♂️ 4. A Dirty CRM Killed a Partnership Moment

A hardware startup ran a webinar with a top sustainability influencer. They uploaded 1,200 handwritten and scraped emails, but didn’t validate or personalize them.

The result?

• Typos everywhere

• Wrong names used

• Unsubscribes galore

• Influencer walked away

🧰 Final Takeaway: Treat Your CRM Like a Fundraising Engine

Your CRM isn’t just a storage space. It’s the engine of your raise. Here’s your checklist:

✅ Clean data weekly
✅ Tag by lead type, source, and funnel stage
✅ Track opens/clicks → sync Zoom + HubSpot via Zapier
✅ Personalize using founder voice + milestones

Because in a crowded inbox world, a clean CRM is your competitive edge.

💡 Want more CRM strategies for Reg CF campaigns?
Follow us for weekly equity crowdfunding insights.

🐂 Stop the Bullsh*t: The Real Story Behind April’s Reg CF Numbers

I get so sick and tired of the glossy, self-congratulatory headlines that float around the crowdfunding world every month.

"Reg CF surges in April!"
"251 successful raises!"
"69% success rate year-to-date!"

Bullsh*t. Let’s actually look at the numbers.

🚫 “Reg CF Surged in April”

Nope. April didn’t surge. It dropped.

• March total raised: $44.69M

• April total raised: $41.57M

That’s a decrease, not a surge.

But platforms and some promoters will spin anything as a win if it keeps founders buying into the fantasy that “capital is flowing” and “investor demand is soaring.” The truth? Most campaigns are still clawing for momentum, and April was no exception.

🚫 “69% Success Rate!”

That 69% “success rate” sounds nice until you understand how it’s calculated.

It doesn’t mean 69% of campaigns raised meaningful capital.

This means that 69% of campaigns scraped past their minimum goal, which is often as low as $10K to $20K.

You and I both know that raising $15K doesn’t make a campaign “successful.” It barely covers your media budget. Yet, that’s what’s getting counted as a “win” in this industry.

Founders are being misled into thinking their raise will be part of this glorious stat. And when they fall short of real traction or face flatlining halfway through, they wonder what they did wrong, when the truth is, the bar was set low to make the market look high-performing.

🚫 “251 Successful Rounds Closed in April”

That number is being tossed around like some kind of mic drop.

But again, it’s just more minimum-goal math.

Many of those “successful” rounds? Raised $12K. $18K. $22K.

Let’s call it what it is: hitting the minimum to keep the campaign from being marked “Not Funded” isn’t a success story. It’s a technicality.

🧾 Reality Check: 43 Campaigns Flat-Out Failed in April

Want to know what doesn’t get mentioned in the highlight reels?

In April alone, 43 campaigns ended with a “Not Funded” status. That means they didn’t even reach their minimum goal. That’s not a “soft fail.” That’s a hard stop. A public miss.

And we all know how tough it is to relaunch after that.

🎯 The Bottom Line

It’s time for founders to stop being sold on vanity metrics.

• “Success” isn’t hitting $15K. It’s reaching a number that gives you real runway or revenue.

• “Momentum” isn’t 200 rounds closing; it’s a funnel that converts investors at scale.

• “Surges” should mean investor demand is growing, not that the bar was just lower this month.

Let’s stop drinking the Kool-Aid.

Let’s get real about what raising capital through Reg CF actually takes.

And let’s build campaigns that don’t just hit “minimum goals”, they build maximum conviction.

Want monthly breakdowns that don’t lie to your face?
I’ll keep calling out the BS so you don’t have to step in it.

🤖Marketing Tool Spotlight: explorium

Power your AI Agents with live B2B data. Our MCP lets your agents, apps, or workflows tap into live company and contact data through a simple integration. Chat to find, research, and prioritize accounts and contacts.

🎧 How Founders Turn Social Presence Into Investment Power

Quote of the Week 🤔

“I always arrive late at the office, but I make up for it by leaving early.” – Charles Lamb

📲 From Fuzzy’s TikTok Library

@venzelwenzel

Paid ads aren’t the magic bullet for crowdfunding anymore 🚫💰 I break down why ad returns are dropping, why Meta's data rules hurt retarget... See more

Follow Our Friends:

💸 Special Thanks To Our Sponsor

Stay up-to-date with AI

The Rundown is the most trusted AI newsletter in the world, with 1,000,000+ readers and exclusive interviews with AI leaders like Mark Zuckerberg, Demis Hassibis, Mustafa Suleyman, and more.

Their expert research team spends all day learning what’s new in AI and talking with industry experts, then distills the most important developments into one free email every morning.

Plus, complete the quiz after signing up and they’ll recommend the best AI tools, guides, and courses – tailored to your needs.

Sign up to start learning.