The first time I tried scrounging money off people for travel adventures was on our wedding gift list. Most people when getting hitched ask for towels and bread makers, but Laura and I were heading off for a year with a backpack each, and a dinner set wasn’t going to make the journey any better.
Friends and family could pledge money towards specific experiences: I wanted to carry a goat on a train across India, which I proposed would cost around £25. Laura fancied getting bikes in Vietnam (no goats involved), which we pitched at £40. People suggested other escapades and we took their money in return for heartfelt promises to send photographic evidence of the results.
Skip forward a decade and people are raising money on Kickstarter for some really great things — publishing the book they’ve worked on for 2 years; launching a new product on the strength of some really convincing 3D modelling. They promise tshirts and newsletters and a mention on their website in return for significant pledges, and lots of great stuff gets funded and we love it.
But what if you have no life-defining project? What if your mission is to cross the Indian border dressed as a yeti, and the only funding you need is $20 for fur and makeup? Well, I for one want to make sure that can happen.
If you want to raise a few dollars for an awesome adventure, or you know a traveller who could do with a reason to leave his favourite rooftop cafe — now you know where to go.
Small money. Dumb/crazy/brilliant ideas. Tinyscrounger. Launching soon.
Personality / Branding
Tinyscrounger helps people get money from others, but it’s no Kickstarter. This is frivolous and stupid and no one promises to send you something 2 years down the line. It’s a younger, fresher, internet-reverent approach. It’s amounts of money that don’t matter. It’s about friends telling friends that they’re awesome.
And when it’s done for a good cause, we provide a way to quickly gather a bit of money where travellers might otherwise have just good wishes to leave behind.
These aren’t campaigns — they’re adventure stories.
Imagine: Kickstarter with the personality of Buzzfeed. What could possibly go wrong?
Turns out: I don’t like the prospect of funding stupid adventures. The more people I spoke to the worse I felt about humanity, so… Project abandoned.
